How to Use Google Search Console: Verification, API Use, & More

Aaron Haynes

Jul 27, 2024

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No more fumbling in the dark—it’s time to one-up your SEO game with Google Search Console (GSC).

Broken links? GSC says easy-peasy. Untapped keywords? GSC’s got you. What about those pesky crawl errors? Yep, GSC’s got the receipts.

With this guide, take your website from “meh” to “holy moly, crushing it!”

Walk with me.

Setting Up Google Search Console: Don’t Panic, It’s Fairly Straightforward

No point in denying it—any leap toward success starts with the inevitable process of verification. It’s a simple fact of life. Here’s how that looks for GSC:

Step 1: Sign In (or Up) with Google

First up, you’ll need to log into your Google account. If you’re living under a rock and don’t have one, it’s time to crawl out and join the 21st century.

Don’t worry—it won’t cost you anything more than a few minutes of your time. Just hit the “Create account,” follow the intuitive process, and you’re good to go.

Step 2: Add Your Website as a Property

Once you’re logged in, head over to the Google Search Console homepage and click “Start Now.” This will lead you to a page where you’ll find a dropdown. Select “+ Add Property.” You’ll then have two options:

URL Prefix allows you to track data for a specific URL and its subdirectories (e.g., https://yourwebsite.com/blog). It’s easier to verify, usually with an HTML tag or through Google Analytics, making it a good starting point for beginners.
Domain covers your entire website, including all subdomains (e.g., blog.yourwebsite.com, shop.yourwebsite.com). It’s the most comprehensive way to track your site’s performance, but it requires verification through a DNS record, which might be a touch more technical than you were expecting.

Which option should you choose?

If a complete picture of your website’s performance is the goal here and you have the technical skills to verify through DNS records, the “Domain” option is the way to go. However, if you’re looking for an easier option with multiple verification options, the “URL Prefix” option is a simpler and more accessible choice.

Don’t let me scare you off, though. If you’re new to this thing but want the “most comprehensive way to track” a website, with a little persistence, I’m confident you can tackle the DNS method.

Step 3: Verify Your Ownership

Here’s how to verify using either method:

Option 1: URL Prefix

Enter your full website address within the “URL prefix” text box, including the https:// prefix (e.g., https://www.yourwebsite.com).
Google will offer several verification methods, but for most users, the easiest option is the “HTML tag” method. Select this option and copy the provided meta tag.
Paste the meta tag into the <head> section of your website’s homepage HTML code. This section usually appears before the <body> tag. If you’re not comfortable editing code, you can often find plugins or themes in popular CMS platforms (like WordPress) that can help you insert the tag.
Save the changes to your homepage, then go back to Google Search Console and click “Verify.” Google will check if the meta tag is present on your homepage, and if so, your site will be verified.

Additional Tips:

If you’re having trouble verifying, try clearing your browser’s cache and cookies.
Ensure the meta tag is copied and pasted correctly, without any extra spaces or characters.
It may take a few minutes for Google to verify your site, so don’t panic if it doesn’t happen instantly.

Option 2: DNS Record

Enter your domain name into the “Domain” text box and hit “continue.
Google Search Console will provide you with a unique verification code, which you’ll need to add to your domain’s DNS settings using a TXT or CNAME record.
Log into your domain provider’s account (where you bought your domain name). Locate the DNS management section, typically found under settings or advanced options. If you’re using a TXT record, create a new TXT record with the following values:
1. Host/Name: @ or leave blank (depending on your provider)
2. TTL: 3600 (or as recommended by your provider)
3. Value: The unique verification code provided by Google Search Console
Return to Google Search Console and click “Verify.” The DNS changes might take anywhere from a few minutes to 72 hours to fully propagate.

If you encounter any issues, double-check the record values and make sure they match the information provided by Google. If the problem persists, consider using an alternative verification method or contacting your domain provider’s support. Here’s a great resource from Google that might also help.

Step 4: Pat Yourself on the Back (You Did It!)

Badda-bing, Badda-boom. You’re now verified. Nice job! You’ve got access to all the juicy data insights that GSC has to offer.

But how do you get around? I’ll show you that next.

Navigating the Interface: It’s Not as Scary as You Might Think

You’re in! Nice. At first glance, GSC can seem a bit daunting. But it ain’t that bad. Once you’ve wrapped your head around things, it’s actually fairly intuitive. Let’s get you up to speed.

Main Sections

GSC is divided into six main sections. Each section offers a different set of tools and reports to help you optimize your website. Here’s what they look like:

The Overview page highlights key metrics like total web search clicks, indexing, experience, and enhancements. These reports give quick insights into how your website is performing and whether there are any common issues you need to address.
On the Performance page, you’ll find out which queries are driving traffic, which pages are getting the most clicks, and how your CTR and average position are trending over time.
URL Inspection allows you to enter any URL from your site and get a detailed report on how Google sees it. The report includes information on things like indexing status, mobile usability, and structured data. It’s pretty handy.
The Indexing page is where you’ll find out which pages Google has indexed (or not indexed) on your site. You can also submit sitemaps here to help Google discover and crawl your pages more efficiently.
The Experience page focuses solely on your website’s user experience, with reports on Core Web Vitals, mobile usability, and page experience.
The Security & Manual Actions page is where you’ll find out if your site has been hit with any manual actions or security issues.

Core Features and Tools

Dashboard outlay out of the way, next, here’s a breakdown of the core features and tools in GSC.

Performance Reports

This is where GSC really shines. Performance reports reveal how often a site appears in search results (impressions), how many times users actually click on it (clicks), and its average position on the SERP.

You can even filter by queries (the keywords people are searching for), pages (which of your pages are getting the most love), countries (where your traffic is coming from), devices (desktop vs. mobile), and dates (to see how your performance has changed over time).

Super handy, right?

Use this data to identify your top-performing pages and keywords and any areas that need improvement. Maybe you’ll discover that your blog post about “10 Ways to Make Your Cat an IG Influencer” is surprisingly popular or that your bounce rate is higher on mobile devices.

Both insights that you could use to make the user experience even more seamless and helpful.

Indexing Reports

The Index reports show you which of your pages Google has crawled and indexed. Perhaps more handy, it also tells you which pages it couldn’t access (maybe they’re blocked by robots.txt or have some other technical issue).

You can also submit sitemaps here, which is never a bad idea.

And the Removals tool? It lets you temporarily remove URLs from Google’s index. Useful if you have outdated or sensitive content that you’d prefer website visitors to find. But use it wisely, young Padawan. Removing pages from the index can negatively impact your website’s SEO if not done strategically.

Bad times.

Experience and Security

Okay, we’re getting through this thing—let’s catch you up with the experience and security reports next.

Experience: Page Experience and Core Web Vitals

Google has become a complete UX snob. Rightly so, I guess. No one wants to visit a website that loads slower than dial-up internet. That’s why the Page Experience report evaluates how quickly pages load, how responsive they are, and how stable they are during loading.

The report will flag any issues that might affect user experience, like slow-loading images or wonky JavaScript, so you can fix them ASAP.

Core Web Vitals is also housed under Experience. It measures metrics like Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS). Basically, they translate to “how fast your page loads,” “how quickly it responds to user interaction,” and “how much the page jumps around while loading.”

Don’t slack on optimizing for all three. Neglect them, and you can say goodbye to your rankings.

Security & Manual Actions: Manual Actions and Security Issues

Now for the not-so-fun part: security issues and manual actions. Here, Google dishes out punishments for anything it deems “black hat” or “potentially harmful.”

The Security Issues report is your early warning system for potential threats like malware, hacked content, or deceptive practices. It keeps an eye out for any suspicious activity.

If Google detects any issues, you’ll get an email alert and see the details in GSC. Don’t ignore these warnings. Security breaches can damage your reputation and absolutely destroy your rankings (speaking from experience here. It took me months to recover a site from a hack).

The Manual Actions report is even more serious. This is where Google lists any penalties it has imposed on your site for violating its guidelines. These penalties range from ranking demotions to complete removal from search results.

If you see a manual action in GSC, don’t panic. Read the details carefully, take the necessary steps to fix the issue, and then submit a reconsideration request to Google.

It may take a little while to see a fix but don’t wait. The longer you put off doing anything about a manual action, the more it’ll hurt your site’s performance.

Honestly, they’re brutal.

Link Reports

One last thing I’ll point out on the GSC dashboard is the Links page.

External Links

The External Links report is about the backlinks pointing to your website. It’s a list of all the websites that have linked to you. Here’s what you’ll find here:

Top Linked Pages shows which pages are the most popular among other websites.
Top Linking Sites shows which sites point to you the most.
Top Linking Text shows which words or phrases are being used to link to your site.

Straightforward enough, right?

All three metrics are super helpful for understanding your backlink profile. They’ll help you identify opportunities for improvement. High-quality backlinks boost your site’s authority and ranking potential. The opposite is also true, so keep a close eye on this report to spot any spammy or low-quality links that could hurt your SEO efforts.

Be warned—this is often intentional. There are many competitors that practice the dark arts of negative SEO. They’re more than happy to take your website down a peg or two by directing spammy backlinks your way.

Internal Links

The Internal Links report shows you how your pages are linked to each other within your website. It’s a map of your site’s internal structure, revealing which pages are most frequently linked to and which links are broken.

This information is valuable for a few reasons:

A well-structured internal linking system makes it easier for users to navigate your site and find the information they need. Handy.
Internal links help distribute link equity (or “link juice”) throughout your site, boosting the ranking potential of all your pages. Also, handy.
A strong internal linking structure helps search engines understand the hierarchy and relationship between your pages, making it easier for them to crawl and index your site. Super handy.

Practical Tips and Tricks

Now that you’ve got the lay of the land, let’s dissect the nitty-gritty of actually using Google Search Console.

URL Inspection Tool

The URL Inspection Tool gives you insight into how Google views your pages. Here’s how to make it work for you:

Find out if Google has indexed your page and when it was last crawled. If it’s not indexed, the tool will hint at why.
See if Googlebot encountered any issues while trying to access your page (e.g., 404 errors, server problems).
Check if your page is mobile-friendly and how it appears in mobile search results. Google prioritizes mobile-first indexing, so this is muy importante.
Test a live version of your page to see if Google can access it and how it renders. This is useful for troubleshooting issues that might not be visible in the cached version.
If you’ve made significant changes to a page or added a new one, use this tool to request that Google crawl and index it sooner rather than later.
See if Google has detected any structured data, rich results, or AMP versions of your page.

Yup, the inspection tool sure is helpful.

Best Practices for Leveraging GSC Data

Here’s how to turn those GSC insights into tangible SEO wins:

Don’t just focus on the keywords with the highest impressions. Look for queries where you’re ranking on page two or three of the SERPs—these are your low-hanging fruit. With a bit of optimization, you can nudge them onto the first page and reap the rewards of increased traffic.
GSC isn’t just a one-and-done tool. Check in regularly to track your progress, identify trends, and see how your optimization efforts are paying off. It’ll help you fine-tune your strategy and stay ahead of the SEO game.
Impressions are great for ego-stroking, but clicks and conversions are where the real value lies. Focus on metrics that directly impact your business goals, and use GSC data to identify opportunities for improvement.
When analyzing your data, put yourself in the shoes of your target audience. What are they searching for? What questions do they have? Use GSC to understand user intent and create content that satisfies their needs.

Troubleshooting Common Issues

Even the best websites run into problems sometimes. GSC is your first line of defense when things go wrong. Here are a few common issues you can diagnose and fix using GSC:

If your pages aren’t getting indexed, check the Coverage report for errors like 404s or server issues.
The Mobile Usability report will tell you if your site is mobile-friendly. If not, it’s time to optimize for those smartphone and tablet users.
If you’ve been hit with a penalty, the Manual Actions report will explain why and what you need to do to fix it.
The Security Issues report will alert you to any potential security problems, like malware or hacked content.

Advanced Usage

If you’ve mastered the fundamentals of GSC and are ready to wield its full power (mwahaha), these advanced tactics will take your website optimization to the next level.

Integrating with Google Analytics

GSC and Google Analytics are great tools in their own right. Nobody’s arguing that. But combine their abilities, and nobody will be able to stop you. So, by connecting GSC with Google Analytics, you’re essentially creating a feedback loop between your search presence and your website behavior. 200IQ stuff.

You can see which search queries are driving traffic to your site, how those users are engaging with your content, and whether they’re taking the desired actions (like signing up for your newsletter or making a purchase).

This granular data allows you to:

Identify which pages are attracting organic traffic and which ones need a little TLC.
Discover new keywords and phrases that your audience is searching for, and optimize your content accordingly.
See how users move through your website from search to conversion, helping you identify bottlenecks and optimize your sales funnel.
Get a clear picture of how your SEO efforts are impacting your bottom line by tracking the revenue generated from organic search traffic.

Using the API for Custom Reports

If you’re a data nerd who loves to get their hands dirty with spreadsheets and pivot tables, the GSC API is your playground. It’ll give you direct access to the raw data behind GSC’s reports, allowing you to create custom reports, dashboards, and visualizations that are primed to your specific needs. Yup, sweet, sweet data.

With the API, you can:

Automate reporting, saving you time and effort.
Analyze your search data in ways that aren’t possible with the standard GSC interface. Uncover hidden patterns, correlations, and insights that can inform your SEO strategy.
Connect GSC data with other platforms like your CRM or email marketing tool to gain a more holistic view of your customer journey.
Create interactive dashboards that visualize your data in a way that makes sense to you.

Of course, using the API requires some technical know-how. If you’re not a developer, don’t despair. There are plenty of third-party tools and resources available that’ll help you get the most out of the GSC API without having to write a single line of code. The world is your oyster—literally.

Conclusion and Next Steps

So, what are you waiting for? Make use of Google Search Console, experiment with its features, and start making data-driven decisions that’ll move the needle for your website.

Need a little extra help along the way? Don’t hesitate to reach out to us, Loganix. We’re always here to help you unlock your website’s full potential and dominate the SERPs.

🚀 Head over to our SEO services page today and, together, let’s make some magic happen. 🚀

Hand off the toughest tasks in SEO, PPC, and content without compromising quality

Explore Services

Written by Aaron Haynes on July 27, 2024

CEO and partner at Loganix, I believe in taking what you do best and sharing it with the world in the most transparent and powerful way possible. If I am not running the business, I am neck deep in client SEO.