Google Search Console (GSC), formerly Google Webmaster Tools, is a free set of tools for tracking, maintaining, and troubleshooting your site’s position in Google’s search results. To improve your search engine rankings and boost your organic performance, you can use Google Search Console to optimize your site.
Google Search Console is a free tool that allows marketers and SEO experts to monitor and analyze their SEO results. The platform is entirely free to use, but it also contains the most comprehensive and up-to-date SEO dataset available anywhere. In order to make their website more search engine friendly, users can also identify and troubleshoot technical and page performance issues.
However, knowing how to use Google Search Console correctly is essential for turning valuable data into actionable SEO insights.
How to use Google Search Console to improve your SEO?
The following are a few actionable ways to use Search Console to improve SEO:
- Improve the click-through rate of your landing page
The click-through rate (CTR) of various keywords and landing pages for which your site appears in search results is one of the most useful features of Google Search Console. You can use the data to figure out which pages and keywords need to be SEO-optimized.
Open Google Search Console and go to the Search results tab on the left, then click on Average CTR and Average Position to add them to the report. Now scroll down to the table and click the Pages tab to see the click-through rate of individual pages on your site: Click on a page in the table, then return to the Queries tab to see which queries are ranking your site for that page. You can now see what people are searching for to bring up that particular page in search results.
- Optimize your nearly there keywords
You can find keywords that are nearly ranking well but need a little work to move up a couple of positions using the Search Console report. These are the “low-hanging fruit” keywords with much potential for increasing traffic.
Go back to your search results tab and select average CTR and average position from the dropdown menu to find these keywords.
Then, by clicking the filter icon, scroll down to the table and select position from the dropdown menu. Then, from the dropdown above the table, choose “Greater than” and type 7.
A list of keywords that rank in the top 7 positions or higher will be provided in the report. Look for search terms that get a lot of impressions but not a lot of clicks. To play around with your data, you can also download a CSV file and open it in a spreadsheet.
- Discover new content ideas
You can come up with new content ideas and get an idea of the type of content you should be producing with the help of your Google Search Console Search results report.
By looking at the pages that rank on Google, you can see which content performs well in search. This is usually a good indicator of the kind of content your target audience wants. What kinds of subjects can you delve deeper into?
The report can also help you repurpose your content. Consider turning your best-performing pages into various types of content (video, infographic, podcast, slideshow, etc.) for different platforms.
- Find new keyword possibilities
You can come up with new content ideas and keywords for your website. Look at the Queries report to see which keyword types are the most popular. Consider adding more informational keywords to your list if you get a lot of traffic from them.
According to the report, the query “how to paint your front door” is one of the top-performing search terms. You could now use a keyword research tool (such as Semrush or Ubersuggest) to find related phrases that you’re not ranking for and incorporate them into your article, or you could write a new article to target a phrase that’s related but distinct enough to warrant its own piece of content.
- Complete your sales funnel
While you’re using the Search Console report to find new keywords for your site, you should also look for some that complete your sales funnel.
Keywords can be divided into four categories:
- Navigational- Users search for a specific website using navigational methods.
- Informational– in which users look for answers to questions.
- Investigational- in which users look for information that could lead to a purchase.
- Transactional- Users who are ready to buy are transactional.
While informational keywords are great for answering any questions, your visitors may have about your niche, it’s also a good idea to find and improve rankings for keywords that assist them in making a transaction or other conversion.
So, in your Search Console report, look for investigational and transactional keywords like product reviews and feedback. In addition to your informational ones, these keywords are important to pick out and focus on because they eventually lead to a purchase.
Conclusion
If you want to improve your site’s SEO, the first thing you’ll need is complete access to the crucial data that will help you track your efforts. The Google Search Console website contains all of the essentials and is the most convenient way to monitor SEO and site settings for both large and small sites.
