Search Engine Console, previously known as Google Webmaster Tool – The communication medium between Google and Webmaster to measure the overall website performance of the website. In this guide, we will cover each and every section of the tool like what is the purpose and how we can use the same in our daily operations. If you are new in the SEO field, then you must know the details about the Search engine console in order to learn SEO technically in detail.
Search Engine Console and Why it is required?
Search Engine Console / Webmaster tool will help anyone to understand how the website performed in the search engine. In brief search console is required to track the keyword performance, AMP / Website issues/ errors, how google treats the web pages of your website, etc. There are multiple reports/tools which help the webmaster to plan the next level SEO strategy or to analyze the website issues and resolve them. The website issues are broadly divided into two columns one is editorially and another one is technical. We can discuss more in detail how you can use this tool for your website / WordPress blog and plan the Digital marketing strategy especially SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
Search Engine Console, How to implement on your website?
The first step is to implement the search console tool on your website and verify them. Installation is the first step so that the search console tool gathers the information in desired formats and helps the webmaster/web owners to plan the strategy accordingly.
Step by Step guide on How to implement the search console tool
Step – 1: Log in to the search console tool by clicking on this link https://search.google.com/search-console with your Gmail id / Google suite account. Click on the “Add Property” option as shown in the below screenshot.
Step -2: Click on the Add Property option and add your website domain name / Home Page URL in the box highlighted in the below screenshot.
Step -3: Next is to verify your website – there are 7 different ways to verify your website/blog in the search console tool – here I have listed below the 3 simple ways, you can choose any one of them and complete the setup process of the search console tool.
HTML File Process: Download the HTML file and upload the same at the root of the domain.
HTML Code Snippet: Generate the verification code and add the same in the head section of the home page of the domain – as a code for verifying the domain.
Step – 4: Post implementing the Webmaster verification code / Uploaded the HTML file. Click on verify the site as a final step to verify the domain in the search console. The verification code in the HTML code should look like this –
Setup your country / geo location in Search Console:
The search console provides the feature to the webmaster to target the geo-location or country to target for his website to generate the traffic. There are multiple factors through which google can understand the geo-location of your website. A few of them are listed below:
1. Language of your content (either in Hindi / English / French)
2. No. of Backlinks from the websites hosted in which country.
3. Your server location (Where your website is hosted).
4. Content development strategy – for which country you are writing your content.
Step – 1: Click on the option “International Targeting” under Legacy tools and Options
Step- 2: Click on the country tab, select the country name from the drop-down and click on the option save. The below picture will help you to understand this step in detail.
URL Inspection Tool in Google Search Console;
The URL inspection tool gives you detailed information about the indexing status of your web page in Google. Whether the page is indexed or not by Google. The View Crawled page gives you detailed information covering the points Content-Type, HTTPS status, Page Resources, Coding etc. If you have the schemas implemented on your page, the same information is available under the Enhancement section in the Google search console. Implementing the relevant schemas on the web page will help the websites to rank better as it is one of the engagement parameters.
Common Tasks in URL Inspection Tool:
Listed below are common tasks that webmaster can perform to check certain things:
- Test Live URL: The webmaster can check the status of the submitted URL in the Google search console, Whether the page is eligible for indexing in the search engine or not.
- Indexing of Web Page: You can request a search engine like Google to index the submitted URL for indexing, mostly SEO experts / Webmasters can perform this task if a newly developed page needs to be indexed on an urgent basis / any modification in the content of the previously indexed page.
- Troubleshoot: There are multiple reasons mostly technically why the Web Page is not indexed in search engines. URL Inspection tool will help the webmasters / SEO experts to figure out the same.
Performance Report in Search Console:
The performance report of search console (communication platform provided by google between webmaster/bloggers and Google search engine) actually educates the blogger that how your website is performing on different platforms of Google.
If your website is listed in Google news, the performance report of the search console has three options i.e Search Result, Discover, and Google News, whereas in the case of a normal blog the performance report has only one report that covers the important metrics like impressions, clicks, CTR and Average Position. Based on the data provided by the search console you can plan the SEO strategy for your blog / website. Read more about the Basic On page SEO Fundamentals at Top Blogging Coach
Performance Report of Blog site in Search Console
Performance Report of Website listed in Google news:
In the performance report – Important things to check:
- How does the traffic on the website/blog change over time?
- Which pages/queries are getting more traffic to the website in terms of impressions/clicks?
- For an e-commerce site – you can check which pages are more important from the transactional perspective?
- Which pages have the highest and the lowest CTR?
Sitemap Feature in Google Search Console:
Sitemaps are the way to tell Google about your web pages. The sitemap files developed by developed based on the technical recommendations provided by Google should be submitted through the search console – for better indexing of the web pages. The status field shown in the above screenshot tells the webmaster about the status post submission of the sitemap file. If there is an error in the file the success value is replaced by the error.
There are different types of sitemaps, that can be submitted through the search console –
- XML Sitemap: Normal XML file listed all your webpages.
- News Sitemap: XML file in a defined format to understand the news content
- Image Sitemap: XML file in a defined format to understand the image content
- Video Sitemap: XML file in a defined format to understand the Video content
Removal Tool in Search Console; Importance and how to use it?
The removal tool in the Google search console is used to temporarily / permanently remove the web page/image / any content format from the Google search results. Through the removal tool, you can also delete the adult content of your website appearing in search results.
Technical Requirement to block a webpage:
Before making any page to block from the Google search result, you need to perform any one of the below options before putting the request in the search console. This option is only available for the web page that you own/belongs to your website.
- Syntax to block the page through Robots.txt: Disallow: /<<WebPage Address>>
- Syntax to block the page through Meta Tags: <meta name=”robots” content=”noindex” /> {this code needs to be implemented in the head section of the web page}
- Make it 404 / 410: Make sure the page should return 404 / 410 before making the removal request in the search console.
- Password protected: You can put the file under a password so that Google bots will not access the web pages.
How to cancel a request in the search console?
If you think that by mistake you put the wrong request of any webpage/image URL in the search console – you can delete that request also. Follow the below steps to cancel the request of the submitted URL in the search console.
- Open the search console of your website
- Click on the Removal option from the left-hand side
- Filter the request that you want to cancel
- Click on three dots (…) and click on the cancel request.
Google search console tool, if properly used by webmaster / site-owners, will be the game changer for your online portal in terms of customer acquisition from google organic search and monetization. Targeting the right geo, with the right type of content and keywords will help you to drive more and more traffic from the search results (Organic ones). You can use this tool as well for optimizing your WordPress blog, learn more about how to start your blog, and earn money at Top Blogging Coach
If you want to learn SEO more in detail/want more in-depth learning about the Google search console tool, Pls email me at [email protected] with your requirement. I will reply in 24 – 48 hrs.
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