Setting up and using Google Search Console properly

Your website is online, looks good, and yet you do not know whether Google even finds it properly. This is exactly where a free tool helps that many small businesses do not even know: Google Search Console. It shows you how Google sees your page, which search terms bring visitors to you and whether technical errors are in the way. In this article we set it up together, step by step, without jargon.

What Google Search Console actually is

Think of Google Search Console as a direct line between your website and the search engine. While an analytics tool like Google Analytics shows what visitors do on your page, Search Console shows what happens before that: whether Google knows your pages, whether they appear in the search results and through which words people find you.

The tool is free, belongs to Google itself and is the most reliable source when it comes to your visibility in search. Anyone who seriously wants to be found cannot get around it.

How to set up Search Console

Setting it up takes less than half an hour. You only need a Google account and access to your domain.

• Open the account: Go to Search Console and sign in with your Google account.
• Create a property: Choose «Domain» and enter your address, for example your-company.ch. This variant covers all subpages and spellings.
• Confirm ownership: Google wants to be sure the page really belongs to you. To do this you place a small entry with your domain provider (a so-called DNS record). It sounds technical, but it is copy and paste.
• Submit a sitemap: A sitemap is a list of all your pages. Submit it so that Google overlooks nothing.

If the confirmation step gives you a stomach ache: that is the point where I most often help. It is not half as bad once you know where to click.

Check indexing: does Google know your pages?

A page that is not indexed appears in no search, no matter how beautiful it is. Indexed means: Google has read the page and taken it into its catalogue. That is exactly what you check in Search Console under «Pages».

There you see two numbers: how many pages are indexed and how many are not. For the non-indexed ones it is worth a look at the reason. Common, harmless cases are redirects or deliberately excluded pages. It gets more serious when important pages are missing.

A handy tool is the URL inspection at the top in the search bar: enter an address, and Google tells you immediately whether the page is in the index. If it is not, you can request indexing with one click, ideal after a new page or a larger update.

Analyse errors without panicking

Sooner or later Search Console reports an error. That is normal and no cause for worry, it is exactly the purpose of the tool. What matters is being able to classify the messages:

• Server errors (5xx): Your page was briefly unreachable. If it happens once, it is usually settled. If it piles up, you should look at the host.
• Not found (404): A linked page no longer exists. Either bring the page back or redirect the old link cleanly.
• Mobile-friendliness problems: The page is hard to operate on a phone. As most people search on mobile, a quick fix is worthwhile here.
• Redirect errors: A redirect leads nowhere or in circles. That confuses Google and costs visibility.

My advice: do not work through the messages hectically, but one after the other. Fix one cause and click «Validate fix». Google then looks again and closes the message if everything is right.

Understand search queries: what are you found for?

For me the most exciting part is the «Performance» report. It shows which search terms actually lead people to you, how often you appear (impressions) and how often someone clicks. From this you learn a great deal about your customers.

Perhaps you discover that you appear for a term you never thought of, a hint to write more about it. Or you see many impressions but few clicks: then a more attractive page title is worthwhile. Thus mere numbers become a concrete to-do list.

Staying with it pays off

You do not have to look in daily. Once a month a calm glance at indexing, errors and search queries is plenty for most small businesses. Over time you develop a feel for what makes your page strong, and that is the basis for every sensible improvement.

If you would rather have Search Console set up cleanly or go through the reports together, feel free to get in touch via the contact form. And if you want to dive deeper into the topic of visibility, you will find fitting articles on SEO and loading time in the other articles.