Google Search Console (GSC) is an essential tool in our arsenal for enhancing SEO and boosting website performance for our clients. It provides us with direct insights from Google, allowing us to understand how websites appear in search results, track keyword performance, and identify areas for improvement. By using this data, we can make informed decisions that improve a website’s visibility, resolve technical issues, and ultimately drive more organic traffic. In this guide, we’ll explore how we leverage GSC’s features to elevate our clients’ SEO strategies, ensuring they stay competitive in the ever-changing digital landscape.
Monitor Website Performance and Improve Content
Monitoring website performance through Google Search Console (GSC) gives us valuable insights into how well specific pages perform in search results. One key metric we focus on is the combination of high impressions but a low average position. This indicates that while Google is showing the page in search results frequently, it’s appearing lower than competitors’ pages, making it less likely for users to find and click on it. Essentially, Google recognizes the page’s relevance to a search term but ranks other content higher.
How We Use It: For pages with high impressions but a low average position, we dive deeper into why competitors might be outranking us. We analyze the top-ranking content for that keyword—looking at factors like content depth, structure, use of visuals, and user engagement elements such as internal links or FAQs. Once we identify what’s working for those top results, we enhance our content to provide even greater value. This could mean adding more comprehensive answers, updating statistics, embedding videos, or creating infographics that provide a richer user experience. Our goal is to make our content better than the competition, ensuring it offers the most relevant and thorough information for that search query.
Example: For example, if a client’s page on “best roofing materials for cold climates” has high impressions but is stuck on page two, we’ll review the content that ranks in the top spots. If those pages include detailed comparisons, user reviews, or recent data, we’ll update our client’s page to match or exceed that level of detail. This might involve adding a new section on recent roofing trends, customer testimonials, or a comparison chart of different materials’ durability in cold weather.
Benefit: By focusing on improving content for pages that Google already finds relevant, we can help move those pages up the rankings. This approach leads to increased visibility, more clicks, and ultimately, higher traffic and engagement. Regularly making these targeted improvements ensures that our clients’ content remains competitive, and over time, this can significantly boost their organic search performance.
Fix Indexing Issues and Submit Sitemaps
Ensuring that all valuable content on a website is properly indexed is essential for achieving good visibility in search results. Indexing issues can occur due to technical errors, duplicate content, or even pages that are blocked from being crawled. If key pages aren’t indexed, they won’t appear in search results, which can significantly limit a website’s reach, even if the content is highly relevant to users’ queries. Google Search Console provides tools to monitor these indexing challenges and ensure that Google understands which pages are most important.
Explanation: Ensuring that all valuable content on a website is properly indexed is essential for achieving good visibility in search results. Indexing issues can occur due to technical errors, duplicate content, or even pages that are blocked from being crawled. If key pages aren’t indexed, they won’t appear in search results, which can significantly limit a website’s reach, even if the content is highly relevant to users’ queries. Google Search Console provides tools to monitor these indexing challenges and ensure that Google understands which pages are most important.
How We Use It: We regularly monitor the indexing section in Google Search Console to identify any pages that are “Discovered but not indexed” or “Crawled but currently not indexed”. When we find pages with these issues, we investigate the potential causes—such as insufficient internal links or technical errors. We then make necessary adjustments, like improving the page’s content structure or adding more internal links to increase its visibility. Additionally, we use the Sitemaps feature in GSC to submit or update sitemaps whenever new content is published or existing pages are refreshed. This helps ensure that Google is aware of these changes and crawls the pages promptly.
Example: For a client launching a new service page, we may find that the page is not appearing in Google search results, even though it is relevant and valuable. By submitting the sitemap with the new page in GSC and enhancing internal links from other relevant pages, we can prompt Google to crawl and index the page more quickly. If issues persist, we may also request a re-crawl directly through GSC to speed up the process.
Benefit: Addressing indexing issues and regularly updating sitemaps ensures that all crucial pages are accessible to Google and appear in search results. This maximizes a website’s visibility, helping potential customers find the information they need. In turn, this leads to higher organic traffic and better engagement, as users are able to discover the most valuable content the website has to offer.
Analyze Page Experience and Improve User Engagement
Page Experience is a set of signals that Google uses to evaluate how users perceive the experience of interacting with a webpage. It goes beyond just content, incorporating Core Web Vitals, mobile-friendliness, HTTPS security, safe browsing, and no intrusive interstitials. Google prioritizes pages that load quickly, are secure, mobile-friendly, and free from disruptive elements like pop-ups. These factors collectively ensure that a user can interact with a website in a smooth, secure, and enjoyable manner, making it more likely that they will stay on the page and engage with its content.
How We Use It: We use the Page Experience insights in Google Search Console (GSC) to assess how our clients’ websites perform across these criteria. For instance, we monitor Core Web Vitals to ensure that a site loads quickly and remains visually stable. We also verify mobile usability to ensure the website is easy to navigate on smaller screens, and check for HTTPS encryption to maintain a secure connection for users. If we find areas that need improvement—like pages with poor mobile usability or non-secure connections—we work closely with our development team to implement changes that enhance the overall page experience.
Example: If a client’s website shows poor mobile usability due to elements like buttons that are too close together or text that is difficult to read on a small screen, we adjust the layout and make the design more responsive. For HTTPS issues, we ensure that all resources on the site are served securely, preventing “Not Secure” warnings that can deter users. Additionally, if interstitials are disrupting the user flow, we adjust them to be less intrusive, aligning with Google’s guidelines for a better user experience.
Benefit: Focusing on Page Experience helps ensure that users have a positive interaction with the website, which can lead to longer visits, higher engagement, and better conversion rates. Pages that offer a seamless and enjoyable user experience are also more likely to rank higher in search results, as Google rewards websites that meet its page experience standards. This ultimately supports our clients in maintaining a competitive edge in search results while providing value to their users.
Disavowing Bad Backlinks in Conjunction with Semrush
Backlinks, or links from other websites pointing to your site, play a crucial role in determining domain authority and overall SEO performance. High-quality backlinks are seen by Google as endorsements of your content, helping to boost your website’s credibility and rankings. However, not all backlinks are beneficial—links from spammy, irrelevant, or low-quality websites can damage your reputation with Google. Such harmful backlinks can result in lower search rankings, as they can make Google view your site as associated with untrustworthy content. Disavowing these bad backlinks allows you to focus on cultivating valuable links that enhance your site’s authority, ensuring that Google only considers quality signals when assessing your site.
How We Use It: We use Semrush to conduct a thorough backlink audit, identifying potentially toxic links that could negatively impact our clients’ rankings. Once harmful links are identified, we compile a disavow file that lists these unwanted backlinks. This file is then uploaded through the Disavow Links Tool in Google Search Console, signaling to Google that these links should not be considered when evaluating the website’s authority. This combined approach ensures a clean and healthy backlink profile, focusing on quality rather than quantity.
Example: If a client’s website suddenly experiences a drop in rankings, a deep dive into their backlink profile might reveal a surge of low-quality links from spammy websites. By using Semrush to pinpoint these toxic backlinks and disavowing them through Google Search Console, we help the client regain their ranking potential, allowing Google to focus on the more credible links pointing to their site.
Benefit: Disavowing bad backlinks prevents harmful links from dragging down a website’s search rankings. By maintaining a clean backlink profile, we can preserve and strengthen our clients’ domain authority and ensure that their SEO efforts focus on building genuine, high-quality relationships. This approach helps sustain long-term growth and keeps their websites competitive in search engine results.
Google Search Console is an invaluable tool for optimizing our clients’ SEO strategies. From improving content for better user engagement to ensuring a clean backlink profile, GSC allows us to make data-driven decisions that enhance search engine visibility. By leveraging these insights and combining them with other powerful tools like Semrush, we can continually adapt our strategies to keep our clients ahead of the competition and ensure their online presence thrives.