Google Search Console is Google's free tool for anyone with a website. It shows which searches your site appears for, how often people click through, which pages Google has indexed and what's stopping the rest. Use it to get new pages found, catch technical problems before they cost you traffic and see what's working in Google Search.
Every statement below about how Search Console works is checked against Google's own documentation and linked where you might want the source.
What is Google Search Console?
Search Console is a free service from Google that helps you monitor, maintain and troubleshoot how your site appears in Google Search. Your site can appear in Google without it; Search Console shows you how Google sees your site and what to fix.
It used to be called Google Webmaster Tools. Google renamed it in May 2015, but you'll still see it called Google Webmaster Tools, the Google web console or simply GSC.
What does Search Console do?
According to Google's overview, Search Console lets you:
- Confirm that Google can find and crawl your site
- Fix indexing problems and ask Google to re-index new or updated pages
- See your Google Search traffic: how often your site appears, which searches show it and how often people click through
- Get alerts when Google finds indexing, spam or other problems on your site
- See which sites link to yours
It covers Google only, so clicks from Bing or ChatGPT won't show up here. Google's own AI features are included, though: clicks from AI Overviews and AI Mode are counted in the Performance report, and an AI Overview takes up a single position in the results, shared by every link inside it.
There's no need to log in every day. Google emails you when it finds new issues on your site, and suggests a monthly check, plus another whenever you change the site's content.
How do you set up Google Search Console?
Sign in with a Google account, add your website as a property and prove you own it. Once that's done, data starts appearing within a few days.
There's no separate Search Console login: you sign in with a Google account and need access to your website or domain settings to prove ownership.
Domain property or URL-prefix property: which should you choose?
Search Console asks you to choose between 2 types of website property:
- Domain property (example.com.au): covers every subdomain and protocol, so www, non-www, http and https all report together. It can only be verified with a DNS record at your domain provider.
- URL-prefix property (https://www.example.com.au/): covers only URLs that start with that exact address. Addresses on http and https, or with and without www, need separate properties. It offers more ways to verify, including an HTML file, an HTML tag, Google Analytics or Google Tag Manager.
For most businesses a Domain property is the better start, because nothing slips between versions of your address. If you can't edit your DNS, use a URL-prefix property for the version visitors actually land on.
You can have both, and up to 1,000 properties in an account. URL-prefix properties are also how you split out a section of your site, such as /blog/ or a country folder, so it gets its own reports. Whether that's worth doing depends on how your site is organised; we cover it in Should I add all subdirectories in Google Search Console?
How to add and verify your site
- Go to search.google.com/search-console and sign in with your Google account.
- Open the property selector and choose Add property.
- Choose Domain or URL prefix and enter your address.
- Pick a verification method and follow its steps. A Domain property needs a TXT record added at your domain provider; if your provider is listed, Search Console can take you through it.
- Click Verify. If you can't finish now, choose Verify later and pick the property up again from the property selector.
On WordPress, Shopify, Wix or Squarespace, check your platform's help pages first, as many handle verification for you. Google notes that Site Kit is the only WordPress plugin it officially sponsors.
Keep your verification in place
Search Console keeps checking that your verification token is still on the site. Remove the HTML tag or file and you'll lose access after a grace period, and if every verified owner loses access, so does every other user.
Add another verification method under Settings > Ownership verification so a template change can't lock you out. This matters most during a redesign or website migration, when old templates and the tags inside them get replaced.
How do you get a page indexed on Google?
Make sure the page can be crawled and isn't set to noindex, link to it from your site, then ask Google to crawl it: use URL Inspection for a single page or submit a sitemap for many. Google doesn't guarantee every page will be indexed, and crawling can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks.
Google indexing is the step where Google crawls a page, processes it and adds it to the Google index, making it eligible to appear in results. A page outside the index can't rank, so check this first when a new page gets no search traffic.
Request indexing with the URL Inspection tool
- Paste the full URL into the inspection bar at the top of any Search Console screen. It must belong to the property you have open.
- Read the status. URL is on Google means the page is indexed and eligible to appear; URL is not on Google means it can't appear, and the Page indexing section explains why.
- If you've changed the page since Google last crawled it, click Test live URL to check the current version.
- Click Request indexing. If the page passes a quick check for indexing errors, it joins Google's crawl queue.
There's a daily limit on requests, you need to be an owner or full user of the property, and Google says asking again for the same URL won't get it crawled any faster. Save requests for new pages and important changes.
Older guides may tell you to use Fetch as Google. That tool is gone: Google moved its job into URL Inspection in 2019.
Submit a sitemap when you have more than a few pages
A sitemap is a file that lists the pages you want Google to know about. Submitting it tells Google where the file lives:
- Publish the sitemap on your site, usually at the root, such as /sitemap.xml. Most website platforms generate a sitemap for you.
- Check Google can reach it by inspecting the sitemap URL and confirming Page fetch shows Successful.
- In the Sitemaps report, paste the URL into Add a new sitemap and click Submit. You need owner permission for this step.
- Check back for a status of Success, or click the row to see what went wrong.
Each sitemap can hold up to 50,000 URLs or 50MB uncompressed. Google treats a sitemap as a hint, uses the lastmod date only when it's consistently accurate, and ignores priority and changefreq values.
Small sites may not need a sitemap at all. Google says a site of about 500 pages or fewer, where every page can be reached by following links from the homepage, can usually skip the sitemap and request indexing of the homepage instead.
What the Page indexing statuses mean
The Page indexing report lists the URLs Google knows about as indexed or not indexed, each with a reason. Not indexed isn't automatically a problem: duplicates, redirects and pages you've deliberately blocked shouldn't be in the index. The reasons you'll see most often:
- Crawled - currently not indexed: Google crawled the page and chose not to index it for now. It may be indexed later and Google says there's no need to resubmit it. If the page matters, ask whether it's genuinely useful and well linked from the rest of your site.
- Discovered - currently not indexed: Google knows the URL but hasn't crawled it yet, typically because crawling then was expected to overload the site.
- Duplicate without user-selected canonical and Duplicate, Google chose different canonical than user: Google sees the page as a copy of another URL and indexes that URL instead. Inspect it to see which page Google picked.
- URL marked 'noindex' and URL blocked by robots.txt: your site is telling Google to stay out. Fine if you meant it; remove the rule if you didn't.
- Page with redirect: the URL redirects elsewhere, so only the destination can be indexed.
- Not found (404) and Soft 404: the page is missing, or it shows a "not found" message without returning a 404 code.
- Server error (5xx): your server failed when Google requested the page. Crawl stats shows whether it's a wider hosting problem.
You can generally only fix issues whose Source is Website. Once you've fixed every instance, click Validate fix and Google will recheck the affected URLs, which typically takes up to about 2 weeks.
If your site has fewer than 500 pages, Google suggests you probably don't need this report: a search for site:yourdomain.com.au and URL Inspection on your key pages will usually do.
Why is Search Console not showing new data?
Performance data is usually 2 to 3 days behind, and the newest figures are preliminary. Index reports only change after Google recrawls your pages, which can take days or weeks. If a new property shows nothing at all, check you added the right version of your address.
Performance data runs 2 to 3 days behind
That timing is Google's own: collected data is usually available in 2 to 3 days. The report shows complete days by default, and the newest data can be preliminary: it's marked with a dotted line and may change over the next few hours.
For something closer to live, choose the 24 hours view. Google added it in December 2024; it shows hourly data with a delay of only a few hours, in your local time.
Every other view labels days in Pacific Time. For an Australian business, a Search Console day starts and ends at a different hour to yours, so daily figures won't line up exactly with Google Analytics or your sales data. Google calls out Australia specifically as a case where the offset is noticeable.
Index reports update when Google recrawls
Page indexing and the indexed view in URL Inspection reflect the last time Google crawled each page, not your live site. Google recrawls pages based partly on how often it thinks they change, so a page that rarely changes may be on a slower schedule. If an important change hasn't been picked up after a week or more, request indexing through URL Inspection.
Core Web Vitals works differently: it's built from 28 days of real visitor data, so speed improvements take weeks to show.
A new property takes a few days to fill
Data collection starts as soon as a property is added, even before verification, but it takes a few days to build up. If there's still nothing several days after verifying, Google points to 2 likely causes: the site hasn't been seen in Google Search yet, or you added the wrong address, such as http instead of https for a URL-prefix property.
Your pages have dropped out of the reports
A fall in indexed pages without a matching rise in errors usually means something is now blocking Google: a robots.txt rule, a noindex tag or a login. A fall in traffic is a different question, and Google's guide to debugging traffic drops works through the usual causes, from algorithm updates and technical faults to seasonality and site moves. For the technical side, see how to perform a technical SEO audit.
How accurate is Google Search Console?
Search Console shows Google's own Search data, processed the same way for every site, so it doesn't depend on a tracking tag or cookie consent the way analytics tools do. It isn't a complete record, though: rare queries are hidden for privacy, tables stop at 1,000 rows and history ends at 16 months. Trust it for trends, and don't expect the rows to add up to the totals.
Rare searches are hidden for privacy
To protect searchers' privacy, the Performance report leaves out queries that are searched a very small number of times. Google calls these anonymised queries. They still count in the chart totals but don't appear as rows in the table, so your query list will always add up to less than the total. Filter by query and they drop out of the totals as well.
The gap can be bigger than people expect. In the bulk data export, Google notes that anonymised queries often make up the single most common query for a site.
Tables stop at 1,000 rows
The Performance report table shows a maximum of 1,000 rows, and Google says Search Console only stores and shows the most important data rows, so some long-tail queries never appear. To see more:
- The Search Console API returns up to 50,000 rows per day per search type, such as web or image.
- Bulk data export sends a daily copy to Google BigQuery with all your performance data apart from anonymised queries, free of the row limit. It suits large sites, needs a Google Cloud project with billing set up, and only includes data from the day your first export runs. Storage and queries above Google Cloud's free usage level are charged.
History stops at 16 months
Search Console keeps data for the last 16 months. Anything older is gone, so if you want long-term trends, export your Performance data regularly or set up the bulk export early.
Average position is an average of your best result
Average position is the position of the topmost result from your site, averaged across the times it appeared. Results depend on the time, place, device and recent search history of the person searching, so you may search a term yourself and see a different position, or not see your site at all. Read position as a trend.
Totals also shift with how the data is grouped. If 2 of your pages appear on the same results page, that's 1 impression when grouped by query, while each URL counts separately when grouped by page. That's why CTR and average position usually look better at site level than page by page.
Some reports show samples
The Links report, the Core Web Vitals report and the example URL lists in Page indexing show a sample rather than every item. Use them to spot patterns rather than to check every URL.
Search Console or Google Analytics: which do you need?
You need both, because they measure different parts of the same visit. Search Console covers what happens in Google Search before someone reaches your site; Google Analytics covers what they do once they land.
Why Search Console clicks and Analytics sessions never match
Google suggests comparing Search Console clicks with Analytics sessions to see the general pattern, and expects the numbers to differ. The main reasons:
- Tracking set-up: Analytics only counts pages that carry its tag, and only visitors with JavaScript enabled. Search Console needs no tag on your site.
- Consent: visitors who decline tracking can drop out of Analytics data.
- Time zones: Search Console uses Pacific Time, while your Analytics property probably runs on Australian time.
- Canonical URLs: Search Console reports on the URL Google chose as canonical, so Analytics usually lists more URLs.
- Non-HTML files: PDFs clicked from Search appear in Search Console but may not be measured in Analytics.
- Bots: Analytics filters out known bots automatically; Search Console doesn't necessarily.
- Attribution: Search Console counts every click from Google Search, while Analytics credits sessions to channels using its attribution settings.
How to connect Search Console to Google Analytics 4
Linking them adds 2 Search Console reports to Analytics: Google Organic Search Queries, and Google Organic Search Traffic, which pairs landing pages with Analytics metrics.
- Check you're a verified owner of the Search Console property and have the Editor role in Google Analytics.
- In Google Analytics, go to Admin, then Search Console links under Product links.
- Click Link, choose your Search Console property, then select the web data stream for your site and submit.
- Publish the reports. The Search Console collection is unpublished by default and sits under Library in the reports menu.
Analytics then shows up to 16 months of Search Console data, available around 48 hours after Search Console collects it. Each web data stream can link to only a single Search Console property.
What are the key Search Console reports and what should you do with each?
For SEO, most of the value sits in the Performance report, URL Inspection, Page indexing, Sitemaps, Core Web Vitals and Links. Manual actions and Security issues matter too, though you hope they stay empty. Indexing tools are covered above; the rest are below.
Performance report: find the searches that already bring you traffic
The Performance report shows clicks, impressions, click-through rate (CTR) and average position in Google Search, grouped by query, page, country, device, search appearance or date. It opens on the last 3 months, and a filter switches between web, image, video and news results. Discover and Google News get their own reports if your content appears there.
What to do with it:
- Rewrite titles and descriptions where impressions are high but CTR is low. Google itself suggests using the query view to find these opportunities.
- Find terms sitting just outside the top 10. Sort a page's queries by average position to see where a stronger page or better internal linking could move you up.
- Compare periods fairly. When comparing date ranges, Google recommends weekly or monthly granularity so weekends and holidays don't distort the result.
- Split brand from non-brand. The branded queries filter separates searches that include your business name from those that don't, which shows whether new people are finding you. It isn't available on sites with low impressions.
The query list doubles as keyword research, showing terms you appear for but never targeted. Impressions count how often your site appeared, though, which isn't the same as how often a term is searched.
Core Web Vitals report: fix the pages real visitors find slow
The Core Web Vitals report rates groups of similar URLs as Good, Need improvement or Poor on mobile and desktop, using real visitor data from the Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX) over the last 28 days. It measures:
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): loading. Good is 2.5 seconds or less.
- Interaction to Next Paint (INP): responsiveness. Good is 200 milliseconds or less. INP replaced First Input Delay in March 2024, so guides that still mention FID are out of date.
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): visual stability. Good is 0.1 or less.
A URL group takes the status of its worst metric, and only indexed URLs with enough data appear, so smaller sites may see nothing. Work on Poor mobile groups first, test pages in PageSpeed Insights, then click Start tracking to begin a 28-day check of the fix.
Links report: see who links to you
The Links report shows your most linked pages, the sites that link to you most, the most common link text and your internal links. Use it to confirm your key pages attract links and to spot unfamiliar or spammy domains.
It's a sample, tables stop at 1,000 rows and it doesn't say whether a link is nofollow, so a full backlink audit needs a third-party tool as well.
Manual actions and Security issues: the reports you want empty
A manual action means a human reviewer at Google has found pages that break its spam policies, and some or all of the site can rank lower or drop out of results. Fix every issue, click Request review and explain what you changed. Reviews can take several days or weeks.
The Security issues report flags hacked content, malware and unwanted software, and social engineering such as phishing. Affected pages can carry a warning in search results or in the browser.
Removals: hide a page from results quickly
The Removals tool temporarily blocks a URL on your site from Google Search results. A request lasts only about 6 months, so for a permanent removal you also need to delete the page, put it behind a password or add noindex. It isn't for tidying up old 404s; Google drops those on its own as it recrawls.
Settings tools for bigger jobs
- Crawl stats shows how often Google requests your pages and any server problems it runs into. Google says sites with fewer than 1,000 pages shouldn't need it.
- robots.txt report shows the robots.txt files Google found for your site, when they were last crawled and any errors, and lets you request a recrawl in an emergency.
- Change of Address tells Google you've moved to a new domain. Use it after your 301 redirects are live, and not for an http to https switch or a move within the same domain. It's part of a wider website migration process.
Reports you might read about that no longer exist
Search Console changes often, and older articles mention tools that have gone or been renamed:
- Fetch as Google: replaced by URL Inspection in 2019.
- Mobile Usability report: retired on 1 December 2023, along with the Mobile-Friendly Test.
- First Input Delay (FID): replaced by INP in Core Web Vitals in March 2024.
- Sitelinks search box report: removed after Google stopped showing the search box in November 2024.
- Index Coverage report: now the Page indexing report.
What are the pros and cons of Google Search Console?
The pros: it's free, it's Google's own data, and it's where you ask Google to crawl pages, confirm fixes and review manual actions. The cons: it only covers Google, hides rare queries, keeps 16 months of history and runs 2 to 3 days behind.
Pros
- It's free. The only related cost is Google Cloud usage if you set up the BigQuery export.
- It's Google's own data. Figures come from Google Search itself and don't depend on a tracking tag or consent banner.
- It's a direct line to Google. Request indexing, submit sitemaps, validate fixes, request reviews of manual actions and report a domain move without leaving Search Console.
- It warns you early. Google emails you when it finds new issues, so you hear about problems without logging in every day.
- It connects to other Google tools. Link it to Google Analytics 4, and to Google Ads for a paid and organic report.
Cons
- Google only. There's no data from Bing, other search engines or AI assistants outside Google. Bing has its own tool, Bing Webmaster Tools.
- Only 16 months of history. Export regularly if you want a longer record.
- Incomplete query data. Anonymised queries and 1,000-row tables mean the rows never add up to the total.
- A lag of 2 to 3 days. The 24-hour view helps, but its newest figures are preliminary.
- Pacific Time dates. Daily figures won't line up exactly with Australian business days.
- Symptoms more than causes. A status such as Crawled - currently not indexed tells you what Google decided; working out what to change is the job of SEO.
Can you use Search Console without a website?
For most businesses, no. Search Console reports on properties you can prove you own, which normally means a website. The exceptions are social accounts added as platform properties and free Google-hosted sites.
Platform properties for Instagram, TikTok, X and YouTube
Google now lets creators add Instagram, TikTok, X and YouTube accounts as platform properties, usually verified by logging in to the platform. The reports show how your posts and videos perform in Google Search, Discover and Google News; activity on the platform itself isn't included. Google is rolling this out gradually, so it may not be in your account yet.
Google Sites and Blogger
If you build a free site on Google Sites or Blogger, you can add it as a property and verification happens automatically when you're signed in with the same Google account that manages the site.
A domain with no website yet
You can verify a domain through DNS before the site is built, but Search Console can only report on pages Google has found, so it stays empty until real pages are live and crawled. Submitting a sitemap for pages that don't exist yet won't get them indexed.
You can also work in Search Console without owning a site, if an owner adds you as a user. That's how agencies and freelancers usually get access.
What should you check in Search Console each month?
Google suggests a monthly check plus another after any change to your site, and it emails you in between if it finds new problems. This monthly routine covers the essentials:
- Performance: compare the last 28 days with the previous period using weekly granularity, and note the pages and queries that gained or lost clicks.
- Page indexing: confirm your key pages are indexed and no new reasons have appeared with Website as the source.
- Sitemaps: check each sitemap still shows Success.
- Core Web Vitals: look for new Poor URL groups, starting with mobile.
- Manual actions and Security issues: confirm both are clear.
- Users and permissions: remove anyone who has left your business or stopped working on the site.
After a redesign or domain move, check more often: inspect key URLs, submit the new sitemap and watch Page indexing for spikes in 404s. A full technical SEO audit goes further, crawling the whole site the way Google does.
Google Search Console FAQs
Is Google Search Console free?
Yes. Google describes Search Console as a free service, and all you need is a Google account and a website or other property you can verify. The only related cost is optional: if you set up the bulk data export to BigQuery, Google Cloud charges for storage and queries above its free usage level. Everything inside Search Console itself costs nothing.
How long does Google Search Console take to update?
Performance data is usually available within 2 to 3 days, and the newest day can be preliminary and change over the following hours. The 24-hour view shows hourly data a few hours behind. Page indexing only changes after Google recrawls a page, which can take days or weeks, and fix validations typically take up to about 2 weeks.
How long does Google take to index a page after you request indexing?
There's no fixed time. Google says crawling can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, and requesting indexing doesn't guarantee the page will be indexed at all. Requesting the same URL again won't speed it up. If the page is still missing after a week or so, inspect it again and check it isn't blocked, set to noindex or treated as a duplicate.
Does Google Search Console include paid search data?
No. Search Console reports on how your site appears in Google's free, organic results, and ads don't take up a position in its data. Paid clicks are reported in Google Ads. If you link Search Console to Google Ads, the paid and organic report shows both side by side. Google also states that spending on ads has no effect on your organic rankings.
How do I add a user to Google Search Console?
Only an owner can add users. Open the property, go to Settings, then Users and permissions, and click Add user. Enter the person's Google account email and choose a permission level: full users can view all data and take some actions, while restricted users can view most data. You can also make someone a delegated owner without them needing their own verification token.
Can I check keyword rankings in Google Search Console?
Yes, within limits. The Performance report shows an average position for every query your site appears for, and you can filter to a single page to see its queries. Treat it as an average: it's the topmost position your site held each time it appeared, across different locations, devices and searchers. It won't show search volume or competitors' positions, so pair it with a keyword tool.
How do I find broken links in Google Search Console?
Open the Page indexing report and look for the Not found (404) and Soft 404 reasons, then click through to see the affected URLs. Google recommends fixing only the 404s you link to yourself or list in your sitemap, and adding a 301 redirect when a page has moved. A 404 for a page you deliberately removed, with nothing to replace it, isn't a problem.
Is Google Webmaster Tools the same as Google Search Console?
Yes. Google renamed Google Webmaster Tools to Google Search Console in May 2015, so the name covered everyone who cares about how their site performs in Search. The product has been rebuilt since: Google retired most of the old interface in 2019, and tools such as Fetch as Google were replaced by URL Inspection. Guides that still call it Webmaster Tools are likely out of date.
Turn Search Console data into fixes
If Search Console is flagging problems you'd rather not untangle alone, a technical SEO audit from Q Agency works through crawl, indexing and speed issues and ranks each fix by value. For a quick first look at your whole site, our free audit tool scores it in about a minute.
