Google Search Console guides

Search Console answers questions you didn't ask and raises several it doesn't explain. These 21 guides cover the ones that come up most: what average position really measures, why your query table never adds up, and how to tell a real traffic drop from a reporting artefact.

They are written for someone who already has the interface open and has hit something that does not make sense — so each one starts with the behaviour you are looking at rather than with what Search Console is. Where a limitation is Google's rather than yours, that is said plainly, because knowing a number cannot be reconciled saves more time than another attempt at reconciling it.

Start here

Getting a property verified, connected and reporting, and the decisions you make once and then live with.

• How to use Google Search Console

  Set up a property, verify it, and learn the four reports that matter. A practical starting order for Search Console, with the traps that mislead beginners.

• Is there a Google Search Console app?

  Google has never shipped a mobile app for Search Console. Here is what exists, what the mobile web version does badly, and the options for checking your search data on a phone.

• Domain property vs URL-prefix property

  The difference between a sc-domain property and a URL-prefix property, what each one covers, verification requirements, and which to choose.

• Connecting Search Console to WordPress

  Four ways to verify a WordPress site, where each SEO plugin puts your sitemap, and why the plugin dashboards show less than Search Console itself.

• Submitting a sitemap in Search Console

  How to submit one, the size limits, what the status messages mean, and why a sitemap helps discovery without guaranteeing anything gets indexed.

• Adding users and permissions in Search Console

  The four access levels, which one to give a contractor, how to hand over a property you no longer manage, and why verification survives user removal.

Reading the numbers

What each metric counts, and why the four of them disagree with each other and with every other analytics tool you own.

• Clicks, impressions and CTR — what each one counts

  The exact definitions of a Search Console impression, click and CTR, including the scrolling rule for image and carousel results and why your totals never add up.

• What average position actually means

  Average position in Search Console is not your ranking. It is an impression-weighted mean across every query and every result you appeared in — which is why it moves in ways that look wrong.

• What is a good CTR in Search Console?

  Why a single CTR benchmark is meaningless, how click-through rate varies by position and query intent, and the right way to judge your own.

• Anonymised queries: why your query table doesn't add up

  Google withholds rare queries from Search Console reports. Here is why, how much it typically hides, and how to work with the gap.

• Why Search Console data is two days behind

  Search Console's reporting lag, why the most recent days keep changing, and what the freshest data you can request actually is.

• Search Console vs Google Analytics: why the numbers differ

  The two tools measure different things at different points in the journey. Here is what each one counts and why they will never reconcile.

When something looks wrong

Telling a real problem from a reporting artefact, and finding out what Google actually thinks of a page.

• Why did my Search Console clicks drop?

  A diagnostic order for a traffic drop: reporting artefacts first, then seasonality, then ranking loss, then the things that are genuinely your fault.

• Crawled vs Discovered — currently not indexed

  Two different problems with nearly identical names. One is a crawl-capacity issue, the other is a quality judgement — and they need opposite responses.

• The URL Inspection tool: how to check if a page is indexed

  What each field in URL Inspection means, the difference between the indexed version and a live test, and what requesting indexing does and does not do.

Acting on the data

Turning the report into work, and getting the data out of the interface.

• Striking distance keywords: positions 11–20

  How to find the queries you rank just off page one for, step by step in Search Console, why they are the highest-leverage work in your account, and how to decide which ones are actually worth the afternoon.

• How to check your Google rankings for free

  Search Console gives you real position data for every query you already rank for, at no cost. Here is how to read it, and where it differs from a paid rank tracker.

• How to see your backlinks in Search Console

  Search Console has a free Links report covering external links, anchor text and internal linking. Here is where it is, what it shows, and the three ways it differs from a paid backlink tool.

• SEO reporting for clients, straight from Search Console

  A monthly client report built from Search Console alone: which numbers to lead with, which comparison to use, and the four caveats that stop awkward questions.

• The Search Console API: what it gives you and what it limits

  The endpoints available, the real quota numbers — 1,200 queries per minute per site, 2,000 URL inspections per day, 25,000 rows per request, 16 months of history — how pagination and dataState work, and the reports that are deliberately not exposed.

• SEO apps for your phone: which ones are worth installing

  Which parts of SEO work genuinely well on a phone, which are desktop work pretending otherwise, and how to judge a mobile SEO app for iPhone or Android before granting it access to your data.