Item: Google Search Console
Rating: 9
Author: Erin Harris

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I use the Google Search Console for every single website that I manage. As part of initial website development plans, the Google Search Console is a default setup task along with Google Analytics.

I find this an important piece that ties to Google Analytics to monitor traffic, specifically search traffic so we know what keywords are working and what users are searching for.

Pros and Cons

Providing Search Terms for what real people are searching for
Providing Appearance Rankings for where my websites appear in search results
Providing what problems may exist with indexing sites

Does not accept .html formatted xml sitemaps.
I don't think indexing is always complete for websites I've submitted

Return on Investment

Allows better use of my time which deceases my client's costs
I can explain keywords and how they are useful with data

Alternatives Considered

Google Analytics, Google Ads (formerly AdWords) and HubSpot

Google Search Console is free to use. HubSpot can be quite costly and out of my client's budgets.

Other Software Used

Google Analytics, Google Ads (formerly AdWords), WordStream, Slack, Freshdesk, Camtasia, Wix, Weebly, WordPress, Yoast Wordpress SEO Plugins

Likelihood to Recommend

I manage eight websites which are implementing the Google Search Console as a tool for keywords, analytics and SEO. Understanding the traffic information that this tool provides, helps me adjust SEO and plan ads.

Some of my websites have many pages so it's great to see how the individual pages appear in search results (ranking). This is important because every site owner wants their pages to appear in that magic number one spot and often don't understand that not everyone can be #1. Being able to see the keywords that people are using to get the results that they do.

For some of my site owners, they get it once they can see the data. Others need more help.

Google Search Console - Another great tool for managing SEO

Overall Satisfaction with Google Search Console