What Is Google Search Console? A Beginner’s Tutorial

What is Google Search Console? It is Google’s free tool for website owners that shows how your site performs in Google Search: which searches show your pages, how often people click, which pages Google has indexed, and any problems stopping pages from appearing. It doesn’t change your rankings by itself, but it tells you what to fix.

This Google Search Console tutorial covers how it works, how to set it up, and the reports worth checking each month.

How does Google Search Console work?

Google Search Console works by showing you the data Google already collects about your site as it crawls the web and serves search results. You prove you own the site (called verifying), and Google opens up its reports for that site. Unlike third-party SEO tools, the data in Search Console Google collects itself, from its own crawler and search results, so it is the most direct view you can get of how Google sees you.

It used to be called Google Webmaster Tools. Google Search Console webmaster tools features such as sitemaps and crawl reports are still there, and the old Webmaster Tools Google Search Console replaced has simply been rebuilt and expanded. Google’s own overview of Search Console explains what each part does.

How do you set up Google Search Console?

1. Go to Google Search Console and sign in with a Google account the business controls.
2. Add a property. A domain property covers every version of your site (with and without www, http and https) and is verified with a DNS record at your domain provider. A URL prefix property covers one address and can be verified with an HTML tag or file, or through Google Analytics.
3. Verify ownership, then wait a day or two for data to start appearing. If you verified with a tag or file, leave it on the site, or the property becomes unverified.
4. Submit your sitemap (see below).
5. Link Search Console to Google Analytics 4. In GA4, open Admin, then Product links, then Search Console links, and choose your property. You can then see the searches that bring visitors next to what they do on your site.

How do you add a sitemap to Google Search Console?

A sitemap is a file listing the pages you want Google to find. Most WordPress SEO plugins and website builders create one for you, usually at an address like yourdomain.com.au/sitemap.xml.

1. Open your property and choose Sitemaps from the menu.
2. Enter your sitemap’s address and click Submit.
3. Check back in a few days. The Sitemaps report shows whether Google could read the file and how many pages it found.

How to use Google Search Console for SEO

Knowing how to use Google Search Console well comes down to a handful of reports. Here is a short Google Search Console SEO tutorial: the five reports to check each month.

1. Performance

The Performance report shows the searches that bring people to your site, with clicks, impressions (how often you appeared), click-through rate and average position. Look for searches where you appear often but sit on page 2: those pages are often the quickest to improve.

2. Pages (indexing)

This report lists which pages are indexed and why others aren’t, for example “not found (404)”, “blocked by robots.txt” or “excluded by noindex tag”. If an important page is missing from Google, start here.

3. URL Inspection

Paste any page address into the search bar at the top to see if it’s indexed, how Google last crawled it, and to request indexing after you update it.

4. Core Web Vitals

This report groups pages that load slowly or jump around on mobile and desktop, so you know which templates to speed up.

5. Manual actions and security issues

These should stay empty. If anything appears here, Google has found a spam or security problem on the site, and it needs fixing first.

How do you fix 404 errors in Google Search Console?

A 404 error means Google tried a page address that no longer exists. Open the Pages report and click “Not found (404)” to see the list. Then, for each one:

• If the page moved, set up a 301 redirect from the old address to the new one.
• If the page was deleted on purpose and has no replacement, a 404 is fine and you can leave it.
• If your own site links to it, update the link (our guide to fixing broken links walks through this).

Once fixed, click “Validate fix” so Google rechecks the pages.

How do you give someone access to Google Search Console?

To add a user to Google Search Console, open your property, go to Settings, then Users and permissions, and click Add user. Enter their Google account email and choose a permission level: Full (can see everything and take most actions) or Restricted (can view most data only). Google’s help page on managing users lists exactly what each level can do. Give agencies and developers only the level they need, and remove access when the work ends.

Frequently asked questions

What is Google Search Console for?

Google Search Console is for checking and improving how your website appears in Google Search. Business owners use it to see which searches bring visitors, confirm new pages are indexed, submit sitemaps, find errors such as broken pages, and get alerts if Google finds a security or spam problem. It is free for any site you can verify.

How long does Google Search Console take to index a page?

There is no fixed time. Requesting indexing through the URL Inspection tool adds the page to Google’s queue, and pages are often crawled within days, but it can take longer, and indexing is never guaranteed. A clear, useful page that other pages link to tends to be indexed faster.

Does Google Search Console include paid search data?

No. Search Console only covers organic (unpaid) Google Search results. Clicks and impressions from Google Ads appear in your Google Ads account instead. If you run both, look at the two side by side to see the full picture.

What is the difference between Google Search Console and Google Analytics?

Search Console shows what happens before someone reaches your site: the searches, impressions and clicks in Google. Google Analytics shows what visitors do once they arrive, from every source, not just Google. Most businesses need both, and our GA4 guide covers the Analytics side.

The short version

Google Search Console is free, comes straight from Google, and tells you how your site is doing in search and what to fix. Set it up, submit your sitemap, and check the Performance and Pages reports each month. If you’d like someone to keep an eye on it for you, our SEO plans include monthly reporting, and our technical SEO team can fix what it finds.