Usage and Effect of Google Search Console
Benefits of Google Search Console
Google Search Console, formerly known as Google Webmaster Tools, is a powerful and free web service provided by Google to help website owners, webmasters and SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) professionals monitor, manage and optimise the search engine performance of their websites. It plays a vital role in improving the visibility and performance of websites in Google search results.
Here are some of the key roles and features of Google Search Console:
Website Authentication: To use Google Search Console, website owners need to verify the ownership of their website. This authentication process ensures that only authorised users can access and manage data related to their website's performance in Google search results.
Performance Monitoring: Search Console provides valuable insights into how your website is performing in Google searches. It displays information about the number of clicks, the number of displays, the click-through rate and the ranking.
Indexing Status: This tool allows you to see which pages of your site are indexed by Google and which pages have indexing issues. It helps you ensure that your important pages are crawled and included in search results.
Sitemap Submission: Site owners can submit XML site maps through Search Console to enable Google to discover and crawl new pages more efficiently. A sitemap provides information about the structure and organisation of a site, helping search engines to better understand its content.
Mobile Usability: Google Search Console provides insight into how your site performs on mobile devices. It highlights any issues that may be negatively impacting the user experience on mobile devices, such as a design that is not mobile-friendly or slow-loading pages.
URL Check: This feature allows you to check individual URLs on your website and check if they have been indexed by Google and if they have any crawling or indexing issues.
Security and Manual Actions: Search Console alerts site owners if their site has been compromised or hacked. It also notifies Google of any manual actions taken against your site for violating its quality guidelines.
Rich Media Search Results and Structured Data: Search Console provides information about how your website appears in Google's rich media search results. It also helps identify structured data markup issues that may affect the appearance of your site in search results.
In short, Google Search Console is a must-have tool for any website owner or SEO professional. It provides valuable data and insights to help optimise your website's performance in Google searches, resolve issues and enhance the overall user experience. By using Search Console effectively, website owners can improve the visibility of their website and increase natural traffic from Google search results.
How to Connect SEOAnt to Google Search Console
Navigate to the Google Search Console and select the "Connect to Google Search Console" button.
Select the Google account linked to your Shopify shop in the Google Search Console. If you haven't connected your shop's website to Google Search Console yet, follow these steps.
Connecting your Shopify shop to Google Search Console Visit your Google Search Console account, sign in, and continue to add new resources.
Enter your Shopify shop's resolved domain name and click CONTINUE.
Click Start Verification.
The following is an example of HTML tag validation: select the HTML tag validation method and copy Meta Tag.
Place the meta tag in the <head>section of theme.liquid on website.
Click to verify.
Connecting SEOAnt to Google Search Console
Next, navigate back to the Google Search Console and click the "Connect to Google Search Console" button.
Select the Google Search Console account that has verified your Shopify website.
Click Continue.
Congratulations, you have successfully connected to Google Search Console.
Next, submit Sitemap. If status shows "Success", that means you have submitted successfully.
A sitemap helps search engines discover URLs on a website, but there is no guarantee that Google will crawl and index everything in a sitemap. In most cases, however, your site will benefit from using a sitemap.
Click to view a data report in the Google Search Console. The data provided by the Search Console allows you to see how many times users have seen or interacted with links or content from your site on Google Search, Google News, and Google Explore.
Data reports can be viewed:
Number of clicks, number of displays, average click-through rate, and average ranking for specific keyword queries.
Number of clicks, number of displays, average click-through rate, and average rank for specific pages.
The number of clicks, number of displays, average click-through rate, and average ranking for specific countries.
Number of hits, number of displays, average hit rate, average ranking for specific devices.
In addition, you can filter to see the data provided by Search Console for a specific time period.