6.25 Connecting a site to Google Search Console

The Host Google Search Console Google Search Console is a free tool from Google that helps website owners track and optimize their site’s presence in Google search results. In this article, we will look at the process of connecting a site to Google Search Console and the main metrics that need to be tracked for successful SEO promotion.

Benefits of using Google Search Console

  • Monitoring and troubleshooting site indexing issues;
  • Getting information about search queries for which your site appears in Google;
  • Analysis of external and internal links;
  • Checking the mobile version of the site;
  • Tracking and improving key performance metrics.

Connecting a site to Google Search Console

Before you can access metrics, you need to connect and verify your site. Let’s consider a step-by-step guide for adding a site to Google Search Console.

  1. Go to the official Google Search Console website.
  2. Click the Start or Start Now button.
  3. Sign in to your Google account if you haven’t already signed in.

Warning: If you have access to your domain’s DNS records, it is recommended to use the Domain property verification method, as it covers all URLs and subdomains of your site.

Verification using dns-record
  1. On the Google Search Console home page, select Domain property.
  2. Enter your domain without protocol and www (for example, example.com).
  3. Click the Continue button.

Adding a domain property

  • Domain property — domain-level verification, including all subdomains (for example, example.com, blog.example.com);
  • URL-prefix — verification of a specific URL or subdomain (for example, https://www.example.com/).
  1. For record type, select CNAME Copy the name and address to create a CNAME record The Host Cname verification Go to your hosting control panel in the Domain Names section, select your domain and click the “Records” button The Host Hosting panel Click the “Create” button, select CNAME record as the type and add the name and address from Google Search Console The Host create dns-record

Important: at the end of the name you MUST add the “.” symbol

The Host create cname record

Updating dns-records may take up to 24 hours.

  1. After updating the dns-records, go to the Google Search Console panel and click the “Verify” button. If everything is done correctly, a message “Domain successfully added” will appear. The Host domain approve
Verification using HTML-tag (for URL-prefix)
  1. Select the HTML-tag method.
  2. Copy the provided HTML meta tag.
  3. Paste this tag into the <head> section of your site’s main page:
Verification meta-tag code
<meta name="google-site-verification" content="YOUR_UNIQUE_CODE" />
  1. Save the changes on the site.
  2. Return to Google Search Console and click Verify.

Tip: If you use WordPress, many SEO plugins (such as Yoast SEO or All in One SEO) allow you to easily add the verification code through the admin panel without having to edit the HTML code.

Main Google Search Console Metrics

After successfully verifying your site, various metrics and reports will become available to you. Let’s look at the most important ones.

Performance

The Performance report provides detailed information on how your site appears in Google search results.

Performance Report

Key metrics in this report:

  • Total clicks — how many times users clicked on your site in search results.
  • Total impressions — how many times users saw your site in search results.
  • Average position — the average position of your site in search results.
  • CTR (click-through rate) — the percentage of clicks relative to impressions.

Information: You can analyze these metrics for different time periods and filter them by country, device, search type, etc.

  • Low CTR with high impressions — perhaps your titles and meta descriptions are not attractive to users.
  • High position but low CTR — this may indicate that your content does not match user queries or the title/meta description does not attract attention.
  • Sharp decrease in clicks — may indicate indexing problems or algorithmic downgrading in results.
  • Increase in impressions without an increase in clicks — content may not meet user expectations or does not answer their questions.

Indexing

The Indexing report shows the indexing status of your site’s pages in Google.

Indexing Report

Key metrics and features:

  • Pages in index — number of indexed pages.
  • Errors — pages that Google could not index.
  • Excluded — pages excluded from indexing (for various reasons).
  • Manual actions — issues requiring your intervention.

Warning: Regularly check the “Errors” section to promptly resolve indexing issues. Unresolved issues can negatively affect your site’s ranking.

Page Experience and Core Web Vitals

Page Experience — a report on the user experience on your site, including Core Web Vitals metrics.

Page Experience and Core Web Vitals

Key metrics:

  • LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) — loading time of the main content of the page.
  • FID (First Input Delay) — page response time to the first user interaction.
  • CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) — visual stability of the page.

Information: Core Web Vitals are direct Google ranking factors. Good indicators can improve your positions in search results.

Recommended Core Web Vitals values:

LCP (Largest Contentful Paint):

  • Good: less than 2.5 seconds
  • Needs improvement: from 2.5 to 4 seconds
  • Poor: more than 4 seconds

FID (First Input Delay):

  • Good: less than 100 ms
  • Needs improvement: from 100 to 300 ms
  • Poor: more than 300 ms

CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift):

  • Good: less than 0.1
  • Needs improvement: from 0.1 to 0.25
  • Poor: more than 0.25

To improve these indicators, it is recommended to optimize page loading speed, minimize JavaScript and CSS size, use caching and CDN.