Google Search Console
What is Google Search Console?
Google Search Console is Google’s free tool that shows how a site looks in search: which queries it turns up for, how many clicks it gets and which pages are indexed. It also reports the problems Google has found — indexing, structured data, manual actions. Access is granted once you prove the site is yours — with a DNS record, a file or a tag — and the data covers the last 16 months.
Example
A print shop opens the performance report for the last three months: 62,000 impressions, 1,240 clicks, a clickthrough rate of 1,240 ÷ 62,000 = 2%, average position 14. Sorted by query, the same report says where the money is:
- “business card printing” — 8,400 impressions, 310 clicks (3.7%), position 6;
- “brochure printing cost” — 5,100 impressions, 61 clicks (1.2%), position 11;
- “pad printing” — 3,900 impressions, 12 clicks (0.3%), position 23.
Three lines, three different decisions. The first query works. The second sits just below the first page and carries buying intent, so the page behind it earns some attention. The third is far away: the question there is whether a page for that service exists at all.
Why it matters for a business
Search Console is the only place that shows what someone typed before they reached you. Analytics shows what the visitor did afterwards; the queries live here. That makes access a commercial question too: the property should belong to the company rather than to the supplier, so the history stays with you when the work ends.
The performance report is also where clickthrough rate is read against position. A high position with a low rate usually means a title and description promising something other than what the searcher wanted. Impressions inside Google’s AI answers now have a report of their own in Search Console, while the clicks from them land in these same totals, with no queries attached.
What to ask
- Who owns the Search Console property, and does the company have full access?
- Has the page indexing report been checked since the last release?
- Which queries are growing and which are falling against the same period last year?
- Is there anything in the manual actions report?
- Has the sitemap been submitted, and when was it last updated?
The monthly report in the SEO work we run is built on exactly these numbers: positions, impressions and enquiries.