The Google Search Console (GSC) provides powerful and beneficial tools for website maintenance and optimization. As we have covered in the last few weeks, GSC implements the ultimate SEO audit and what is necessary to correct errors and achieve higher rankings in search engines. GSC not only keeps your business or website sharp and running well, but it also helps drive more eyes to your content.

We have provided a handy summary below of our ultimate guide to an SEO audit with Google Search Console, focusing on each of its different sections and tools plus tips on how to best utilize each.


Why You Need to Utilize GSC for Your Business

  • Search Engine OptimizationStructured Data to markup your HTML content
  • Rich Cards for mobile
  • Data Highlighter for easier tagging
  • HTML Improvements to optimize post titles and meta descriptions for SEO
  • Site Links to let search engines know about addendum links other than the home page
  • Accelerated Mobile Pages helps web developers write fast loading HTML and JavaScript

Ultimate Way to Determine Your Website’s Search Traffic

  • Queries Report for your keyword rankings
  • Pages Report for URL popularity
  • Countries, Devices Search Type, and Dates Reports to provide more details on where your users are and how they are finding you

How to Eliminate Search Traffic Errors to Gain Favor with Google

  • Search TrafficLinks to Your Site provide a vote of confidence from the linking site
  • Internal Links to other articles on your site show that you are writing relevant content
  • Manual Actions are like marks on your license if you are not following the Google “speed limit”
  • International Targeting is your tool to communicate the correct language and geographical preferences to users
  • Mobile Usability tests that all the pages on your site are working properly for mobile

How to Use Google Index to Optimize your Site’s Performance

  • Index Status lets you know which pages have been indexed by Google
  • Content Keywords tool helps you understand how well your keywords are performing
  • Blocked Resources to not allow the Googlebot to index certain pages of your site
  • Remove URLs tool helps remove URLs which were created from user searches and do not add value

How to Smash Nasty Crawl Errors

  • SEO GearsCrawl Errors to correct failed attempts at indexing pages, or pages that returned 404 or 500 errors
  • Crawl Stats to let you know when the Googlebot was active and returns stats
  • Fetch as Google lets you know if Google can access the page
  • Robots.txt lists which pages are being blocked from the bot
  • Sitemaps to help maintain a higher search ranking
  • URL Parameters to see if the Googlebot is experiencing any problems
  • Security Issues to see if you’ve been hacked
  • Other Resources to help you become a great Webmaster!

Additionally, there are many other tools on the web that can assist you such as Screaming Frog which provides a comprehensive SEO Audit tool for beginners. Other options include Check My Links and SEO Report Card which also supply free services. If you have any other suggestions or would like to share your own tips for the GSC, please feel free to share them below!

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