Google Search Console: a guide for beginners - Zephyra Studio

Google Search Console is a free tool that shows how your site appears in Google search: how often it was displayed, for which queries, how many clicks it brought, and where indexing problems exist. It does not show what people do on the site after clicking, which is what analytics is for, and it does not show data about anyone else's site. Setup comes down to proving ownership, submitting a sitemap and reading a few reports. The most useful are performance, which shows queries and positions, page indexing, which shows what Google is not displaying and why, and the sitemaps report. Data lags by two to three days, and history is kept for sixteen months.

What the tool shows and what it does not

Search Console shows the search side: how often pages appeared in results, for which queries, with how many clicks and at what average position. It is the only source of that data, because it cannot be seen in analytics or in paid tools in the same way.

It does not show what someone did after arriving on the site. If a visit produced an enquiry, that appears in analytics, so the two tools are used together: Search Console shows how people reach the site, analytics shows what happens once they are there.

Data lags by two to three days and is not available immediately. On top of that, queries with very low search volume are not listed individually but stay hidden inside the totals, which means smaller sites never see part of their traffic by query name.

History is kept for sixteen months, which is enough to compare annual seasons. The tool covers Google only, so other search engines use their own tools, usually with the same sitemap.

You cannot see anyone else's queries here, because Search Console only shows sites you have verified as your own. Understanding competitors requires other means, usually a judgement based on search results and public data.

Setup: verification and sitemap

Setup takes about fifteen minutes and has two steps. The first is proving ownership, the second is submitting the sitemap.

• Add the site as a domain property where possible, because it covers both the www and non-www versions and both protocols
• Verify through a DNS record, an HTML file, a meta tag, or through analytics if it is already connected
• If someone else maintains the site, add them as a user with the right role rather than sharing your account
• Submit the sitemap in the sitemaps section, if the site generates one
• Check after two days whether the sitemap was fetched successfully and whether it reports errors
• Turn on e-mail notifications, because that is how warnings arrive about problems nobody would otherwise notice

Five reports worth opening

The tool has around twenty reports, but day-to-day work comes down to five. The rest are for when something looks off or a larger change is being prepared.

• Performance: queries, pages, countries, devices and dates, with filters and a comparison of two periods
• Page indexing: what is indexed, what is excluded and for which reason
• Sitemaps: whether it was fetched and how many addresses were discovered from it
• Page experience and core web vitals: whether pages pass or fail on mobile and on desktop
• Links: who links to the site and which pages have the most links, without paid tools
• Security and manual actions: warnings that need immediate attention, because they concern the whole site

Why the numbers differ from analytics

Search Console counts appearances in search results, including the ones that led to no visit. Analytics counts sessions that actually reached the site and does so after scripts load, so the figures differ by rule even when everything is configured correctly.

The gap widens when a visitor declines cookies or a browser blocks scripts, because the appearance exists while the session is never recorded. The same happens with impressions nobody clicked, which analytics cannot see.

That is why the two tools are not compared on absolute numbers but on direction. When both agree that traffic is rising or falling, the conclusion is reliable, and when they disagree the cause is usually the measurement rather than a real change.

How to read performance

The most useful filter is position eight to twenty. Those are queries where Google already knows the page is relevant but keeps it off the first page. Adding content and internal links to those pages produces the fastest movement.

The second useful filter is queries with many impressions and few clicks. That means the page is being displayed, but its title and description do not match what people are searching for.

The third is separating queries containing your company name from the rest. Queries with the name show recognition, while the others show growth, and mixing the two groups gives a false picture of what is actually changing.

Finally, compare two periods of equal length. Comparing a month that contained a campaign with a month that did not means the difference gets credited to content when it comes from the campaign.

What to do after every change

After publishing a new page or making a larger change, the check has three steps. First confirm Google can open the address at all, then see whether the page has been discovered, and finally watch whether it entered the index.

For addresses that were changed or redirected the check is mandatory, because that is where mistakes only appear a week or two later. If pages that were not previously excluded show up in the indexing report, something needs fixing straight away.

The usual monthly routine is short: confirm there are no warnings, look at new queries sitting between position eight and twenty, check that the number of indexed pages is stable, and review the five pages with the most impressions and the fewest clicks. The rest of the work, such as submitting sitemaps and understanding exclusion reasons, is covered by technical SEO, and the basic terms from this tool are explained in our articles on indexation and on sitemaps.

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Key takeaways

• Search Console shows the search side, analytics shows what happens after the click, and they are used together.
• Data lags by two to three days, and history is kept for sixteen months.
• A domain property covers all subdomains and both protocols, which makes it better than a single address.
• Queries sitting between position eight and twenty are the best opportunity for fast improvement.
• After any address change the indexing check is mandatory, because mistakes appear with a delay.

Conclusion

Search Console is not a tool to open every day, but one to open regularly, because it shows both problems and opportunities first. If you do not have it set up yet, that is the first step, because without it there is no data on queries and positions. We set up analytics and Search Console together with a new site, and where the site is already running it is worth starting with a free SEO check to see which problems sit at the top of the list.