How to use Google Search Console

What is Google Search Console used for?

Search Console is used to measure, diagnose and fix. Google’s documentation presents it as a help to understand how your content performs in Google Search. It does not win you positions: it tells you where to act.

It answers three questions. Which queries does my site appear for? Can Google crawl and index my pages? Is there a technical or security problem, or a manual action?

	Google Search Console	Google Analytics 4
What is measured	What happens before the click, in Google	What happens after the click, on the site
Key data	Queries, impressions, clicks, CTR, position, indexing	Sessions, engagement, conversions, journeys
Scope	Google Search and Discover only	All acquisition channels
Consent	Not affected (data on Google’s side)	Depends on cookie consent

The figures therefore never quite match. To cross-check the two tools, see our web analytics pillar.

How do you set up Search Console?

1. Add a property. A Domain property covers all subdomains and protocols (http, https, www). A URL-prefix property only covers the exact address entered.
2. Verify the property. A domain can only be verified through a DNS record. A URL prefix accepts other methods: HTML file, tag, Google Analytics.
3. Submit the sitemap in the Sitemaps report and check that it is read without errors. See our guide to the XML sitemap.
4. Manage access: give full or restricted access as needed, and remove former users.
5. Wait for data: the first figures arrive within a few days, trends can be read over several weeks.

The help page “Add a property” states that an account can hold up to 1,000 properties. Google is also rolling out platform properties there (Instagram, TikTok, X, YouTube). They track the visibility of these accounts in search.

Which reports should you use first?

Seven reports are enough to steer most sites. The others serve specific cases.

Report	Question it answers	When to open it
Performance (Search results)	Which queries and pages bring me impressions and clicks?	Every week
Page indexing	How many pages are indexed, and why are the others not?	Every month, after a launch
URL Inspection	Is this specific page indexed, and how does Google see it?	On demand
Sitemaps	Does Google read my sitemaps without errors?	After each change of structure
Core Web Vitals	Do my pages offer a fast and stable experience?	Every month
Crawl stats	How does Googlebot crawl the site?	Sites with more than 1,000 pages
Security & Manual Actions	Is my site penalised or hacked?	As soon as an alert arrives

Core Web Vitals have their own guide: Core Web Vitals. The crawl report is mainly for large sites; Google considers it of little use below 1,000 pages.

How do you read the Performance report?

The Performance report shows the last three months by default. It relies on four metrics:

• Clicks: number of clicks to your site from Google results.
• Impressions: number of times your site appeared in the results.
• CTR: clicks divided by impressions.
• Average position: average position of your site’s top-ranking result.

Average position is often misleading. A page ranked 3rd for one query and 45th for another shows an average that matches nothing real. Always filter by query, page or country before drawing conclusions.

Separating branded and non-branded queries

The branded queries filter was announced on November 20, 2025, then opened to all eligible sites on March 11, 2026. Search Console now separates the queries that contain your brand. It is the first view to open. Non-branded growth measures SEO work; the brand measures awareness.

Spotting the questions people ask

The query filter accepts regular expressions. The pattern ^(how|why|what|which) isolates questions: a direct source for your FAQs and subheadings.

How do you diagnose an indexing problem?

Start with the Page indexing report. It separates indexed and non-indexed URLs, with a reason for each. A non-indexed page is not necessarily a problem. A duplicate, an intended noindex tag or a 404 on a deleted page are legitimate reasons.

Google specifies two useful limits. Below 500 pages, the report is rarely needed: a site: search is often enough. And the list of example URLs displayed is limited to 1,000 entries.

For a specific page, use the URL Inspection tool. It tells you whether the page is indexed and which canonical URL Google selected. It also shows the crawled page: screenshot, rendered HTML, loaded resources. This is also where you request a new crawl.

What does the Search Console generative AI report show?

Google announced on June 3, 2026 performance reports dedicated to generative AI. They cover AI Overviews, AI Mode and AI in Discover. They have been open to all sites since August 31, 2026.

Available	Missing
Impressions in AI features	Clicks
Pages shown	Queries
Countries and devices	CTR and position
Dates (hour, day, week, month)	Breakdown by AI surface

This report tells you which pages Google’s AI picks up, not what they bring in. For a complete measurement, cross-check it with your analytics and citation tracking. Our guide explains how to measure AI visibility.

Five practical use cases

1. Traffic drop: compare two periods, by page then by query, brand excluded.
2. Pages with potential: many impressions, low CTR. Rework their title tag first.
3. Cannibalisation: the same query that brings up several URLs in turn.
4. Migration: 404 pages, redirects and index coverage day after day.
5. Launch: URL inspection, then impressions in the following days.

Google Search Console is the basic tool of any organic search work. Open it every week: it is the most direct source to see your site as Google sees it.