BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE

WHAT IS GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE? 

Earlier known as Google Webmasters Tools, the main function of Google Search Console is to suggest changes that will help rank your website higher on search engines.  The new Google Search Console is also more inclusive and intuitive to marketing experts, SEOs, designers, business owners and app developers among other professionals. 

A FEW THINGS THAT GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE CAN DO FOR YOUR WEBSITE:

Make it more accessible to Google. 

Help in creating and monitoring content that your audiences engage with. 

Facilitate crawling of new content on the website as well as identification and removal of content exposed to errors, malware, and spam. 

Now that you know what Google Search Console can do for your website, we have jotted down for you A-F of Google Search Console for easy implementation.  Here goes:

ADDING GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE FOR YOUR WEBSITE:

The only pre-requisite of getting started here is a Google account and for you to be the authorized user of the website you are trying to add.  The steps you need to follow:

Log in to your Search Console Account. 

Add your URL in the box that asks you to do so, and click the red button named ‘Add Property’ next to the box. 

Simple enough, right!  The next part is where we need your attention.  While adding the Search Console is fairly easy, you’ll need to verify your account before being able to use the search console to your full advantage.  This process ensures that your confidential account information stays protected. 

For verification, you can follow one of the following methods:

Adding an HTML Tag. 

Uploading an HTML File. 

Verifying via domain name provider. 

Adding Google Analytics Code. 

Using Google Tag Manager. 

BINDING GOOGLE ANALYTICS WITH GOOGLE SEARCH CONTROL

Before we tell you how to link the two, understand that despite the widespread belief that Google Analytics and Google Search Control essentially serve the same purpose, there are quite a few differences in their working mechanism.  While Google Analytics is mostly concerned about who is interacting with your site and how they are doing it, Google Search Control details the effects of the interaction in the form of keyword queries, link building, and spam detection. 

STEPS TO FOLLOW:

Go to the Search Console dashboard and pick the website you want to connect. 

From the Settings option then, click on “Google Analytics Property.” 

Choose the preferred Google Analytics Account and save your details. 

CHECKING A ROBOTS.TXT FILE

Robots.txt file placed in the root of your site helps in preventing a few specific pages from being indexed by web crawlers. 

For checking what is your robots.txt file is allowing or trying to hide from crawlers and to make desired changes, take the following steps:

Log into Search Console and select the site whose robots.txt file you want to check. 

Choose the ‘Crawl’ option on the left of your screen and then click “robots.txt Tester.” 

Make changes that you would like to your website and hit the “Submit” button underneath the editing box in the lower right-hand corner. 

The changes you make will not automatically be reflected.  You will have to download your updated robots.txt file and upload it to your site in the same directory as the old one.  Then on the robots.txt testing tool, click, ‘Verify live version’ before finally pressing ‘Submit live version.’ 

Also, be mindful of naming your robots.txt file should always be named “robots.txt” and saving it in the root of your website. 

DEALING WITH SITEMAP SUBMISSION

Although optional, submitting sitemaps to Google make the search giant’s job easier by giving it essential information about the structure of your website including the nature and type of content – images or video as well information about the frequency of changes made to the site. 

STEPS TO SUBMIT SITEMAPS:

Go to your Search Console dashboard and select the site you want to submit a sitemap for. 

Pick the option ‘Crawl’ from the left side of the screen and under ‘Crawl,’ look for the ‘Sitemaps’ option. 

After you click on ‘Sitemaps,’ you will see a button marked “Add/Test Sitemap” in the upper right-hand corner. 

In a box that appears, type ‘system/feeds/sitemap’ and hit ‘Submit sitemap’

After the indexing is finished, click on ‘Submit to Index’ button at the bottom. 

Pick ‘Crawl Only This URL’ for indexing of a specific page or ‘Crawl This URL and its Direct Links’ if you want the entire site indexed. 

ERROR SPOTTING IN GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE

For a website to operate at its full potential, it is significant that all errors are spotted well in time and the necessary adjustments made accordingly.  Google Search Control can help you with this.  On the left-hand side of your screen under the Search Console Dashboard, you will see the option ‘Crawl.’  Click on it and then select ‘Crawl Errors.’  You will then be redirected to the Crawl Errors page where you can find all errors spotted by web crawlers at the time of indexing. 

FETCHING AS GOOGLE AND SUBMITTING TO INDEX

You can also use Google Search Console for submitting your pages manually to Google for indexing so that any changes on-page or off-page changes you might have made reflect sooner.  To do so, you need to take the following steps:

Log in to your Google Search Console and select the page you want to submit. 

On the left-side screen, click the ‘crawl’ option and further on ‘Fetch as Google.’ 

On the page that you are directed to, there will appear a box at the center. 

If you need to fetch the whole website, leave the box empty.  If you need a specific page indexed, add its full address. 

Hit the ‘Fetch and Render’ button. 

After the indexing is finished, click on ‘Submit to Index’ button at the bottom. 

Pick ‘Crawl Only This URL’ for indexing of a specific page or ‘Crawl This URL and its Direct Links’ if you want the entire site indexed.