Definition:
Google Search Console (GSC), formerly known as Webmaster Central and later as Google Webmaster tools, is a collection of tools and resources to help website owners, webmasters, web marketers and SEO professionals monitor the Google search index performance of sites. Features include information about search appearance, search traffic, technical status updates, crawl data, and additional educational resources.
What is Google Search Console for?
Google Search Console is a free service provided by Google that allows website owners to manage and optimize their site’s presence in search results. It offers a variety of reports and tools to help identify and correct errors, develop effective SEO strategies and improve search engine rankings. Some of its key features include:
- Submit and verify a sitemap: Allows webmasters to submit sitemaps to facilitate Google’s indexing of pages.
- Check and adjust crawl frequency: Provides statistics on Google bot activity and allows you to adjust the crawl frequency according to your site’s needs.
- robots.txt file management: Helps to write and check the robots.txt file to ensure that important pages are not accidentally blocked.
- List of internal and external links: Provides a summary of the pages that link to the site, both internally and from other websites.
- Identifying crawl errors: Provides a list of URLs that Googlebot has failed to crawl, along with the specific errors encountered.
- Set a preferred domain: Allows you to determine how the site’s URL will be displayed in search results(SERPs).
- Access to an API: Facilitates the automation of tasks such as adding, modifying and deleting ads and managing tracking errors.
Origin of Google Search Console
Google Search Console, originally known as Webmaster Central, was launched to provide website owners with a free tool to monitor and optimize their presence in Google’s search index. Google introduced this platform to help webmasters understand how their sites are crawled and indexed, making it easier to identify and correct technical issues that could affect performance in search results.
Over the years, Google Search Console has evolved significantly, incorporating new features and improving its interface to adapt to the changing needs of users. Initially known as Google Webmaster Tools, the service was renamed Google Search Console in 2015 to better reflect its purpose and scope. Since then, features such as the Core Web Vitals report, which evaluates user experience in terms of speed, interactivity and visual stability, have been added. In addition, the platform has enhanced its reporting capabilities, allowing users to access more detailed data on the visibility and performance of their sites in search results.
Google Search Console features
Google Search Console is a comprehensive tool that offers a variety of features to help website owners manage and optimize their presence in Google search results. Below are some of the key features it provides:
- Site ownership validation: Allows users to verify that they have control over the website domain, which is required to access reports and console tools.
- Sitemap submission and verification: Facilitates the submission of sitemaps to ensure that all important pages are indexed correctly by Google.
- Performance reports: Provides data on search traffic, including clicks, impressions, click-through rate (CTR) and average position in search results. These reports help to understand how users find the site and which search queries are most effective.
- Link Management: Provides a summary of internal and external links pointing to the site, which is crucial for understanding link structure and domain authority.
- Index Coverage Report: Shows which pages of the site have been successfully indexed and alerts you to problems that prevent other pages from being indexed.
- Disavow Tool: Allows webmasters to disavow low quality inbound links that could negatively affect the site’s ranking in search results. This tool is especially useful for protecting the site from negative SEO practices or negative SEO attacks.
- Core Web Vitals Report: Evaluates crucial aspects of user experience, such as loading speed, interactivity and visual stability. These factors are important for ranking in search results, as Google prioritizes sites that offer a good user experience.
- Mobile Usability Report: Provides information on usability issues on mobile devices, ensuring that the site is accessible and easy to navigate on smartphones and tablets.
- Security notifications: Alerts on security issues that may affect the site, such as malware or phishing attempts, allowing owners to take corrective action quickly.
- URL Inspection: Allows users to check the indexing status of a specific URL, see how Google is crawling it, and get information about any problems preventing it from being indexed correctly.