A good first step to understanding and addressing search performance
June 21, 2018

A good first step to understanding and addressing search performance

Ben Rubenstein | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Google Search Console

We use Google Search Console to support our public-facing website within a single unit in our organization (though it may also be in use on other sites). It serves a few different purposes: identifying and solving Google indexing and crawling errors, tracking our organic search performance, and identifying and addressing optimization issues.
  • Clearly flags areas where there are technical errors or "low-hanging fruit" we can address, such as duplicate title tags, security issues, or crawl errors.
  • Provides an easy way to keep Google up to date on our content/site organization - for example, the ability to upload/update sitemaps.
  • Offers sortable search analytics that allows us to determine if we're ranking for terms we think we should be, find unexpected search terms, or identify areas of underperformance. This helps us strategize around what content to create/optimize and potentially feeds into our paid search strategy.
  • I'd like more instructions about how to respond to certain errors I see - it can be difficult to understand when you see a red error message what it really means and how to fix it.
  • I'd appreciate warnings being 'ranked' somehow to understand what's really a big deal, and what might be a minor issue.
  • Search analytics is helpful but not comprehensive - you can only go back so far in the data, and can't see all the search terms that are sending traffic to your site.
  • 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.
We use Google Search Console in tandem with other products like Google Analytics - not in place of it. Search Console definitely provides information about organic search keywords that Google Analytics does not provide, so that's been a very helpful addition. We also use Yoast to help with optimization of pages that might be identified by Search Console. In the past, I've used tools like Moz and Screaming Frog do some similar search/ranking analysis; those do have some more unique features that help to guide next steps, but I don't think they're replacements for what Search Console provides, especially given the crawl/sitemap features.
I think Google Search Console is a very useful tool for someone/a team charged with managing a website and ensuring that it's set up to perform well in Google search. It does not cover everything, and you'll often need other tools or expertise to address issues that it might flag, but it's certainly a good starting point to find what might be holding your site back.

Google Search Console Feature Ratings

7.8
Keyword analysis
8
Backlink management
7
SERP ranking tracking
8
Page grader
Not Rated
Competitive analysis
Not Rated
Site audit / diagnostics
9
Site recommendations
7
Task management
Not Rated
Local SEO
Not Rated
Social SEO
Not Rated
Mobile SEO
7
Global SEO
6
Multi-domain support
9
Integration with web analytics tools
Not Rated