Google Search Console is a free tool that many businesses don’t know exists. However, it is invaluable to understanding how your website is performing in Google’s search results. Even if you aren’t actively working with an SEO professional, you can track and monitor the keywords your website is ranking for.
Why Keyword Tracking Matters
If you want your website to show up in search results (which you should), knowing what keywords it is already ranking for is important. This information tells you whether or not your website’s content is attracting the right audience. It can also tell you whether or not it is ranking for the keywords you think you should be ranking for.
Keyword tracking allows you to:
- Monitor whether your website is attracting the right type of visitors for your business
- Highlight opportunities to target new, relevant keywords
- See how your website’s pages individually rank for specific keywords
- View whether your business is gaining or losing organic traffic over time
What Is Google Search Console?
Google Search Console is similar to Google Analytics in that it shows you incoming traffic to your website, but is solely focused on search result traffic. It is a beginner-friendly tool that allows you to see valuable information without any fancy settings, but is also a powerful tool for more advanced users.
GSC is free to use and is easily implemented. You’ll find instructions later on in this article.
Benefits of Using Google Search Console for Keyword Tracking
I always recommend any business with a website, at minimum, set up Google Analytics and Google Search Console accounts. Both being free tools, they are simple to set up and provide crucial information about your website’s visitors. Specifically with GSC, the benefits are significant.
Using Google Search Console allows you to:
- See the keywords you already rank for, including the ones you may not have known about
- This is a great opportunity to see if you’re ranking for keywords that aren’t relevant to your business
- Changing your content to match what you want to rank for is a great tactic
- Watch for keyword ranking changes over time, since rankings are fluid and change based on a variety of factors
- If you find your keyword rankings dropping, you can safely suspect your competitors are also competing for those same keywords
- See how many clicks your website is receiving for each keyword
- If your impressions (how many times your website shows up in search results for a keyword) are high but clicks are low, you may want to assess the page content to ensure it is highly valuable and clickable
- Uncover new content opportunities
- If you find keywords are ranking low, adding new content to your website using those keywords can help boost your results
- Understand what your visitors are looking for
- Keyword search terms provide valuable information about what your potential buyers are searching for
How to Set Up Google Search Console
Setting up your account and tying it to your website is simple. You may need to enlist the help of your website developer if you aren’t comfortable with a couple of these steps.
- Visit https://search.google.com/search-console
- Sign in with your Google account (or create one if you don’t already have one)
- Add your website as a property
- Use Domain if you have access to your domain registry (DNS Records)
- Use URL Prefix if you don’t, but have access to your website hosting server
- Verify ownership of your website domain
- If you use Domain, this is done through a TXT record in your DNS records on your domain registry.
- If you use URL Prefix, you can upload the provided HTML file to your website’s root directory, or use an existing Google Analytics account to verify.
If you are unclear about any of these steps, please contact your website developer or contact me and I’ll be happy to help.
How to View & Track Keyword Performance
Once you’ve created and verified your website’s property in Google Search Console, it may take up to 48 hours to start seeing your data.
After your data starts to appear, you are ready to view your website’s performance. Keep in mind there are a couple of different dashboard layouts, and Google changes the platform from time to time, so some of these steps may be slightly different than listed here.
To start, navigate to Performance on the left-hand side menu.
What you should see on this screen is a chart with Impressions, Clicks, Average CTR, and Average Position.
- Impressions: The number of times your website appears in search results.
- Clicks: The number of times your website has been clicked on within the user’s search results.
- Average CTR: The percentage of clicks vs impressions
- Average Position: The average position of your website in the search results. For example, if your Average Position is 11.6, your website shows up on average in the 11th position in the list of results.
You can adjust the chart to include or exclude any of these metrics by clicking them on or off in the top bar above the chart.
Also above the chart you’ll find date ranges, including 24 hours, 7 days, 28 days, 3 months, and a dropdown menu with more options. Feel free to adjust the timeframe of data you wish to see. In the More dropdown menu, you can choose to compare date ranges as well to see how your performance has changed over that period of time.
Above the chart, you’ll find an Add Filter button. This allows you to filter out the specific data you wish to view, such as specific keywords, website pages, or countries. As an example, if your business only operates in Canada, you can remove all data from any other country.
Hot Tip: To help Google understand the content on your website better, you can add your website’s sitemap to GSC by navigating to Sitemaps under Indexing in the left-hand menu. Your sitemap is an XML file that lists all of your website’s pages, media, and other content. Most website platforms such as Wix and Squarespace automatically generate this file, so the link to it should be easy to find. If you have a website on WordPress, or a custom site, you may need to reach out to your website developer to get your XML file link.
This is a basic overview of your keyword search data. If you are looking for more in-depth information, stay tuned for future blogs and social media posts with more advanced uses of Google Search Console.
Quick Tips for Using Your Keyword Data
Now that you have your keyword information, how do you use it? Here are some easy actionables you can use to boost your website’s search results.
- Look for pages that are ranking in positions 11-20.
- To do this, make sure you have clicked ON Average Position. The position shows up in the far right column below the chart.
- Click on Pages under the chart to see individual website pages and their Positions.
- For each page, click on the page to see its individual keywords and results.
- Look for keywords that have high impressions but low clicks.
- Rewrite your titles & meta descriptions for those pages to include those keywords.
- Assess the page content as well to ensure it references those keywords in headings and paragraphs.
- Be careful not to overdo it. Keyword stuffing (using one keyword too many times on a single page) will work against you and potentially remove that page from search results altogether. Keep the writing natural, like you’re speaking to a human.
- Be sure to track seasonal or trending keyword performance as well to drive your content during peak times.
- Build new content for your website based on keyword data you discover in GSC.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
The data shown in GCS can be misused, so it is important to note what matters and how to use the information properly to fuel your website content.
- All of the data, including impressions, clicks, and position, are equally important. High impressions might look great, but if you have low clicks, it tells you the content is not sufficient to drive traffic to your website. Average position also tells you if your website’s pages are competing in the search result landscape, or if they’re ending up on page 5 never to be seen.
- SEO takes time, especially if you are not actively working on it. Watch for trends over time, but comparing day-to-day is not likely going to produce any useful information.
- Ignoring comparisons between mobile and desktop usage. Your website should be optimized for both versions, and be easily used on all devices. If you’re finding your results are far worse on mobile than on desktop, it’s a clear indication your mobile version needs to be analyzed for usability.
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Google Search Console is a powerful tool to provide you decision-making information about your website’s search performance. If you aren’t already using it, it’s a great time to get started.
