How to Use Google Search Console to Improve SEO
In digital marketing and Google Search Console in SEO is one of the most useful free tools you can use. It gives you important information about how your website appears in Google Search and helps you find and fix problems that might be hurting your online visibility.
Whether you’re an SEO expert, a content writer, or a business owner, learning to use Google Search Console the right way can help improve your website’s SEO and performance.
What is Google Search Console?
Google Search Console is a free tool from Google that helps you check, manage, and fix how your website shows up in Google Search. You don’t need to use it for your site to appear in search results, but it gives you helpful data and tools to understand and improve your website’s performance.
Setting Up Google Search Console
Before you can start improving SEO with GSC, you need to set it up:
- Go to https://search.google.com/search-console
- Add your website by selecting Domain or URL prefix.
- Verify ownership using one of the available methods (DNS, HTML file upload, Google Analytics, etc.).
- Once verified, your site data will start appearing within a few days.
Key Features to Improve SEO
Here’s how you can use GSC to enhance your SEO strategy:
1. Monitor Search Performance
Navigate to the Performance tab to view:
Total clicks
Total impressions
Average click-through rate (CTR)
Average position in search results
You can filter the data by queries, pages, countries, devices, and date range. Use this to:
Discover which keywords bring the most traffic.
- Identify high-impression but low-CTR keywords (and optimize meta titles/descriptions).
- Find pages with high average position but low clicks—consider updating or re-sharing these.
2. Identify and Fix Indexing Issues
The Pages report (earlier known as the Coverage report) shows you:
Indexed pages
Pages excluded from indexing
Errors like 404s, redirect issues, or server errors
Use this to:
Fix broken links and improve user experience.
Ensure important pages are getting indexed.
Remove or redirect low-quality or outdated pages.
3. Submit Your Sitemap
When you submit your sitemap, it helps Google scan and understand your website more effectively.
Go to Indexing → Sitemaps
Enter your sitemap URL (e.g., yoursite.com/sitemap.xml)
Submit and monitor the status
This ensures Google is aware of all your pages and can index them faster.
4. Enhance Mobile Usability
Since Google uses mobile-first indexing, it’s important to make sure your website works properly on mobile devices.
Check the Mobile Usability report
Fix issues like clickable elements too close together or text too small
Optimizing for mobile improves rankings and user experience.
5. Improve Core Web Vitals
Under Experience → Core Web Vitals, you’ll find performance metrics such as:
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
First Input Delay (FID)
These are part of Google’s page experience ranking signals. If any page is flagged as “Poor” or “Needs Improvement,” work on optimizing speed, stability, and responsiveness.
6. Check for Manual Actions or Security Issues
Google may take manual actions against your site for violating guidelines, like unnatural links or thin content.
Go to Security & Manual Actions
Address any flagged issues immediately to avoid penalties
7. Inspect URLs for Real-Time Feedback
The URL Inspection Tool allows you to:
Check if a page is indexed
See the last crawl date
View crawl issues or mobile usability problems
Use it after updating a page to request reindexing and speed up visibility in search results.
8. Optimize Internal Linking and Structured Data
Check the Links report to see which pages have the most backlinks and how your internal links are structured.
Under Enhancements, view errors related to structured data like breadcrumbs, products, FAQs, etc.
Fixing structured data can boost your chances of appearing with rich results (like star ratings or FAQ dropdowns).
Pro Tips for Using Google Search Console in SEO Effectively
- Check it weekly: Don’t treat it as a set-and-forget tool. Regular monitoring can help you stay ahead of issues.
- Pair it with Google Analytics: Use both tools together for a fuller picture of user behavior and SEO impact.
- Track content updates: After updating old blog posts or web pages, use GSC to reindex and track performance changes.
Conclusion
Google Search Console in SEO is more than just a tool to find problems—it’s a powerful part of your SEO strategy. It shows you what’s going well, what needs to be improved, and where you can grow. By learning how to use GSC, you’ll get the information you need to make your website show up better in Google search.
