If you’ve been following our Technical SEO 101 series, you already know that technical SEO is about making your website easy for Google to find, read, and rank. In our last article, we walked through the process of submitting your WordPress site to Google. Now it’s time to meet the free tool Google built to help you monitor and improve that relationship: Google Search Console.
The good news? You don’t need to be a developer or an SEO expert to benefit from it. This article will show you what Google Search Console does, what’s inside it, and how to get it connected to your WordPress site today.
Table of Contents
What Is Google Search Console?
Google Search Console (GSC) is a free tool provided by Google that shows you how your website is performing in Google Search. Think of it as a direct line of communication between your website and Google — it tells you which pages Google has found, whether there are any problems, and how real people are finding your site through search.
It’s not the same as Google Analytics, which tracks what visitors do after they arrive on your site. GSC focuses on what happens before they click — the search results themselves.
Who Should Use It?
Google Search Console is built for anyone who owns or manages a website. That includes small business owners, solopreneurs, bloggers, and e-commerce site owners. If you have a WordPress website and you want customers to find you through Google, this tool belongs in your routine.
You don’t need to log in every day, but checking it at least once a month can alert you to problems you’d never discover otherwise — like pages Google can’t access or a sudden drop in search traffic.
Why It Matters for Your Business
Here are the most practical reasons to use Google Search Console for your small business:
- Find out if Google can see your pages. If a page isn’t indexed, it won’t appear in search results — period.
- See what search terms bring people to your site. This tells you what your customers are actually looking for.
- Get alerts about problems. GSC notifies you when Google detects issues with your site, like security problems or mobile display errors.
- Submit your sitemap. This helps Google discover all your pages faster.
- Track your performance over time. Watch your clicks, impressions, and average search position improve as you apply SEO best practices.
Tools Inside Google Search Console
When you log into Google Search Console, you’ll see several sections in the left-hand menu. Here’s a quick overview of what each one does:
Insights
Insights gives you a plain-language summary of how your site is performing, highlighting recent trends and top-performing content — a good starting point if you’re new to the platform.
Performance
Performance is one of the most valuable reports in GSC. It shows you how many people saw your site in Google Search (impressions), how many clicked through (clicks), your click-through rate, and your average position for specific search queries.
URL Inspection
URL Inspection lets you check the status of any specific page on your site. Enter a URL and Google will tell you whether it’s indexed, when it was last crawled, and whether there are any issues preventing it from appearing in search.
Indexing - Pages
The Pages report shows you a complete list of which pages on your site Google has indexed and which ones it has not. If a page is missing from Google’s index, this report will often explain why.
Indexing - Sitemaps
The Sitemaps section is where you tell Google about your sitemap — the file that lists all the pages on your site. Submitting your sitemap here helps Google find and index your content more efficiently. (We’ll cover this in the setup steps below.)
Experience - Core Web Vitals
Core Web Vitals measures how fast and responsive your pages are for real users. Google uses these scores as a ranking factor, so this report is worth checking periodically, especially after making changes to your site’s design or plugins.
Experience - HTTPS
The HTTPS report confirms whether your site is being served securely. A secure site (one with https:// in the address bar) is a basic requirement for both user trust and Google rankings. Most modern WordPress hosting includes SSL, but this report flags any pages that are still loading over an insecure connection.
Enhancements - Breadcrumbs
If your site uses breadcrumb navigation (the “Home > Blog > Article Title” trail at the top of pages), this report shows Google whether your breadcrumb markup is set up correctly. Proper breadcrumbs can improve how your pages display in search results.
Links
The Links report shows you which pages on your site have the most internal links pointing to them, and which external websites are linking back to you. Backlinks from other sites are an important ranking factor, so this report is useful for understanding your site’s authority.
How to Get Started
Setting up Google Search Console takes about 15 minutes. Here’s how to do it:
Step 1: Add Your Website Property
- Go to Google Search Console and sign in with your Google account.
- Click Add Property in the top left.
- Choose Domain if you want to track your entire site across all subdomains (recommended), or URL Prefix if you want to track a specific version of your URL (like https://www.yoursite.com).
- Enter your domain name and click Continue.
Step 2: Verify Ownership
Google needs to confirm that you actually own the site before it shares data with you. There are several verification methods available — the easiest for most WordPress users is the HTML tag method:
- Google will give you a small snippet of code (a meta tag).
- In your WordPress dashboard, go to your SEO plugin settings. If you’re using Rank Math (which we recommend), navigate to Rank Math > General Settings > Webmaster Tools.
- Paste the verification code into the Google Search Console field and save.
- Return to Google Search Console and click Verify.
If you haven’t installed Rank Math yet, check out our article Rank Math for SEO for guidance on getting started.
Step 3: Submit Your Sitemap Using Rank Math
Once your site is verified, submitting your sitemap helps Google index your pages faster.
- In your WordPress dashboard, go to Rank Math > Sitemap Settings to confirm your sitemap is active. Your sitemap URL is typically:
https://yoursite.com/sitemap_index.xml - In Google Search Console, click Sitemaps in the left menu.
- Enter your sitemap URL in the field provided and click Submit.
Google will begin crawling your sitemap within a few days. You’ll see the number of submitted and indexed pages update in this section over time.
Final Thoughts
Google Search Console is one of the most useful free tools available to small business website owners — and one of the most overlooked. Setting it up takes just a few minutes, and the data it provides can help you make smarter decisions about your website and your content.
Start by getting verified and submitting your sitemap. Then make it a habit to check the Performance and Pages reports once a month. Over time, you’ll gain a clearer picture of how Google sees your site — and what you can do to help more customers find you.
If you need assistance setting up Google Search Console or connecting it to your WordPress site, we’re here to help. Please contact us, and we’ll point you in the right direction.
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