Google Search Console: What It Is and Why Every Website Needs It

If you only use one SEO tool, make it Google Search Console (GSC). It's free, it comes directly from Google, and it gives you data that no third-party tool can replicate.

What Is Google Search Console?

Google Search Console is a free web service provided by Google that helps you monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot your website's presence in Google Search results.

In plain English: it shows you how Google sees your website and how users are finding it.

What Does It Show You?

Performance Data

• Which search queries bring visitors to your site
• How often your pages appear in search results (impressions)
• How many people click through to your site (clicks)
• Your average click-through rate (CTR)
• Your average position in search results

Index Coverage

• Which pages Google has indexed (and which it hasn't)
• Pages with errors preventing indexing
• Warnings about potential issues

Core Web Vitals

• Your website's user experience scores across mobile and desktop
• Specific pages failing Google's Core Web Vitals thresholds

Security Issues

• Alerts if Google detects malware or hacked content
• Manual action notifications (if Google has penalised your site)

Links

• External sites linking to your website
• Your most-linked pages
• Internal links structure

How to Set Up Google Search Console

1. Go to search.google.com/search-console
2. Sign in with your Google account
3. Add your website as a property
4. Verify ownership (several methods available — DNS, HTML file, Google Analytics)
5. Submit your XML sitemap
6. Wait 24–48 hours for data to populate

How to Use GSC for SEO

Find Your Best Ranking Opportunities

Filter by queries where you rank in positions 8–20 — these are keywords close to page 1 that deserve more attention.

Discover Content Gaps

See what queries are bringing people to your site. Are they finding what they're looking for? Create more content around high-impression, low-click queries.

Fix Technical Issues

The Coverage and Core Web Vitals reports will show you exactly what needs fixing.

Track the Impact of SEO Work

Use the date range comparison to see how rankings and traffic have changed after making SEO improvements.

We Set GSC Up For Every Client

At OWD Web Design, every website we build is set up with Google Search Console and Google Analytics from day one. Get in touch to find out more.