Tracking your business website performance is essential. Frequently these stats can be used to increase search results ranking, increase website traffic and improve lead generation. The stats you track should include outside links linking to your site, monthly visitors, how visitors found you, your most visited pages and what devices visitors used to access your site to just name a few. This data is necessary because your website has to have visitors to get more visitors and rank in the search engine.
Google Search Console is a free tool Separate from the more common Google Analytics, that provides a wide assortment of useful information on how your website is performing.
Data That Google Search Console Can Track
The console is powerful because of the sheer variety of information it can track. It’ll track website design flaws, mobile performance, and visitor traffic just to name a few. Here is a brief overview of some (but not all) of the data Google Search Console can provide.
Tracking Visitor Reports
Search Analytics:
Displays how often your website shows up in search results and can be broken down into other factors such as visitor location, device type, and several other specifications.
Outside Links:
This report can tell you what websites are linking to your site. This is an excellent way to track where visitors come from, where your site is being referenced, and who’s linking your site.
Detecting Coding Or Design Error Reports
Structured Data:
A structured data report tracks errors in your website’s structured data code. If you find a lot of these errors, a professional redesign may be required.
HTML Improvements:
Your website’s metadata effects where it shows up in the search results and what terms your site shows up for. HTML Improvements shows metadata errors like missing information or duplicate data and tell you where repairs are needed.
Mobile Usability:
This reports your display ‘annoyances’ on mobile devices. Common errors include a non-configured viewpoint, content wider than the screen, and clickable items being too close together.
Google Indexing Reports
Google has several reports that track how the search engine records your site’s information. Track the total pages that appear in the search results, and URL’s blocked by robots.txt files.
Crawl Reports
Crawl Error Report:
Track common issues you encounter like broken URLs, 404 errors, and DNS errors.
Sitemap:
Allows you to locate errors that prevent pages from being indexed.
Robots.txt Tester:
Robots.txt is a common configuration that blocks a website from being indexed. This tool lets you know if Google is being blocked which prevents indexing and blocks organic traffic.
Who Should Use It?
The Google Search Console isn’t just for web developers. It has a wealth of useful information. In addition to web developers, web administrators, app developers, your SEO expert, marketing team, management, and even owners can find useful information in the console.
Final Thoughts
Google Search Console keeps you informed of how your site is doing in terms of search results, who’s viewing your site, where they’re coming from, site health in search rankings and more. Successfully tracking your website’s metrics tells you what’s working, what’s not working, and keeps you ahead of the competition.
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