No matter what type of business you own, you need a great website. People rely on online searches to find clothes, restaurants, doctors, realtors, and anything else they need or want. When you optimize your website with high-quality design and engaging content, it will be more likely to show up when people are searching for the products and services you offer. Google Search Console can help you see what works and what doesn’t for your website, making it easier to reach more people. Keep reaching for an overview of the basics of Google Search Console.

What It Is

Called Google Webmaster Tools until May of 2015, Google Search Console is a tool that webmasters, business owners, agencies, and others can use to gain insight into their search rankings. This tool is free to use and offers a look at many different elements about a website’s visitors and their behaviors. People can use Google Search Console to learn about how many people visit their website, how people find their website, what types of devices people are using to visit their website, and how popular different pages on their websites are. Business owners can use this free tool to learn how to optimize their websites so that potential customers are better able to find them. Agencies can also use Google Search Console to inspect their own websites and help their clients maintain high-quality websites with engaging content.

What It Looks Like

If you want to use Google Search Console to improve your website and online presence, then you’ll need to create an account. After this step, you can add your website and verify that you are responsible for the site. Once you’ve completed this, you’ll be able to start inspecting your Search Console dashboard. This serves as the homepage of your account and is where you’ll be notified of any messages or urgent issues regarding the security of your site. From the dashboard, you’ll be able to look at the Search Traffic section. This is where you can find information about how your site performs in searches, see other websites that link to your site, and discover any issues that are affecting how your site looks or works on mobile. The dashboard also provides access to the Google Index section, where you can see which of your website’s pages have been indexed and what keywords you’re ranking for. As a Google Search Console user, you can also learn about the crawl process and find out about any security issues on your dashboard.

What Benefits It Offers

There are many benefits you can expect after signing up for Google Search Console. Because SEO is such an important part of inbound marketing, optimizing your website and content should always be a top priority. Along with maintaining a great website and publishing high-quality content on a regular basis, you’ll want to be able to access real-life information about how your marketing efforts are performing. One of the most appealing benefits of signing up for Google Search Console is gaining insight into how Google accesses your website’s content—and making sure all of the content you want people to find is available through Google searches. You’ll also be able to benefit by knowing where your website visitors are coming from, what websites are linking to you, and what your website visitors searched that led them to a page on your site. Along with optimization benefits, Google Search Console also makes it easy to learn about security issues that might be affecting your site, allowing you to protect your business as well as your customers.

Who Can Use It

Google Search Console might be most beneficial for business owners and agencies, but it can be insightful for anyone who owns or operates a website. As a business owner, you can use this free Google tool to research how your website is performing for your chosen keywords and desired audience. With these insights, you’ll be able to regularly update your website to improve your search rankings and boost your visibility. As an agency owner or employee, you can use Google Search Console to inspect your website and make sure it reaches as many potential clients as possible. You can also teach your clients about this tool so they can start using it to improve their own websites. Does your business have a mobile app? If so, you can use Google Search Console to learn about how your app is performing, how people are finding it, and what you can do to improve your app or make it visible to more potential users.

Do you want to learn more about Google Search Console and how it can help your business or agency? If so, Pennington Creative can help. Our Tucson content marketing team can help you understand and take advantage of online search trends with blogs, infographics, and other custom content. Contact us today to get started.

About the Author

Jessica DeMilt

Digital Marketing Manager, Social Media Services