How to Use Google Search Console + Integration With Keywords Everywhere

Google is the largest search engine in the world, getting the majority of the web search traffic. It goes without saying that website owners need to monitor their Google performance to ensure they’re not missing out on potential traffic.

Google Search Console (GSC) is the heart of Google’s interaction with website owners. It allows users to monitor, maintain and troubleshoot their website’s presence on the web. But this is only possible if you know how to use this data goldmine properly.

Let’s learn the basics of Google Search Console so that you can make the most out of it for your website.

What is Google Search Console?

Google Search Console is a free service provided by Google that helps website owners track their website’s SEO health and search performance. The dashboard provides an overview of many metrics, including but not limited to user experience, search appearance, technical SEO, and more. Besides monitoring your site, you can also use GSC to submit individual URLs or sitemaps that you want Google to crawl. Plus, it shows you which pages can be crawled and indexed by Google.

How to Set Up Google Search Console

The prerequisite for using Google Search Console is to have a Google account and a website. If you have both these things, follow these steps to set up your GSC dashboard.

Sign In to GSC

Go to the GSC website and sign in to your account. You have two options: add a URL prefix or add a domain.

If you choose to add a domain property, you’ll get the most comprehensive data. The dashboard will show you information from all domain URLs, including subdomains, paths, and protocols. To add your website this way, you’ll have to verify it via your domain name system provider (DNS). In the domain field, enter your domain name without ”www” and ”HTTP/HTTPS.”

For example, if your website is www.example.com, enter only example.com in the domain field. Click ”continue” and follow the verification process steps. Google has a helpful video that will take you through these steps.

Alternatively, you can sign in by adding a URL prefix. Use this option if you only want to view data for a specific section on your website, such as the blog.

In this case, you enter your whole URL, including the ”www” and ”HTTP/HTTPS.” For example, you would enter https://example.com/blog/ as the URL prefix. Again, Google will ask you to verify your URL prefix. There are five options:

• HTML file
• HTML tag
• Google Analytics
• Google Tag Manager
• Domain name provider

Set Up Permissions

The next step is to set up permissions for your GSC account. You can either be a user or an owner.

Here’s how the permissions differ for each.

Owner

The owner is in full control of the account and can add or remove users, adjust settings, and view all data. They can also use all GSC tools. Owners are of two types:

• Verified Owner: The primary owner of the GSC account.
• Delegated Owner: A verified owner who has delegated their ownership to another person, usually an SEO specialist or agency.

User

A GSC user has limited access to the account and can only view specific data based on their assigned permissions. They cannot add or remove users.

Users may be:

• Full Users: Can view all data.
• Restricted Users: Can only view specific data.
• Associate: Can perform certain tasks associated with other entities.

Submit a Sitemap

If your website is well-organized, you don’t need to submit a sitemap. However, in situations like having a large site with thousands of pages, submitting one may be the right thing to do:

• Your website is really big and has thousands of pages.
• There are isolated pages on your website that don’t have inbound links.
• Your website is new and doesn’t have many backlinks.
• You use rich media content on your website.

If you want to submit a sitemap, follow these steps:

• In the GSC menu, click on ”Sitemaps.”
• Click ”Submit” under Add a new sitemap.
• Submit your sitemap.

What Data Does Google Search Console Show?

Now that your website is set up with GSC, you can take a look at the data it provides. Here are some things you’ll see:

Overview Report

The Overview Report provides a high-level summary of your website’s performance, including:

• Site performance report: Number of clicks in Google SERPs.
• Coverage report: Status of indexed pages and any indexing errors.
• Enhancement reports: Enhancements like structured data or rich cards.
• Manual actions report: Any manual actions taken against your website.

Performance Report

The Performance Report shows detailed information about your website’s performance in Google SERPs.

Above the table, you’ll see adjustment options for:

• Date range
• Search type
• Filters

You can filter the results by queries, pages, countries, devices, and search appearance.

Coverage Report

The Coverage Report shows how well your site is being indexed by Google. If the whole graph is green, you’re good to go. If errors appear, you can fix them.

Sitemap

A sitemap is a file that lists all the pages on your website in a structured format.

Enhancements

The enhancement tab shows:

• Mobile usability report: How your website looks on mobile devices.
• Accelerated Mobile Pages report: Errors or issues with your AMP pages.
• Structured data report: Errors in structured data.

Manual Actions

This section shows if Google takes manual action on your site. Manual actions can result in a drop in rankings.

Links Report

The Links Report shows internal and external links on your site and helps identify which pages get the most backlinks.

Shopping Report

For e-commerce stores, the Shopping Report provides insights on product markup performance on Google.

How to Use Keywords Everywhere With Google Search Console

Keywords Everywhere enhances Google Search Console by providing search volume, CPC, trend analysis, and competitiveness of keywords.

Conclusion

Integrate Keywords Everywhere into GSC to make more sense of the data in the Performance tab. Regularly check your GSC reports to ensure your site is in good standing with Google.