Main reports
- Performance: clicks, impressions, click-through rate and average position for each search query, page, country and device.
- Pages: which pages are indexed, and why others aren’t.
- URL Inspection: how Google sees a single URL, whether it’s indexed, and a button to request indexing.
- Sitemaps: submit your XML sitemap and see how many URLs Google found in it.
- Core Web Vitals: how fast and stable your pages are for real visitors.
- Links: the sites that link to you and your most-linked pages.
- Manual actions and Security issues: warnings about penalties and hacked content.
How to set it up
Add your site as a property and prove you own it: with a DNS record for a domain property, which covers every subdomain and both HTTP and HTTPS, or with an HTML tag, a file or Google Analytics for a URL-prefix property. The Performance report keeps 16 months of data.
How to use it
- Find queries with many impressions but few clicks, and improve the titles and pages that show for them.
- Check that important pages are indexed after you publish or change them.
- Watch for sudden drops, errors and manual actions.
- Link it with Google Analytics to see search data next to what visitors do on your site.
Search Console vs Google Analytics
| Google Search Console | Google Analytics | |
|---|---|---|
| Shows | How your site appears and performs in Google Search | What visitors do on your site, from all sources |
| Data starts | When people see your pages in search (before the click) | When someone visits your site |
| Best for | Searches, indexing, search problems | Behavior, conversions, channels |
How to read the Performance report
- Impressions: how often your pages appeared in results. See impressions.
- Clicks: how often people clicked through.
- CTR: clicks divided by impressions. See click-through rate.
- Average position: the average position of your result for the queries shown. See average position.
Traffic from Google’s AI features (AI Overviews and AI Mode) is counted in the “Web” search type in this report.
Five tasks to do in Search Console
- Submit your XML sitemap.
- Check the Pages report for indexing problems.
- Look for queries where you rank on page two and improve those pages.
- Check Core Web Vitals for slow pages.
- Review the Links report and any manual action messages.
Limits to know
- Data covers 16 months, so export it if you want a longer history.
- Some queries are hidden for privacy, so totals can be larger than the sum of the listed queries.
- It shows Google only. Use Bing Webmaster Tools for Bing.
Search Console FAQs
Is Google Search Console free?
Yes.
How long until data appears?
Performance data usually starts within a few days of verifying a property.
Does Search Console improve my rankings?
No. It shows data and problems. Fixing them can improve how pages are found and shown. See the SEO site checkup.