Google Search Console is a free tool from Google that shows how your website performs in Google Search: which queries bring impressions and clicks, which pages are indexed, and what technical problems Google has found. It is the most important free tool in technical SEO and the starting point of any audit.
Setting up Search Console
- Go to search.google.com/search-console and sign in with a Google account.
- Choose a Domain property (covers all subdomains and protocols, verified by DNS) or a URL-prefix property (one version, verified by HTML file, meta tag, Analytics or Tag Manager).
- Verify ownership and give access to colleagues under Settings > Users.
- Submit your XML sitemap.
Data starts collecting from verification; historical data is not available beforehand.
The Performance report
Shows clicks, impressions, click-through rate (CTR) and average position, filterable by query, page, country, device, search appearance and date. Use it to:
- Find queries in positions 5 to 15 to target with updates and internal links.
- Spot pages with high impressions but low CTR and rewrite their title tags.
- Compare periods to diagnose drops and find content decay.
The Pages (indexing) report
Lists indexed and not-indexed URLs with reasons: noindex, redirects, 404s, duplicates, “Crawled – currently not indexed” and more. Check it weekly on large sites, monthly on small ones.
URL Inspection
Enter any URL to see whether it is indexed, which canonical Google chose, when it was last crawled, the rendered HTML and any structured data detected. You can also request indexing after updates.
Other key reports
- Sitemaps: submission status and discovered URLs.
- Core Web Vitals: real-user speed data grouped by template.
- HTTPS: pages not served securely.
- Enhancements: structured data such as breadcrumbs, products and videos.
- Links: top linked pages, top linking sites and anchor text.
- Manual actions and Security issues: penalties and hacked content warnings.
- Removals: temporarily hide URLs from results.
- Crawl stats (under Settings): Googlebot activity and server responses.
Search Console vs Google Analytics
Search Console shows what happens in Google before the click. Google Analytics shows what users do after arriving. Link the two in GA4 to see both views together, and use both when tracking SEO KPIs.
Limitations
- Data covers the last 16 months only. Export regularly or connect to BigQuery.
- Rare queries are hidden for privacy, so totals by query do not match page totals.
- Average position is an average across all impressions and locations.
Frequently asked questions
Is Search Console free?
Yes, completely.
How often is data updated?
Performance data usually lags by a day or two; a 24-hour view shows near-real-time data.
Related terms
See SEO audit, crawling and indexing and the SEO encyclopedia.
Mr. SEO
Mr. SEO is the webmaster at SEO TT - SEO tips and tricks, a publication about all things SEO related.