Google Search Console for business owners
Search Console is Google's free tool that shows how your website appears in Google Search. It's the most honest source of SEO data you have, because it comes from Google itself. You don't need to understand most of it. A few reports, checked once a month, tell you what matters.
Setting it up
Search Console belongs to whoever verifies the website. Verify it under your own Google account, ideally as a domain property, which covers every version of your site, and add your developer as a user rather than letting them own it. Then submit your sitemap, usually at /sitemap.xml.
Report 1: Performance
This shows the searches that showed your site, how often it appeared (impressions), how often people clicked, the click-through rate and your average position. Set the date range to the last three months and compare with the same period before.
- Queries tell you the words people really use, often different from what you expected
- Pages tell you which pages bring visitors, and which never appear
- Countries and devices tell you where visitors come from and whether they're on phones
Report 2: Pages (indexing)
This shows which pages Google has indexed and which it hasn't, with reasons. Some exclusions are normal, such as redirects or duplicate versions. Worry when an important page shows as not indexed, or when the number of indexed pages suddenly falls.
Report 3: Experience
Core Web Vitals and HTTPS reports show whether real visitors' experience of your pages passes Google's thresholds, if your site has enough traffic to measure. My guide to Core Web Vitals explains the measurements.
Report 4: Security and manual actions
Hopefully always empty. If Google finds malware or penalises the site for spam, it says so here. It also emails you, which is another reason the account should be yours.
What to look at monthly
- Total clicks compared with the same month last year, to allow for seasons
- Your top pages and queries: are they the ones you'd expect?
- Any new errors in the pages report
- Any email from Search Console you haven't acted on
When to worry
A sudden drop in clicks across the whole site, an important page disappearing from the index or a security warning all need attention quickly. Gradual changes and small week-to-week movements usually don't. If you're unsure, I set up and read Search Console as part of analytics setup and SEO services.