What can you do with a Google Search Console account?

A Google Search Console account gives you practical information and controls for managing your website’s presence in Google Search. You can analyse organic search performance, see which pages are indexed, submit sitemaps and URLs, identify technical or security problems, review links and receive notifications when Google detects an issue.

It is primarily a diagnostic and monitoring platform. It does not replace an SEO strategy, guarantee rankings or allow you to set a page’s position manually. Instead, it shows how Google has crawled, indexed and presented your site, helping you decide what to investigate and improve.

Analyse search performance

The Performance report shows how your website has performed in Google Search over a selected period. You can assess:

• Clicks: how often people selected a result leading to your site.
• Impressions: how often a page or website result was shown in search results.
• Click-through rate: the proportion of impressions that resulted in a click.
• Average position: an aggregated indication of where your results appeared for recorded searches.

You can break this data down by search query, page, country, device, search appearance and date. For example, you can identify queries generating impressions but few clicks, pages receiving traffic from unexpected searches, or differences between mobile and desktop performance.

Use the report to find opportunities rather than treating every metric as an exact ranking measurement. Average position can combine different searches, pages and result types, while impressions and clicks reflect Google’s reporting definitions and may not represent every search interaction. Search Console data can also differ from analytics data because the platforms measure different actions.

Comparing periods can help you investigate changes after publishing content, updating page titles, improving internal links or resolving technical issues. Segmenting the data by page and query is usually more useful than reviewing the site-wide totals alone.

Check whether pages are indexed

The Page indexing report shows which URLs Google has discovered and what happened when it attempted to crawl or index them. It can highlight pages that are indexed, excluded, blocked by a technical rule, redirected, duplicated or affected by another issue.

Excluded does not automatically mean that something is wrong. Some URLs should not be indexed, such as duplicate versions, filtered pages, redirected URLs or pages intentionally marked with a noindex directive. The important question is whether the status matches your intended site structure.

Review examples provided for each status, then check whether the affected URLs are valuable pages that should appear in search. If an important page is excluded, investigate the page’s availability, internal links, canonical signal, robots directives and content before requesting indexing.

Inspect individual URLs

The URL Inspection tool provides information about a specific page. It can show whether Google knows about the URL, whether it is eligible for indexing, which canonical URL Google selected and whether any enhancements or indexing problems were detected.

After making a significant change, you can use the live test to check how Google can access the page at that time. If the page is suitable for indexing, you can request that Google recrawl it. A request is a prompt, not a guarantee of immediate crawling, indexing or ranking. It should be used for important updates rather than repeatedly submitted for routine changes.

URL inspection is also useful when a page is missing from search, has recently moved, has changed substantially or is displaying an unexpected canonical version. Compare the inspection result with the page’s intended configuration and with links to the page from elsewhere on the site.

Submit and monitor XML sitemaps

You can submit an XML sitemap to help Google discover the URLs you consider important. Search Console records the sitemap’s processing status and can report errors, including URLs that could not be read or processed.

A sitemap is a discovery aid, not an instruction to index every listed URL. Include canonical, accessible pages that you want Google to consider, and keep the file updated when important URLs are added, removed or changed. A submitted URL may still be excluded if Google considers it duplicated, low quality, inaccessible or unsuitable for indexing.

Find and resolve search-related issues

Search Console can identify problems that may affect crawling, indexing, user experience or search presentation. Depending on the property, these may include:

• Server errors, unavailable pages and other crawl failures.
• URLs blocked by robots.txt or affected by noindex instructions.
• Redirect and canonicalisation issues.
• Mobile usability problems.
• Core Web Vitals issues relating to loading, responsiveness and visual stability.
• Problems with structured data or eligible search enhancements.

Reports often provide affected URL examples rather than a complete list of every occurrence. Treat them as a starting point for investigation. Confirm the issue on the relevant page, determine whether it is intentional, fix the underlying cause and then use the validation option where available. Validation asks Google to check whether the reported issue has been addressed; it does not guarantee that every URL will be accepted or that rankings will change.

Review search appearance and structured data

Search Console can report whether Google has detected certain structured data types and whether there are errors or warnings that could prevent enhanced search results. It also provides performance data for some search appearance features.

Structured data helps Google understand page content, but it does not guarantee that an enhanced result will be displayed. Mark-up must accurately describe visible page content and comply with Google’s technical and quality requirements. Correcting a validation error makes the implementation eligible for consideration; it does not force a particular appearance.

Manage temporary removals

The Removals tools allow you to request the temporary hiding of certain URLs from Google Search and review some outdated content or filtering requests. This is suitable for urgent, short-term situations, but it is not a permanent replacement for removing content, returning the correct status code, applying noindex or securing restricted material.

Before using a removal request, identify whether the URL contains sensitive information, has been published in error or is simply outdated. Apply a lasting technical or content solution where necessary, because temporary visibility controls expire and do not remove the URL from your website.

Review links to and within your site

The Links reports show examples of external pages linking to your site, commonly linked pages and internal links between pages. This can help you understand how authority and navigation are distributed across the site, identify important pages with limited internal linking and spot links that need investigation.

These reports are not a complete record of every link and should not be treated as a definitive valuation of a backlink profile. Use them alongside a wider technical and content review. Internal links should support logical navigation and help users and search engines find important content; they should not be added solely to manipulate signals.

Receive messages about important changes

Search Console can send email notifications about issues such as indexing problems, manual actions, security concerns, verification changes or newly detected reports. Notifications should be reviewed promptly, particularly when they concern hacked content, malware, spam or a manual action.

Not every message indicates a penalty or a site-wide failure. Read the affected property, issue description and example URLs carefully. A manual action is different from an algorithmic ranking change: it means Google has identified a violation of its spam policies and provides a route for remediation and, where appropriate, reconsideration.

Use the account as part of an ongoing SEO process

A practical workflow is to review performance trends, check indexing coverage for important pages, investigate new issues, validate completed fixes and compare changes with relevant dates. Keep a record of significant releases, redirects, template changes and content updates so that changes in Search Console data can be interpreted in context.

You can also use account settings to manage verified properties, users and permissions, and to control which people can view reports or perform actions. Give each user the lowest level of access needed for their role, particularly where the account is shared between internal teams and external specialists.

Used consistently, Google Search Console helps turn search visibility into an evidence-based improvement process: understand how Google is finding and displaying the site, correct barriers to crawling and indexing, improve pages that attract relevant impressions, and monitor the effect of technical and content changes over time.