Google Search Console for Beginners: A Simple Guide
By Neha
Google Search Console is a free tool from Google that shows how your website is doing in Google Search: which searches people typed before they found you, how often you appeared, how many clicked, and which of your pages Google has and has not listed. It is the closest thing you have to Google telling you directly what it sees.
Most small business owners never open it, usually because the first screen looks full of charts and jargon. This guide covers setup, submitting your sitemap and the three or four reports that actually matter for a shop, clinic or service business.
Short answer: Go to search.google.com/search-console, add your website as a Domain property, and verify it by adding a DNS record at your domain provider. Submit your sitemap under Sitemaps. After that, check the Performance report monthly for clicks and searches, and the Page indexing report for pages Google is not listing. It is free and needs no coding.
What is Google Search Console, and do you need it?
Search Console is Google's own dashboard for website owners. Unlike Google Analytics, which tells you what visitors do once they are on your site, Search Console tells you what happens before they arrive: how you appear in Google results.
You need it if you have a website and want people to find it on Google. It is how you learn:
- Which searches your site shows up for, such as "physiotherapist in Lucknow" or "eggless cake Indore".
- Which pages Google has indexed, meaning stored and able to show, and which it has left out and why.
- Whether Google has found problems, such as pages that do not work well on phones or security issues.
- Whether a person at Google has taken action against your site, which is rare but serious.
It costs nothing, and there is no paid version.
Google Search Console setup, step by step
Setup itself takes a few minutes, plus some waiting if your domain settings are slow to update. You need a Google account and access to either your domain provider (GoDaddy, Hostinger, BigRock and so on) or your website's settings.
- Open Google Search Console and sign in with the Google account you use for your business.
- Click Add property. You will see two choices: Domain and URL prefix.
- Choose the property type (explained below) and type your website address.
- Follow the verification steps to prove the site is yours.
- Once verified, go to Sitemaps and submit your sitemap.
Domain or URL prefix: which should you choose?
| Property type | What it covers | How you verify |
|---|---|---|
| Domain | Every version of your site: with and without www, http and https, all subdomains | Only by adding a DNS record at your domain provider |
| URL prefix | Only addresses starting with exactly what you type, such as https://www.yoursite.in | Several ways: HTML file, HTML tag, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager or DNS |
A Domain property is the better choice because it sees everything in one place. If you cannot get into your domain provider, a URL prefix property is fine; just make sure you type the version your site actually uses.
How to verify your website
For a Domain property, Search Console gives you a line of text starting with google-site-verification. Log in to your domain provider, open the DNS settings for your domain, add a new TXT record and paste that text as the value. Go back to Search Console and click Verify. DNS changes sometimes take a while to take effect, so if it fails, try again later.
For a URL prefix property on WordPress, the simplest route is usually the HTML tag method. Most SEO plugins have a box for the Google verification code. Paste it there, save and click Verify.
Do not remove the verification record or tag later. If you do, you lose access.
How to submit sitemap to Google Search Console
A sitemap is a file listing the pages on your site that you want Google to know about. Submitting it is the most useful thing you can do on day one.
First find your sitemap. WordPress with an SEO plugin usually creates one at yoursite.in/sitemap_index.xml, and WordPress on its own creates one at yoursite.in/wp-sitemap.xml. Shopify and Wix generate one at yoursite.in/sitemap.xml. The sitemap checker finds your sitemap, counts its pages and flags addresses that should not be in it.
If you do not have one, paste your page addresses into the sitemap generator and upload the file to your site.
Then, in Search Console, open Sitemaps from the left menu, type the sitemap address and press Submit. The status should change to Success once Google has read it. A single sitemap file can hold up to 50,000 addresses and 50 MB uncompressed, far more than any small business needs.
Submitting a sitemap does not guarantee every page gets indexed. It makes sure Google knows the pages exist. Once Search Console is set up, you can import the same site and sitemap into Bing in a minute; see our Bing Webmaster Tools guide.
How to use Google Search Console: the Performance report
The search console performance report is where you will spend most of your time. It shows how your site performs in Google Search, and it keeps up to 16 months of data. It has four main numbers:
- Total clicks: how many times someone clicked through to your site from Google.
- Total impressions: how many times a link to your site appeared in someone's results, whether or not they scrolled to it.
- Average CTR: click-through rate, the share of impressions that became clicks.
- Average position: roughly where you appeared in results, where 1 is the top.
Below the chart, the Queries tab lists the actual searches. This is the gold. You might find a salon in Jaipur appearing for "keratin treatment price jaipur" when it has no page about keratin prices. That is a page worth writing.
How to read the numbers without panicking
Average position is an average across all searches and all appearances, so it moves a lot and can mislead. Look at position for a single query rather than the site overall.
Compare like with like. Use the date filter to compare the last three months with the same three months last year, especially if your business is seasonal. A sweet shop's numbers before Diwali are not a fair comparison with March.
The most useful filter for a small business: sort queries by impressions and look for ones with a position between about 8 and 20. You already appear for these, just not high enough to be clicked much. Improving the page that ranks for them is often the quickest win. The Search Console Rankings tool shows your real clicks, positions and searches, and picks out the keywords that are almost on page one. If an important page is indexed but stuck far below page one, our guide on why a page is indexed but not ranking lists what to check.
How to read the page indexing report
The page indexing report, found under Indexing, then Pages, shows how many of your pages are indexed and lists the reasons for the ones that are not.
Not every "not indexed" page is a problem. Some are meant to be left out. Here is how to read the common reasons:
| Reason shown | What it means | Worry? |
|---|---|---|
| Excluded by noindex tag | The page tells Google not to list it | Only if it is a page you want found |
| Blocked by robots.txt | Your robots.txt stops Google reading it | Only if it is a real page |
| Page with redirect | The address forwards somewhere else | Usually fine |
| Not found (404) | The page no longer exists | Fix if other pages still link to it |
| Alternate page with proper canonical tag | Google is using another version of this page | Usually fine |
| Discovered, currently not indexed | Google knows about it but has not read it yet | Give it time and internal links |
| Crawled, currently not indexed | Google read it and chose not to list it for now | Improve the page's content |
If an important page is missing, paste its address into the search bar at the top of Search Console. This opens URL Inspection, which shows exactly what Google knows about that page. After you fix the problem, click Request Indexing. You can also run the page through the indexability checker to check its noindex tags, canonical and status code in one go, and the robots.txt tester for robots.txt rules. Our checklist of reasons a website is not showing up on Google goes through each cause and its fix. For pages marked "Crawled, currently not indexed", our step-by-step fix for that status shows how to sort and improve them.
What other Search Console reports should you check?
You do not need every report. These are worth a look once a month:
- Core Web Vitals: Google's measures of how fast and stable your pages feel to real visitors. If many pages show as poor, read our guide to improving website speed.
- HTTPS: confirms your pages load securely.
- Enhancements: appears if your site has structured data, such as FAQ or breadcrumb markup, and lists any errors in it.
- Manual actions: should say no issues detected. If it ever shows an issue, a person at Google has found something against its spam policies, and you need to fix it and request a review.
- Links: shows which sites link to you and which of your pages are linked most.
Search Console also sends email alerts to verified owners when it spots a new problem. Make sure it goes to an inbox you actually read.
How to give your web developer or agency access
Never share your Google password. Instead, go to Settings, then Users and permissions, and add their email address. Choose Full for someone who needs to see all data and use tools, or Restricted for someone who only needs to view reports. When the work ends, remove them.
If an agency set up Search Console for you in the past, check that you are listed as an owner. The account should belong to your business, not to them.
What to do this week
Google Search Console is the free tool that turns guessing into knowing. This week:
- Add your website to Google Search Console as a Domain property and verify it through DNS.
- Find your sitemap with the sitemap checker and submit it.
- Open the Performance report, set the date to the last three months and note your top ten searches.
- Open the Page indexing report and check your main service pages are indexed.
- Add your developer or agency as a user rather than sharing your password.
- Set a monthly reminder to look at Performance and Page indexing.
If you are only starting out with SEO, read how to do an SEO audit next for a full check of your site.
Frequently asked questions
Is Google Search Console free?
Yes. Google Search Console is completely free, with no paid plan. You can add several websites to one Google account. You only need a Google account and a way to prove you own the website, such as access to your domain's DNS settings or to your site's code. There is nothing to install on your computer.
How long after setup does data appear in Search Console?
Once your site is verified, Performance data usually starts to appear within a few days, and the page indexing report can take longer to fill in. The data itself runs a day or two behind, so today's clicks will not show until later. If your site is brand new and not yet indexed, you will see very little until Google starts listing your pages.
What is the difference between Search Console and Google Analytics?
Search Console shows what happens on Google before someone reaches your site: the searches, your impressions, clicks and position. Google Analytics shows what visitors do on your site: which pages they view, how long they stay and whether they fill in your form. They answer different questions, and both are free, so most businesses use both.
Why does Search Console show fewer clicks than Google Analytics?
They count different things. Search Console counts only clicks from Google Search results. Analytics counts visits from every source, including WhatsApp, Instagram and people typing your address directly. Analytics can also miss visitors who block tracking, while Search Console cannot see visits that did not come from Google Search. Small differences are normal.
How do I submit my sitemap to Google?
In Search Console, open Sitemaps from the left menu, type your sitemap address, usually ending in sitemap.xml or sitemap_index.xml, and click Submit. Check the status says Success. You only need to do this once; Google keeps rereading it. If your sitemap moves, submit the new address and remove the old one.
What does average position mean in Google Search Console?
It is roughly where your site appeared in Google results, averaged over every time it was shown. Position 1 is the top result. Because it averages across many searches, locations and devices, the site-wide number can mislead. Look at position for one query or one page at a time for a clearer picture.