What’s the Deal with Google Search Console?

If you own a website, you may have heard of Google Search Console from your webmaster or digital marketing specialist. You may have even received email notifications and asked yourself, “What does this mean?”

We receive questions about Google Search Console quite often, and for this blog post, will be breaking down what it does and how it affects your website business.

What is Google Search Console?

The Google Search Console is a free web service from Google that helps webmasters and professionals understand how Google reads your website. It is packed with great tools that will help you optimize your site so Google has a better understanding of what your site does and how to deliver your site to the masses.

You can learn a great deal about your site and people who visit it. Discover if visitors are viewing your site on a desktop or mobile device, which pages are the most popular, how your site is performing, and valuable insights to help make informed business decisions.

Google Search Console also has great tools to make adjustments to your site so it is more mobile-friendly. Studies show that in 2018, 52.2% of all website traffic was generated from mobile devices (smart phones and tablets). Google prefers all websites to be mobile-friendly, which has become the new standard for sites today.

What’s the Difference Between Google Search Console and Google Analytics?

Great question and another one we get asked often. Yes, Google Analytics gives great information about your viewers and how they behave on your site. The difference between Google Search Console and Google Analytics is that Google Search Console will provide data on how search engine (specifically Google) interact with your website, while Google Analytics provides data on how users behave on your site. So in a nutshell, you would look to Google Search Console to optimize your site for search engines, while you would look to Google Analytics to optimize your site for your audience.

How Do I Connect My Website to Google Search Console?

In order to connect your website to Google Search Console, you will first need to add your website domain and verify that you are the owner. There are several ways to verify your site with Google, however it is best to have your webmaster take care of this for you to ensure connection and settings are handled properly. However, if you are computer savvy and would like to try it yourself, here are step-by-step instructions on how to connect your site to Google Search Console here.

Google Search Console Team Email Notifications

If you are receiving emails from Google Search Console Team, that means you have successfully connected your website and Google is actively analyzing your website. Great job! You will start receiving notifications and helpful tips on how to use Google Search Console, as well as any site issues that may deter Google from reading certain pages.

I Get Emails About Issues to Fix on My Website - What Do They Mean?

As Google crawls through all of your web pages to try to better understand what your site’s about, Google will notify you via email if they are having trouble crawling any pages. There are many issues (both big and small) that you can be notified about, so it is best to forward these notifications to your webmaster to investigate.

Take It With a Grain of Salt

As an SEO Specialist, I have utilized Google Search Console for many years and have seen the wonderful changes and tools that help me bridge a healthy connection between client websites and search engines.

One thing I have noticed is, while Google Search Console is a powerful tool to help optimize your site’s performance and visibility, it is still software. Whether you are a website owner, webmaster or marketing professional, only you truly know the contents of your site and how it should be displayed to users.

While you may receive important notifications that need immediate attention, you may also receive notifications that are less important, or do not actually affect your site’s performance. The important thing to do is to not panic when you see these notifications, and forward them to your webmaster to review.