Google Search Console: What It Is and How to Access It
Google Search Console is Google's free tool for seeing how your site performs in Google Search: which queries bring impressions and clicks, which pages are indexed, and what problems Google has found. Anyone who owns or manages a website should set it up.
  • Search Console is free and shows data you cannot get anywhere else: real Google impressions, clicks, queries and indexing status.
  • A domain property, verified by DNS, covers every subdomain and protocol, so use it where you can.
  • Give others access through Users and permissions. Never share your Google login.
  • Data covers the last 16 months and runs about two days behind, so export it if you want long-term history.
  • AI Overviews and AI Mode are included in Web totals, and Google has been rolling out a separate generative AI report since June 2026.

Google Search Console (often shortened to GSC) is a free service from Google that shows how your website appears and performs in Google Search. It is the only place to see Google's own data on the searches that showed your pages, how often people clicked, which pages are indexed and why others are not. Analytics tools tell you what visitors did once they arrived. Search Console tells you what happened before they clicked.

What you can do with it

  • See the queries, pages, countries and devices that drive impressions and clicks.
  • Check whether a page is indexed, and why not.
  • Submit XML sitemaps and request indexing of new or updated pages.
  • Monitor Core Web Vitals and HTTPS from real user data.
  • Get alerts about manual actions, security issues and spikes in errors.
  • See which sites and pages link to you, and your most internally linked pages.

How to access it

  1. Go to search.google.com/search-console and sign in with a Google account. Use one your business controls, not a personal account that might leave with someone.
  2. Click Add property and choose a property type.
  3. Verify that you own the site.

Domain property or URL-prefix property?

  • Domain property (example.com): covers http and https, www and non-www and every subdomain. Verified only by adding a DNS TXT record at your domain registrar. This is the best choice for most sites.
  • URL-prefix property (https://www.example.com/): covers only that exact protocol, host and path. Useful for tracking one section, such as /blog/, or when you cannot edit DNS.

Verification methods

  • DNS TXT record: required for domain properties. Copy the record into your registrar or DNS provider (for example Cloudflare).
  • HTML meta tag: paste a tag into the site's head. Most site builders, including Duda, have a field for this in their SEO or site settings.
  • HTML file upload to the site root.
  • Google Analytics or Google Tag Manager, if you already have edit access.

Keep the verification in place. If the tag or record is removed, Google may revoke access later.

Giving other people access

Under Settings, Users and permissions, add people by email address:

  • Owner: full control, including adding users. Verified owners proved ownership themselves.
  • Full user: can see all data and take most actions. Usually right for a consultant or agency.
  • Restricted user: view-only access to most data.

Remove access when people leave or engagements end, and make sure the business always has at least one owner of its own.

The main reports

  • Performance: clicks, impressions, click-through rate and average position, filterable by query, page, country, device, date and search type (Web, Image, Video, News, Discover).
  • URL Inspection: the status of a single URL, the canonical Google chose, and a live test showing the rendered page.
  • Page indexing: how many pages are indexed and the reasons others are not.
  • Sitemaps: submit sitemaps and see whether Google could read them.
  • Core Web Vitals and HTTPS: page experience from real Chrome users.
  • Links: top linking sites, linked pages and anchor text.
  • Manual actions and Security issues: check these first if traffic falls off a cliff.
  • Crawl stats (under Settings): how often Googlebot visits, response codes and server response times.

Know the limits

  • 16 months of history only. Export or set up a bulk data export if you need more.
  • About two days behind for most data, though recent hourly data is available in Performance.
  • The interface shows up to 1,000 rows. Use the API or bulk export for the full picture.
  • Some queries are hidden for privacy, so query totals will not match page totals.
  • AI Overviews and AI Mode are counted inside Web search totals. Since June 2026 Google has been rolling out separate generative AI performance reports showing impressions, pages, countries and devices for these features, but not yet clicks, and not every site has them yet.
  • Average position is an average across many searches, not a fixed rank.

Getting more out of it

  • Bulk data export to BigQuery for unsampled, long-term data you can query.
  • The Search Console API for dashboards in Looker Studio or spreadsheets.
  • MCP servers that let an AI assistant query your Search Console data in plain language.
  • Bing Webmaster Tools, which can import your Search Console properties in a few clicks and covers the index behind Copilot.

Common mistakes

  • Setting it up under a personal or ex-employee's Google account.
  • Using only a URL-prefix property and missing data from other subdomains or protocols.
  • Sharing a login instead of adding users.
  • Waiting until there is a problem. Set it up early so alerts, history and exports are already in place when you need them.
  • Treating every item in Page indexing as an error. Many exclusions are expected.

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