Google Search Console Tips
Google Search Console (previously called Webmaster Tools) is a free tool provided by Google for website owners to monitor performance and traffic. GSC also offers search engine optimization recommendations and fixes. Our SEO Office Hours recaps below cover a range of advice from Google to help you better understand and get the most out of this fundamental SEO tool.
Search Console Reports Are Restricted to Only Show Indexed Pages Receiving Impressions
Search Console makes some simplifications in its reporting giving relevant sample of the pages Google has indexed. They do this because most sites have many URLs that are indexed but never shown in search. John recommends not to use the counts in Search Console Reports as an absolute count of all of the pages that are indexed but look more at how issues trend over time.
Updating of HTML Improvements is Dependent on Crawl Rate
Updating of HTML Improvements in Search Console is dependent on crawl frequency of the website. John recommends using this report to get an idea of what you could be working on your site but not as a checklist you need to get down to zero issues.
Disallowed Pages May Take Time to be Dropped From Index
Disallowed pages may take a while to be dropped from the index if aren’t crawled very frequently. For critical issues, you can temporarily remove URLs from search results using Search Console.
New Search Console is Likely to Include Data and UI Updates
New version of Search Console will be a mix of data and UI updates. Google have been looking at including different data as well as the amount of data.
Search Console HTML Improvements Are Created Before Canonicals Are Processed
HTML Improvements in Search Console are generated when pages are initially crawled, but before a canonical tag is processed so they can be ignored for canonicalised pages.
Google Won’t Notify Sites Which Have Been Switched to Mobile-first Indexing
Google won’t notify sites when they have been switched over to mobile-first indexing, but will consider sending messages via Search Console to help with any issues.
Add All Domain Variations to Search Console to Receive Error Notification
Google recommends to add all variations of your domain to Search Console so they can notify you in the event of errors and to see data about which versions are appearing in search results.
Query Filtered Search Console Analytics Reports Won’t Match Totals
Query level reports in Search Console Analytics may filter out some impressions so they won’t add up to the totals.
Index Status in Search Console is Updated a Few Times a Week
The Index Status data in Search Console is updated 2-3 times a week.
Search Console Link Data Is Updated as Pages are Recrawled
The links data in Search Console but it may take Google up to a year to re-crawl pages to find new and removed links.