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.
Google Checks Robots.txt Once per Day
Most sites have their robots checked once a day, you can speed this up manually by submitting it within the robots.txt tool in Search Console.
Search Console Indexed Pages Count Includes Duplicates
The Index Count in Search Console may include duplicates which may be filtered out of results, and suggests Sitemaps containing your unique URLs as the best method for measuring indexing.
URLs Removed With the URL Removal Tool Will Be Crawled and Indexed But Stripped From Search Results
If you use the URL removal tool, they should disappear from results within a day. However they are still technically indexed, and recrawled periodically, so when the removal expires, they will appear again based on the latest crawl data. Later he clarifies that these URLs are just stripped out of the search results at the last minute, and is still included in other calculations.
Changes in target country for a site
When you update target country in Search Console, it can sometimes take a month or so for the result to be updated in search results, particularly if you’re working with a well-established site.
Submit Updated Robots.txt via Search Console
If you submit your robots.txt file via the Search Console Robots testing tool, they will recrawl it immediately instead of waiting for the normal daily check.
URL Removal Tool Affects All Domain Variations
If you use the URL removal tool, it will also remove all www/non-www and http/https versions of the URL. So the URL removal tool cannot be used to resolve problems with URLs on the wrong protocol.
Search Console Analytics Only Includes a Single Impression per SERPs Page
In the new Search Analytics, if a domain appears multiple times in the same search results, it only counts as a single impression, including local results. The highest position from the results is taken and used for average calculations.
Unlisted Is a Generic International Targeting Option
If your site is international and doesn’t target any country in particular, rather than not specifying a geographic setting in Webmaster Tools, you should choose ‘Unlisted’. Changes to this setting should be visible within a week or so.
Break XML Sitemaps into Small Chunks
Breaking up XML Sitemaps into smaller groups can give you more feedback on indexing issues, which are reported separately for each Sitemap in Webmaster Tools.
HTTP and HTTPS Domain Variations Should Be Verified in Search Console
Both http and https domain variations should be verified in Webmaster Tools, but only some of the data is unique.