In this article, we explain the basics of using Google Search Console to track your Google ranking status.
There are hundreds of SEO tools. We've already written an article on the top 10 SEO tools and today we'll explain how to use the Google Search Console tool in your SEO analysis!
What is the google search console?
If you had to choose only one tool for analysing your website's organic search, Google Search Console would be that tool. It's a tool that offers analytics and lots of data! Google Search Console can help you track your rankings and improve them over time by helping you identify issues that may be preventing a page from being crawled for example.
A Google tracking tool
Google Search Console is a daily report on your website's SEO performance on the Google search engine. It allows you to have a global vision of all the facets of your domain name concerning :
- Indexing of your website pages
- Number of daily impressions
- Positioning on key search
- Click-through rate
But also of referencing
Beyond simply tracking your analytics, Google Search Console can help you improve your SEO in a more technical way. Having a global view of your data, will allow you to make better decisions on your strategic choices in terms of SEO! Don't work blindly, work with data.
But don't stop there: also add appropriate data to help both Google and end users better understand your site and its content, for example by adding sitemap files!
This tool also allows you to keep an eye on your internal and external links with a detailed report on the origin and destination of the links.
Is the tool free?
Yes, like many tools offered by google, the google search console is a free tool. A good alternative to tools like semrush, ahrefs or ryte! (Which remain however complementary on big SEO strategies)
How to use the tool to monitor your referencing
As soon as you mention the word "SEO", hundreds of options come to mind. However, when it comes to choosing a tool that will work best for your business, it's not as simple as choosing the most popular tool. Here we explain why CSG is the first SEO tool you should consider using, whether you're an algorithmic giant or a small blogger just starting out in online marketing.
Impression tracking and keyword analysis
An impression is the number of times a link to your website appears in a search engine results page. This is the number of times your website is presented to potential customers and visitors!
With Google Search Console, you can track your site's impressions in general, but also more precisely by adding filters (dates, pages, etc.). This allows you to see on which words frequent visitors end up on the pages of your site and thus to develop positions on these keywords.
Follow-up of the indexation of the pages of your site
In the "Content" section, you can easily find out how many pages of your site are indexed in search engines. Having a lot of content is good, but it takes time to create those pages if they are not indexed at all... it's useless! Monitoring this metric carefully will help you adjust your content strategy if your content is not indexed.
Pro tips: If you have just launched a page and want to help speed up its indexing, you can use this feature to speed up the analysis of your page and its indexing by Google's algorithms!
Attention: Making these kinds of technical manipulations is not enough. Your page must also comply with good indexing practices: secure, authentic content, fast loading, etc.
Click-through rate tracking
Finally, keep an eye on your click-through rate in the Google SERPs! This is the last indicator that I advise you to follow closely with the GSC, the CTR!
You have successfully positioned your pages on a series of specific and very popular keywords! Your total number of views has increased at an incredible rate. Now you need to convert those views into clicks to increase traffic to your site. Keep an eye on the "clicks" / "impressions" ratio to determine whether or not your title and meta-description are driving action!
Bonus : Search console insights
1 + 1 = 3
By connecting your Search Console to your Google Analytics, you have access to a super cool mix of data! Search Console Insights (still in open beta at the moment) offers insights that summarise your site's key ranking tracking metrics for you, in easy-to-read dashboards.
- the performance of your content
- your most popular pages
- the origin of your visitors (seo, media, direct, etc.)
- Your positions (precise place) on keywords!
Want to learn more about SEO?
Looking to learn new things about search engine optimization? Go to the blog Digidop and activate the "SEO" filter to get access to a huge collection of content (100% free), directly applicable to your seo strategy.
