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.
Only Use Submit to Index When Critical to do so
Only use Submit to Index feature in Search Console when it is critical to do so e.g. for a new site that Google hasn’t seen before. Manual submission is not necessary for the addition of new pages as Google can find these through the normal means of crawling a site.
Sitemaps Submitted Through GSC Will be Remembered for Longer
Google’s memory for sitemaps is longer for those submitted through Google Search Console. Sitemaps that are submitted through robots.txt or are pinged anonymously are forgotten once they are removed from the robots.txt, or if they haven’t been pinged for a while.
The Old Search Console Will be Available Until All Reports Have Been Moved Across
The old GSC will remain active and available to use for the time being until all the reports are moved across.
Google Changed the Submit to Index Quota Due to It Being Abused
The Submit to Index feature in Search Console was being abused so Google reduced the quote to ensure regular users aren’t being affected.
All Existing Reports Will be Improved or Consolidated in the New Search Console
There are no plans to remove any existing reports from the old Search Console, but instead reports will be improved or combined in the new version.
Index Status Count & Sitemaps Index Count Are Most Reliable Estimates of No. Indexed Pages
Site: queries are an approximation of the no. pages indexed in search. The index status count and sitemaps index count in GSC are much better estimates of total indexed pages. John doesn’t know about the discrepancy in indexed pages between new and old versions of GSC.
Google Sent Emails to Recipe and Podcast Sites to Verify in Google Assistant
Google recently sent out emails to sites with podcasts and recipes to get verified in the Google Assistant set up.
Search Console Data is a Sample of Total Information Google Holds
The data provided in Search Console is not complete but provides a sample of the total information that Google has for a site. For example, one-off searches are filtered out so that they can’t be tracked back to a user.
Extended SERP Data in GSC Will be Available to Property Sets
Extended SERP data range will eventually be available to property sets in the new version of Search Console.
Full Roll out of the New Search Console Expected Within Weeks
John expects the new version of Search Console to roll out to everyone by end of January or mid February. The speed of the roll out depends on how smoothly it goes and how many hitches are encountered.