There is a lot of questions and confusion around SEO and what does or doesn’t help. We wanted to clarify what Google Search Console is, and how it is used to help guide your SEO strategy.
What is Google Search Console?
Google Search Console is a free tool by Google that helps monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot a site’s presence in Google Search results. It gives you insights into search traffic, indexing status, performance, and potential issues. This data allows you to optimize visibility and improve SEO strategies effectively.
The information we learn from Google Search Console is different than what we gather from Google Analytics. Most of our clients spend their time looking at their Google Analytics, because it is what they are most familiar with. There are some insights in analytics that can help guide you with marketing decisions, but SEO insights are found predominantly in the Search Console.
Does Google Search Console Help SEO?
The Search Console on its own doesn’t necessarily help your SEO. However, the data that we gather from that resource helps us make decisions on the website that directly impact your SEO. Also, the search console shows us errors that need to be fixed. Once we fix those things, we validate the fixes in the search console so Google will recrawl the pages faster.
Here’s a look at the type of information we are looking for in the search console.
Pages That Have Lost Traffic
When monitoring pages that have lost traffic, Google Search Console helps identify which pages are experiencing significant drops. This decline could result from outdated content, changes in user intent, or technical issues such as slow load times or poor mobile compatibility. Addressing these issues involves refreshing the content to make it more relevant, improving keyword targeting based on current trends, and resolving technical problems that may be affecting the page’s performance.
Broken Pages
Broken pages, or pages that return 404 errors, are another critical area to monitor. These errors can negatively impact both user experience and SEO performance. Google Search Console alerts you to the presence of broken pages, allowing you to implement 301 redirects to relevant, live content. Regularly checking for and resolving broken pages is essential for maintaining your site’s health.
No-Indexed Pages
No-indexed pages are those that have been intentionally or accidentally excluded from Google’s index. While it is sometimes necessary to exclude certain pages, such as admin pages or login screens, important content mistakenly tagged as no-index can harm your SEO. Reviewing your robots.txt file and meta tags helps ensure only the intended pages are excluded. Adjusting these settings allows valuable pages to be properly indexed and visible in search results.
URL Inspection
The URL Inspection Tool within Google Search Console allows you to check whether a particular page is indexed by Google and how it appears in search results. It provides insight into errors or warnings that may be preventing your page from performing well. Using this tool effectively means inspecting new or updated URLs to confirm they are indexed, requesting indexing for newly published or modified pages, and addressing any detected errors or warnings promptly.
Sitemap
Sitemaps are essential for helping Google crawl and index your website more efficiently. Submitting a sitemap through Google Search Console ensures that important pages are discoverable and properly categorized. Keeping your sitemap updated and monitoring its status helps confirm that Google is correctly indexing all the intended pages on your website. This process is especially important after making significant changes to your site’s structure or content.
Pages With Redirects
Redirects are often necessary when reorganizing or updating your site, but too many or poorly implemented redirects can damage your SEO. Google Search Console identifies pages with redirects that may be causing issues, allowing you to ensure that redirects are correctly set up, particularly by using 301 redirects for permanent changes. Regularly auditing your redirects helps you avoid harmful redirect chains or loops that could undermine your SEO efforts.
Crawled or Discovered But Not Currently Indexed
When Google crawls your pages but chooses not to index them, it can be due to low-quality content, duplicate content, or other technical problems. Google Search Console allows you to identify these instances so you can take appropriate action. Improving content quality, eliminating duplicate content, and enhancing internal linking structures can help boost the authority of important pages and improve their chances of being indexed.
Contact Us Today to Fix Google Search Errors
Google Search Console is a powerful tool for identifying potential issues and opportunities on your website. We regularly monitor our clients accounts and use the data we find. Also, we work to fix Google Search errors and submit to Google to clear out those errors.
If you have errors you want us to look into, contact us today for a strategy session.
