Google Search Console Tips
Google Search Console (previously called Webmaster Tools) is a free tool provided by Google for website owners to monitor performance and traffic. GSC also offers search engine optimization recommendations and fixes. Our SEO Office Hours recaps below cover a range of advice from Google to help you better understand and get the most out of this fundamental SEO tool.
GSC May Not Show Data For Your Other Same Language Sites if Content is Identical
Hreflang data may only appear for one of your sites in Search Console if the content is identical across a collection of same language sites e.g. UK and US. Use the ‘Inspect URL’ tool to check for issues like this.
URL Removal Tool Hides Pages in Search but URLs Still Crawled and Indexed
URLs entered in the URL Removal Tool in Search Console cause that page to be hidden in search. However, these pages will still be crawled, indexed and all associated signals will be kept.
Search Volumes in Keyword Planner and Search Console May Not be Equivalent
Search volume in Keyword Planner and GSC impressions might not be equivalent for queries where you are ranking on page 1. This could be because Keyword Planner is combining volumes for multiple search queries or your page may only rank on page 1 in specific countries.
Resubmission Requests Can be Sent Via HTTP or HTTPS Version in GSC
When submitting a reconsideration request it doesn’t matter if you do this through the HTTP or HTTPS version in Search Console. However, messages from Google may be sent to either or both versions in Search Console.
GSC Messages For HTTP Version After HTTPS Migration Could Mean Signals Pointing to HTTP
John recommends having the HTTP and HTTPS versions of your site verified in Search Console. If you still receive messages after a HTTPS migration it could mean that some signals are still pointing to the HTTP version.
Google Considered Adding Quality Meter to GSC
Google have looked into adding a quality meter in Search Console showing how relevant your site is in search. However, this is essentially no different to how your site is already being ranked in search because Google is trying to reflect how relevant a site is for any given query.
Google Exploring Options to Combine WWW & Non-WWW Versions in GSC
Google recommend adding both the www and non-www versions of a site to Search Console so you can see all of the data. Google are looking into ways to make this process easier by adding in the root domain and then automatically including both versions in the same listing.
It’s Normal to See Fluctuations in GSC ‘Time Spent Downloading a Page’ Report
Seeing fluctuations in the ‘Time Spent Downloading a Page’ report in GSC is perfectly normal, as Googlebot sometimes discovers new areas of a site to crawl and can decide to crawl more URLs.
GDPR Won’t Affect the Data You Get from Google Search Console
You’ll still be able to see the same data in GSC after GDPR comes into effect because it uses aggregate data rather than having any data tied to individual users.
Use ‘Validate’ Option In The New Search Console to Get Pages Recrawled
You can get Google to crawl your pages again if you go to the indexing report in the new Search Console and request the issues to be validated, where Google will recrawl these pages to check they’ve been fixed.