Let me guess, you heard about SEO for a while now and thought, “It would be good to try and invest my time and effort in it.” You’ve read a bunch of rules, tips, updates, and information about the dangers and gold of SEO. And then you stumbled upon Google Search Console. What on earth is it? Don’t worry, you’ve already encountered this at some point in your article reading.
Instead of providing you a step-by-step guide, let’s get our heads around Google’s Search Console, and why it is a necessity in your long-term SEO project.
According to their site, “Google Search Console is a free service offered by Google that helps you monitor and maintain your site's presence in Google Search results.” Basically, there’s a better chance of improving your site’s visibility when you use GSC, since it’s made by one of the most trusted search engines. Start by adding your URL to the Search Console page and verify your ownership over the site. Google allows SEO experts, marketers, business owners and more, to use this free control panel. If you need a larger scope of what your site can do, of what kind of errors it's having, and its performance in search engines – it’s all here. Additionally, it helps site owners to have strong authority over their site.
Is It Easy to Get Started?
If you already have a running website, then yes! When it comes to verifying, Google provides recommended and alternate methods, just in case. Usually, under the “recommended method” tab, they would require the use of Google Analytics. If you have already used this tool in the past, then you can proceed by checking the site’s HTML code, to ensure that the tracking code is in the
section of the page. If it isn’t there yet, edit it before moving on to the next step. And then, you will be redirected to the Search Console dashboard to verify your site by clicking “Manage Site.”
Under the “alternate method” tab, you can use your Google Tag Manager account, your domain name provider, upload an HTML file, or add meta tags on your site’s homepage. There are instances where the other option is below another tab, don’t worry, those options are still effective.
Google Analytics and Google Search Console, Are They the Same?
Somehow. To make things clearer, Google Analytics “analyzes” your site’s number of visitors, duration of visit, where it’s coming from and such. While Google Search Console is helping a user look into the internal information like malware, errors, and keyword information to name a few. Together, they provide a handful of data that will encourage site owners to develop strategies in order to get better results.
As a beginner, you may start to feel like, there’s no end in this SEO maze. We don’t want to discourage you, but that’s exactly the point. It isn’t supposed to be just like a box, all fours.
If you find yourself ready for what GA and GSC have to offer for you, diving into beginner’s guide articles will likely make it easier for you.