Google Search Console (GSC) is a free tool from Google that helps website owners analyze traffic, fix technical issues, and improve search rankings.

According to Ahrefs, 96.55% of web pages get zero organic traffic from Google. Why? The most common reasons are improper indexing, slow loading speeds, or a lack of quality backlinks.

GSC helps identify and fix these issues.

Who uses GSC and why?

🔹 SEO specialists – analyze keywords, traffic, and rankings to improve search visibility.
🔹 Marketers – track content performance, click-through rates, and conversion pages.
🔹 Web developers – check indexing issues, broken links, and page speed.
🔹 Business owners – see how well their site attracts customers and what needs improvement.

How to add a website to GSC?

✅ Domain property (recommended) – verification via DNS with your hosting provider. This method tracks all subdomains and site versions (HTTP/HTTPS).

✅ URL prefix property – verify ownership via an HTML file, HTML tag, Google Analytics, or Google Tag Manager.

Once verified, Google begins collecting data.

Key reports in GSC

Overview page

This shows your website’s overall stats: total clicks, indexed pages, errors, and warnings.

📌 How to use it?

• If traffic suddenly drops → check for indexing issues and Google penalties.
• If indexed pages are fewer than expected → check your Sitemap and robots.txt file.

Performance report

This report analyzes search traffic.

🔹 What does it show?
✅ Click count.
✅ Search queries that bring traffic.
✅ Average ranking position.
✅ Click-through rate (CTR).

📌 How to use it?

• If CTR is below 2%, consider rewriting page titles and meta descriptions.
• If ranking is high but clicks are low, your snippet might not be appealing enough.

What is a Sitemap?

A Sitemap is an XML file that helps search engines index pages faster.

🔹 Why should you add a Sitemap to GSC?
📌 Without it, Google might miss important pages.
📌 Indexing is 30–40% faster with a Sitemap.

Core web vitals

This report checks user experience and whether your site meets Google’s standards.

🔹 What does it analyze?

✅ Page speed.
✅ Interactivity (FID).
✅ Visual stability (CLS).

📌 Key facts:

• Google reports that 53% of users leave a site if it takes more than 3 seconds to load.
• Improving CLS by 0.1 points can boost conversion rates by 5–15% (source).

Security issues

If Google detects hacking, spam, or malware, it lowers your ranking.

📌 What to do if Google penalizes your site?

1. Check errors in the manual actions report.
2. Remove any malicious code or spam.
3. Click “Request a review” after fixing the issue.

Links report

This report shows which websites link to your pages and which of your pages receive the most backlinks.

📌 How to use it?

• If you spot spammy backlinks, disavow them using Google’s Disavow Tool.
• If a page gets a lot of links but isn’t ranking well, review its content and keywords.

Final thoughts

Google Search Console is a must-have tool for SEO, marketing, and web development.

🔹 Track your rankings and click-through rates to increase traffic.
🔹 Use speed and security reports to improve search performance.
🔹 Monitor backlinks and indexed pages to boost visibility.

With proper use, GSC can help grow your organic traffic by 20–50%—without extra costs.