Understanding Google Search Console
What is Google Search Console?
Google Search Console is a free webmaster tool by Google in which you can see the performance of your website over Google.
How to add Your Website to Google Search Console?
To add your website to Google Search Console, then first log in to Google Search Console, then on the left-hand sidebar, click the dropdown just below the Google Search Console, and click on Add Property. Now you will be redirected to a page where you have to add the URL of your website. Just copy-paste your website URL and click on Continue.
Read our Article To Verify the Domain name for Google Search Console via DNS
5 different methods to verify website ownership in Google Search Console
Now you will be on the Verify Ownership section. Here are Google gives you 5 methods to verify your ownership
- Download HTML file
- Adding Meta Tag to the site’s home page,
- Using Google Analytics
- Using Google Tag manager
- Using Domain Name Provider
In this post, we will be discussing the first 2 methods of verifying Ownership in the Google Search Console.
How to verify Ownership by uploading an HTML file?
The first method is to download the HTML file and then upload it to our website. In this method, you have to download the HTML file given there. And then you have to go to your website hosting provider(recommended Hostinger). There it would be best if you visited domains, in Domains, go to the required domain name. Go to Public HTML and then upload your downloaded file to the Public HTML of your domain.
After Uploading the HTML file to public Html, visit the verify ownership section in Google Search Console and then click on Verify. Then Google will verify the code and display the popup “Ownership Verified”
Then you can visit the Property in Google Search Console or Click on Done to exit.
How to Verify Owner Ship by Adding Meta Tag to Site Homepage?
The other method to verify Website ownership in Google Search Console is by copying and pasting the Meta Tag into the site homepage.
Copy the meta tag code provided by Google and go to the dashboard of your website.
We assume that you are using a WordPress website. Just install the HFCM plugin.
Go to the HFCM plugin and click on Add new Snippet and paste the code and save the snippet.
As done above, go to verify ownership section and click on verify button. Google will display a popup that “Ownership Verified”
The other methods we will discuss in our other posts.
How to remove property from Google Search Console?
If you want to remove your website from Google Search Console, then log in to Google Search Console, and select the property (i.e., website) which you want to remove. Scroll down and click on settings.
In settings, scroll down you will find Remove Property. The popup will show asking are you sure you want to remove the domain from your account.
Click on Remove Property your website will be successfully removed.
Overview of Your Website Performance on Google Search Console
Assuming that, you have your website added to Google Search Console. When you logged in to Google Search Console, the first thing you see is the overview of your website.
The overview page consists of the overview of
- Performance
- Coverage
- Experience
- Enhancements
In the Performance section, you will see the 3 months summary of your website. To know more either click full report or “Search Results” on the left-sidebar as shown in the figure.
When you click full report or Search Results, you will see the detailed report of your website.
Different terms used in Google Search Console Performance
- Total Clicks
- Total Impressions
- Average CTR
- Average Position
What are Total Clicks in Google Search Console?
Total Clicks are the number of times a user clicked through to your site i.e., the number of times a user from the Google Search Engine Result page searches a topic and clicks the link of your website.
You can select the date range from the date range above. The range may be of the last 7 days, 28 days or 3 months or any custom date range.
What are total Impressions in Google Search Console?
Total impressions are how many times users saw a link to your website in Google SERP.
Let’s understand impressions by an example.
You are sitting on a bus stand waiting for the bus, a person or rider crossed you a number of times but you didn’t notice him. This is called impressions. Your website is showing up on the Google Result page and the user crossed through your website link but didn’t click it. Your website is appearing in the Google SERP but users didn’t click it. This is an impression.
What is Average CTR in Google Search Console?
Average CTR is the average of impressions converted into clicks.
For example, in the image of Bajrai Online Solutions
Total Impressions are 695K,
Total Clicks are 14.7 K.
So, the Average CTR of the above data
695000 ÷ 14700 * 100 = 2.1.
What is the average position in Google Search Console?
Average Position is the average position of your website in the selected date range in Google Search. This average position is the overall average position of the website, whereas each post average position is given in the below sections of Query.
By this, hope you understand the basic terms used in Google Search Console.
How to Optimize Website Using Google Search Console?
This is the important question, how can we optimize our website using Google Search Results. To answer this, go to the Performance of Your website as we discussed above.
Just scroll down in the performance section, and you will see different tabs namely Queries, pages, countries, devices, search appearance, and dates.
By default, we are in the query section. In the queries section, it displays your top queries with the number of clicks and number of impressions for a selected date range say 3 months.
By default, it shows the top queries in descending order as per clicks. The search term that gets the most clicks will be shown first. Now click on Impressions, it will make the top queries which are shown the most number of times.
Here comes the vital step for you. Check your top queries according to impressions, click on them, and check what is its average position.
Meanwhile, go to Google and copy-paste that search term to see which pages are above your website. And read their content, and go for the keywords they are using. And edit your post with the solution to the problem of the search query, and make your post better than your competitors.
By this, you can increase your website’s CTR and Google ranking. And definitely, you will drive more traffic to your website.
Hope the article, helps you in understanding the Google Search Console, do subscribe to our newsletter for important posts regarding digital marketing.
Suggested Reading: Keyword Research using Google Search Console
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