Getting found on Google · Updated October 2026
Google Search Console, explained in plain English.
Google Search Console is a free tool from Google that shows how your website appears in Google search: which searches show your pages, how often people click, and which pages Google has chosen to include or leave out. Google Analytics tells you what visitors do once they arrive. Search Console tells you how they found you, and what is stopping more of them from finding you.
Setting It Up
It takes about fifteen minutes, and the data starts collecting from the day you verify.
Sign in with a business-owned Google account
Go to search.google.com/search-console. Use an account your business controls, then add your designer or agency as a user. Do not let them be the only owner.
Choose a property type
A Domain property covers every version of your site (with and without www, http and https) and is verified with a DNS record at your domain provider. A URL-prefix property covers one address and can be verified with an HTML tag or your Google Analytics account. Domain is the more complete choice.
Submit your sitemap
Under Sitemaps, enter the address of your sitemap file (often /sitemap.xml). It gives Google a full list of the pages you want found.
The Five Reports Worth Checking Monthly
Search Console has many screens. These five cover what a business owner needs.
1. Performance
Clicks, impressions (how often you appeared), click-through rate and average position, for the searches and pages that brought you traffic. Compare the last three months with the same period last year to see real growth, not seasonal swings.
2. Pages (indexing)
Which pages Google has indexed and which it has not, with a reason for each. “Crawled, currently not indexed” means Google saw the page and decided it was not worth showing, usually because it is thin or repeats other pages.
3. URL Inspection
Paste any address from your site to see whether it is on Google, when it was last crawled, and how Google sees it. After you improve an important page, use Request Indexing here.
4. Core Web Vitals
Real-world speed and stability measurements from Chrome users, split into mobile and desktop. Pages marked poor are worth fixing first, because they frustrate visitors as well as Google.
5. Security and manual actions
Usually empty, which is what you want. If your site is hacked or breaks Google’s rules, the warning appears here, and it can remove pages from search until it is fixed.
Bonus: Links
Which other websites link to you, and which of your pages they link to. It is a free starting point for understanding backlinks.
Quick Wins Hiding in the Data
High impressions, few clicks
A page that shows up often but is rarely clicked usually has a weak title or description in the results. Rewrite them to say plainly what the page offers.
Position 8 to 20
Searches where you sit at the bottom of page one or on page two are the closest to paying off. Improving the page that ranks for them often moves it up.
Pages Google skips
Lots of unindexed pages can be a sign of thin or repeated content. Improving the best and merging or removing the rest helps the whole site.
Want Someone to Read It for You?
Search Console is free, but the useful part is knowing what to change. As part of our SEO services we check it every month and turn it into a short list of fixes. For tracking what visitors do after they arrive, see our guide to Google Tag Manager.
