There are lots of tools and platforms that help us rank well on search engines. While that is helpful, we do need to know how those efforts paid off. This is where Google Search Console comes in. It is vital for every business or website trying to rank well on search engines to have Google Search Console so that they can track their performance and make necessary adjustments.
To get a quick handle on keyword metrics and ideas, this tool really is idea. It is sooooooo much easier to work with than Semrush, which does a lot and is organized, on the whole, rather poorly.
Over the years I have learned that WordTracker's KEI is particularly good at revealing a keyword's relative value.
WordTracker finds related search terms which helps us develop a more comprehensive keyword strategy.
WordTracker also enables practical sorting across columns which helps us select competitive keywords quickly.
We use WordTracker frequently in our first phases of keyword research and have found it to be very solid.
This tool provides us with data to support our recommendations for changes that may need to be made to be successful in the SERPs and is also helpful in explaining our overall strategy to our clients.
More training resources would be an asset. A beginner is given the power to completely destroy a sites search results at the push of a button. Likewise it is a powerful tool to enhance search results also.
An option to take care of multiple versions of the same site simultaneously would be helpful. An option to use the same validation script across all versions and administer them simultaneously would be a time save (i.e. non-www, www, http://, and https:// versions of the same site).
It's easy to use, but some features are lacking a clear explanation. Somethings don't always match up. For example, the Core Web Vitals often doesn't match what you would see in the Chrome Lighthouse report or the Google Page Speed Insights tool. The tool itself is a little too basic and has to be used alongside other SEO tools and other Google properties such as Analytics
As with all Google software, your primary source of help is their forums, their knowledge base articles, or whatever tutorials you can find on the web. Often answers on their forums are not straightforward and may not address the actual issue you're experiencing. The KB articles are typically written like instruction manuals - for better or for worse. Tutorials on the web may vary, but the odds are good someone out there had the same questions as you and was kind enough to document their experience.
SEMRush is a supplementary tool we use to provide competitive analysis. While it does, or should, provide the same data that Search Console does, but I only fully trust Search Console when it comes to basic performance in Google for the sites we develop and own. SEMRush, and other products like it, does provide much more in-depth insights that can help drive business decisions, including site performance on other search engines, along putting organic and paid search performance in one spot. However, SEMRush costs money while Search Console is free.
I only use WordTracker, rather than the old Google keyword research tool. In my experience, WordTracker is the best keyword analysis tool because it's easy to understand, use, and find the information for which you are looking. I also think WordTracker is the most well known and trusted amongst its competitors
Given that this is a free tool, the return on investment has been particularly high - we've identified and addressed a few site issues that could have meant a reduction in search traffic.
Our organic search traffic has been on the rise in part due to the insights gained from the search traffic analytics provided within the console.
