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Google Search Console (GSC) is an essential tool for website owners, marketers, and SEO professionals. It provides insights into how your website performs in Google Search and alerts you to potential issues that could impact its visibility. From performance data to identifying errors, Google Search Console offers features that help optimise your site for search engines.

In this blog, we’ll explore the updates Google Search Console provides and the types of errors it helps you detect and resolve.

What is Google Search Console?

Google Search Console is a free platform offered by Google to monitor and troubleshoot your website's performance in search results. It helps you:

• Analyse search traffic and user behavior.
  

• Ensure Google can access your content.
  

• Resolve indexing issues and request re-indexing.
  

• Identify potential security problems like hacks or malware.
  

Key Updates Provided by Google Search Console

1. Performance Reports
   GSC offers detailed reports on your website’s performance in Google Search. It includes:
   

   • Clicks: The number of times users clicked on your site from search results.
     

   • Impressions: The number of times your site appeared in search results.
     

   • Click-Through Rate (CTR): The percentage of users who clicked on your site after seeing it in search results.
     

   • Average Position: The ranking position of your website for specific keywords.
     

2. These metrics help you understand which pages and keywords drive traffic and how you can optimise them.
   

3. Coverage Reports
   The Coverage section highlights how Google crawls and indexes your website. It shows:
   

   • Indexed pages.
     

   • Pages with errors.
     

   • Excluded pages and reasons for exclusion.
     

4. These updates ensure that your website is properly indexed and accessible.
   

5. URL Inspection Tool
   GSC allows you to inspect specific URLs to check their indexing status. You can identify if a page is indexed or if it faces issues like crawl errors.
   

6. Mobile Usability Updates
   With Google prioritising mobile-first indexing, the Mobile Usability report highlights pages with problems on mobile devices. It includes updates about:
   

   • Touch element sizes.
     

   • Font legibility.
     

   • Content that doesn’t fit within the screen.
     

7. Core Web Vitals Report
   Core Web Vitals updates focus on user experience by measuring:
   

   • Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): Page load speed.
     

   • First Input Delay (FID): Interactivity speed.
     

   • Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): Visual stability.
     

8. These updates help ensure your website meets Google’s standards for user experience.
   

9. Security and Manual Actions
   GSC alerts you to manual actions imposed by Google, such as penalties for violating search guidelines. It also provides updates on security issues, including malware or hacked content.
   

10. Enhancement Reports
    The Enhancements section provides updates on structured data implementations like breadcrumbs, FAQs, and reviews. It helps identify and fix issues that prevent rich results in search.
    

Errors You Can Detect Through Google Search Console

1. Crawl Errors
   Crawl errors occur when Googlebot encounters issues accessing your website. Common crawl errors include:
   

   • 404 Errors: Page not found.
     

   • 500 Errors: Server-related issues.
     

   • Blocked URLs: Pages restricted by robots.txt or meta tags.
     

2. Resolving crawl errors ensures Google can access and index all important pages.
   

3. Indexing Errors
   Indexing issues prevent your pages from appearing in search results. Examples include:
   

   • Pages marked as "noindex."
     

   • Duplicate content.
     

   • Pages excluded due to canonical tags or crawl directives.
     

4. Mobile Usability Issues
   Errors like clickable elements being too close or text being too small can negatively impact mobile usability, leading to lower rankings on mobile searches.
   

5. AMP Errors
   Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) errors, such as missing scripts or incorrect markup, are highlighted in GSC. Fixing these ensures faster loading and better performance on mobile devices.
   

6. Core Web Vitals Errors
   Pages failing LCP, FID, or CLS metrics appear in the Core Web Vitals report. Addressing these errors improves your website’s speed and user experience.
   

7. Structured Data Errors
   Incorrect implementation of structured data, such as missing required fields in schema markup, can prevent rich snippets from appearing. GSC highlights such errors for resolution.
   

8. Manual Actions and Security Issues
   

   • Manual Actions: Imposed when your website violates Google’s guidelines, such as unnatural backlinks or spammy content.
     

   • Security Issues: Alerts for malware, phishing, or hacking attempts on your website.
     

Benefits of Regularly Monitoring GSC

• Improved Search Visibility: By resolving errors and optimising based on updates, your site ranks higher in search results.
  

• Better User Experience: Addressing issues like mobile usability and Core Web Vitals ensures smoother navigation for users.
  

• Enhanced Traffic Insights: Performance reports help you refine your SEO strategy by identifying top-performing keywords and pages.
  

Conclusion

Google Search Console is a powerful tool for maintaining your website’s health and improving its search visibility. By understanding the updates it provides and addressing errors promptly, you can ensure your website performs optimally in search results.

Regularly monitor your GSC dashboard, fix issues, and leverage the insights to create a robust SEO strategy. Stay proactive, and let Google Search Console guide you toward a more successful online presence.