Search Console is a free gift from Google for SEO professionals that tells you how your website is performing. It’s the closest thing to X-ray vision we can get. 

With data-packed amenities, SEO professionals can scavenge through to locate stashes of hidden nuggets like clicks and impressions from search queries, Core Web Vitals, and whatever other surprises lie within your website. 

Custom regex filters take you around your million-page website. 

And while all SEO professionals hope to avoid any catastrophic SEO-related events with Google’s AI Overview, all we can really do is be prepared. 

For starters, keep reading this guide below on Search Console. 

It’s engineered to withstand zombie pages, Helpful Content bloodbaths, core update mood swings, and AI Overview siphoning your clicks like we’re in Mad Max, the Search Edition. This guide is exactly what you need when the SEO industry gets dicey. 

What does Search Console do? And how does it help SEO?

Search Console is a free website analytics and diagnostic tool provided by Google. Search Console tracks your website’s performance in Google search results (and, hopefully soon, in Gemini and AI Mode). 

This is the closest thing we have to first-party search truth. 

As an SEO director, I use Search Console daily. I monitor content performance, validate technical fixes, and track branded and non-branded query growth. It helps me prioritize what I should focus on in my SEO strategy. 

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How do I set up Search Console?

Getting set up on Search Console is quick and easy, but may require technical support. 

First, you need to have a Google account. 

Next, go to Search Console https://search.google.com/search-console. 

If you don’t see any profiles listed, you’ll need to choose a domain or prefix URL and verify your website ownership. 

So, how do you choose between a domain versus a prefix URL? Let me walk you through the differences. 

Domain property is the default recommendation

A domain property includes all subdomains but no protocols (HTTP:// or HTTPS://) and no path strings (/sub/folder/). 

A domain property provides a comprehensive view of how your website performs in Google search results because it automatically includes the HTTP, HTTPS, www, and non-www versions of your site. 

I recommend setting up domain properties first. 

To set up a domain property in Search Console, remove the HTTPS and trailing slashes. 

After you hit continue, you can verify your ownership via a DNS TXT record. 

I recommend going this route as it is the easiest. 

You’ll need to log in to your hosting provider to submit the TXT file. 

Another option is to verify through the CNAME. If you have technical support, this could be an easy alternative. 

If you run an ecommerce site, Search Console lets you set shipping and return policies and connect to Merchant Center data. 

This pairs nicely with your schema markup: Product + Offer + shippingDetails + returnPolicy lets Google read your store like a label with price, availability, delivery speed, returns, etc. 

URL prefix property allows you to dissect sections of a site 

A URL prefix property includes the HTTPS or HTTP protocol and path string. This means that if you want to really dive into a section of your website, like /blog/ subfolder or a blog.website.com subdomain, you can do this. 

After I set up my domain property, I created individual URL prefix properties for each subdomain, HTTP versions, and the/blog/ subfolders. 

By having multiple URL prefix properties, I can dig deeper into sections of the website to help troubleshoot. 

I can also create reporting specific to the website’s sections that may be more relevant to my co-workers. 

For example, I work with customer support team members looking for data on how their Help Center content is performing. 

Key moments in history for Search Console

Some really crazy stuff has happened with Search Console over time. Search Console is notorious among many SEO professionals as a delicacy, an incessant phantom of manual actions, and a culprit behind a better understanding of our website health.

I’ve compiled a short history of my SEO bromance with Search Console over the years to give you a glimmer of how we got here. 

• June 2005: Google Webmaster Tools (now called Search Console) was launched. 
• May 2015: Google changed the name to Google Search Console from Google Webmaster Tools.
• June 2016: Search Console tests new mobility usability report. 
• September 2016: Search Console improves Security Issues report. 
• September 2018: Search Console released the Manual Actions report, “Test Live,” and request indexing features added for the URL inspection tool, and upgraded to 16 months of historical data.
• November 2018: Google experiments with domain properties. 
• June 2019: Search Console adds mobile-first indexing features. 
• May 2020: Search Console adds Core Web Vitals report. 
• November 2021: Search Console rolls out new design. 
• September 2022: Search Console launches new HTTPS report. 
• November 2022: Search Console adds Shopping tab listings feature.
• September 2023: Search Console rolls out new Merchant Center integrated reports. 
• November 2023: Google released a new robots.txt report. 
• August 2024: Search Console Recommendations launch.
• June 2025: Search Console Insights refreshes.
• October 2025: Query Groups introduced.
• November 2025: Branded vs non-branded filter added.
• November 2025: Custom annotations added to performance charts.
• December 2025: AI-powered report configuration experiments begin.
• December 2025: Weekly and monthly chart views introduced.
• December 2025: Social channel performance begins to appear in Search Console Insights (limited rollout).

Was Google preparing us for AI through Search Console all along?

Alright. Zoom out with me for a second.

All of these updates are not random. They tell a very clear story.

Search Console is evolving from a technical reporting tool into a visibility intelligence tool for the AI era.

Google is moving from: “Here are 1,000 queries.” to “Here’s a topic cluster and how it’s performing.”

The weekly/monthly views and annotations encourage trend-level analysis. 

Google recognizes discovery journeys aren’t linear anymore with the introduction of social reporting. 

Breakdown of Search Console for SEOs 

While some SEO professionals may be waiting in the tunnels for Skynet and AIO to take over, there’s one thing we can all still depend on: Search Console. 

So before you join your freelance mission with SEAL Team 6, walk through the anatomy of Search Console. 

Overview

The Overview section in Search Console provides a bird’s-eye view of all data sets users can uncover in Search Console. 

Search Console Insights

Search Console Insights shows which pages are popping off and which are dying in the corner. The Insights view is a digital equivalent of a snack tray.

In an AI running wild like an overcaffeinated squirrel, I’ll take this instead of analyzing 50+ tabs. This is Google’s attempt to slide into your emails and whisper, “Hey, you might want to see this.”

URL inspection

The URL inspection tool lets you see what Google sees for a given URL. 

The URL inspection tool is one of my favorite SEO tools.

Unfortunately, today, you can only inspect one URL at a time. However, if you use the Search Console URL inspection API, you can test up to 2000 URLs per day. 

The test will show if the URL is indexable and explain why it may or may not be indexed. 

You can also request a URL be indexed. 

Search results

Search results are every content marketer’s favorite report in Search Console. It shows search traffic over the past 16 months (with comparisons), along with search queries, devices, countries, and search appearances. 

It will also show you which pages rank for specific queries. 

I use this report to show which pages are performing best and which are performing worst. It also helps troubleshoot any major drops or spikes in traffic. 

You can segment this report based on clicks, impressions, and CTR. 

The AI-powered configuration (Experiment) inside the Performance report is where things get interesting.

Instead of manually stacking filters, comparisons, regex, device splits, country filters, and date ranges, you can now describe the analysis you want and let Google build the report for you.

You can ask it questions like: 

• “Compare blog traffic month over month.”
• “Show me queries containing ‘how to’.”
• “What happened to USA traffic last week?”
• “Compare mobile vs desktop performance in the last 28 days.”
• “Show non-branded queries for the past 3 months.”
• “What pages lost clicks this month?”
• “Show changes for mobile users.”

Discover

The Discover report in Search Console shows your content’s performance in Google search results. 

You can filter by pages, countries, search appearances, and devices, like the search results report. 

Google News

The Google News report in Search Console tells you how your content performs under Google News in Google search results. 

You can filter the report by page and device. 

Pages

Pages indexing report in Search Console shares which pages in Google can find (or not find) on your website. 

The pages report is valuable for every technical SEO. This report offers tons of quick wins for technical SEO. I always start with this section when auditing a website. 

If you see an increase in pages indexed or not indexed, you’ll want to investigate why it’s happening. 

Video pages

The video indexing report shows how many pages on your website are indexed with video content. 

Sitemaps

The sitemap report allows you to submit all your XML sitemaps to Search Console. Ideally, you have at least one XML sitemap to submit. 

You’ll need to submit all your XML sitemaps, including any video, image, or language-specific ones. 

Removals

The removals tool in Search Console lets you temporarily block pages from Google. 

Remember, these must be pages that you own on your website. You cannot submit pages you do not own. 

This is the fastest way to remove a page from your website. However, I recommend working on a long-term solution if you want this web page permanently removed. 

Core Web Vitals

The Core Web Vitals report uses real-world data to tell you how your pages perform. 

Again, this is based on a URL level. 

The report is grouped into mobile and desktop with segments of poor, needs improvement, and good. 

The report is based on LCP, INP, and CLS user data. 

Only indexed pages will be included in the Core Web Vitals report. 

HTTPS

The HTTPS report tells you how many indexed pages on your website are HTTP or HTTPS. 

If you notice any HTTP pages on your website, you should convert them to HTTPS. Google indexes the HTTPS version to protect searchers’ security and privacy. 

Product snippets

Product snippets are part of the structured data reporting in Search Console that showcases which products have product markup on the page. 

Currently, Google only supports product snippets for pages with one product. 

Be aware of Google’s algorithm updates. There can be changes in impressions and clicks for product snippets. 

Merchant snippets

Merchant snippets are also part of the rich result report in Search Console and serve as extensions of your Product snippet. 

Merchant snippets are like getting a golden ticket. It provides more enhanced features in the SERPs, like carousels or knowledge panels. 

Shopping tab listings

Shopping tab listings are also part of the rich result reports in Search Console and showcase the pages listed in the Shopping tab in Google search results. 

If you’re an ecommerce marketer, you’ll want to live inside this report. 

If you don’t see this information in Search Console, make sure your website’s structured data fits within the Merchant listing structured data requests. 

AMP

The AMP report in Search Console shows all the AMP pages on your website and potential issues you may need to troubleshoot. 

If AMP is a big part of your SEO strategy, you’ll want to ensure you reach zero in the critical errors section of the report so Google can detect your AMP pages. 

While AMP is considered legacy, it’s relevant for some publishers. 

Breadcrumbs

The breadcrumbs report is also part of the rich result report in Search Console, which tells you if your breadcrumb structured data is correct and readable by Google. 

Breadcrumbs are essential to maintain a healthy site architecture and user experience. If you see any errors in the breadcrumbs, I recommend prioritizing this quickly.

FAQ

The FAQ report is also part of Search Console’s rich results report, which shares insights into which pages received the FAQ snippet. 

However, with Google’s changes to visibility of HowTo and FAQ rich results, you may see this fluctuate quite a bit. 

Profile page

The Profile page report reflects which pages are getting the profile page markup. You’ll want to validate and clean up any makeup you may be missing because these offer interesting SERP features.

It’s almost like a card functionality similar to the recipes. 

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Review snippets

Review snippets showcase your validation of review markup on pages. 

You should check that all your markup is valid. If you notice any errors, work on updating those specific pages. 

With Google’s algorithm updates, I’ve seen significant fluctuations in review snippets. Always double-check if it’s a bug, an algorithm update, or a true markup error. 

Sitelinks searchbox

The sitelinks search box is a feature of the rich result report in Search Console that tells us in more detail any errors you may have with your Sitelinks Search Box markup. 

Unparsable structured data

The unparsable structured data report in Search Console aggregates structured data syntax errors that prevent Google from identifying the specific structured data type. 

Videos

The video indexing report in Search Console has expanded dramatically over the last few years, giving us more detailed information on how your videos perform in search results. 

You can dissect whether the video is outside the viewport, too small, or too tall. If you’re building a video content strategy, it really helps to elevate your game with your UX team. 

Manual actions

If you’re running your SEO strategy properly, you’ll hopefully never have to worry about the manual action report. 

But if you’re one of the unlucky ones who gets hit with a manual action, Google will tell you in this report in Search Console. 

A manual action occurs when a human reviewer at Google determines that a specific page or pages are not compliant with Google’s spam policy. 

Security issues

The Security issues report in Search Console will tell you if your site was hacked or harmful. 

Google will actually email you now to notify you when you receive a security issue. 

Check out this beauty I received within the first week of starting to work on a new site. 

Links

The Links report in Search Console allows you to view all your site’s internal and external links. You can view the top link pages, top linking sites, and top linking text. 

This is a legacy report, so I’d be cautious about relying on it in case Google decides to depreciate it. 

Settings

If you need to verify ownership or add a new user, you should check the settings in Search Console. 

Two cool reports under Settings in Search Console go undiscovered, but these are two of my favorite reports.

Robots.txt: The robots.txt report tells us which pages Google can crawl or any potential issues preventing Google from crawling your site. 

One of the challenges I run into when working with developers is that they often choose to disallow it in the robots.txt file instead of adding a noindex, nofollow tag. 

This report will help audit any technical updates with your dev team. 

The robots.txt report is only available if you set up a domain property. 

Crawl stats: The crawl stats report shows Google’s crawling history on your website. It can be sorted by how many requests were made and when, server response, and availability issues. 

It tells SEO professionals if Google is encountering problems when crawling your website. 

This report is only available if you have a domain property or a URL prefix at a root level. 

Search Console is like stepping onto a planet dedicated to SEO professionals

That’s a lot to unpack. But the gist is that Search Console is a place where you can get information about how your website is performing. 

All of the above is just part of the early phases of Search Console’s transformation. Google also hopes to add Google’s AI Overview data in the future. So, that seems like a worthwhile endeavor, seeing as there is no tool to support AIO data today. 

And I know you all must be hoping Google’s AI Overview doesn’t overtake your jobs. That would suck. It would likely mean the end of times. 

But in the insane event it does, at least you’re covered on how Search Console got here today. 

Until then, you’ll have to make do with luxe URL inspections, regex filters, and manual action surprises.