Google Search Console (GSC) is a free tool provided by Google that helps website owners monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot their site’s presence in Google Search results. It offers various tools and reports to improve search performance. Here are the key tools and features available in Google Search Console:
1. Performance Report
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Shows how your site performs in Google Search.
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Metrics: Clicks, Impressions, CTR (Click-Through Rate), and Average Position.
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Filter by queries, pages, countries, devices, and search appearance.
2. URL Inspection Tool
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Check how Google crawls and indexes a specific URL.
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See if the URL is in Google’s index.
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Test live URLs for crawling and rendering issues.
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Request indexing for updated pages.
3. Index Coverage Report
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Tracks indexed and non-indexed pages.
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Identifies errors (e.g., 404, server errors, blocked pages).
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Helps fix crawling and indexing issues.
4. Sitemaps Report
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Submit and monitor XML sitemaps.
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Check which pages were indexed from your sitemap.
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Detect sitemap errors.
5. Mobile Usability Report
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Identifies mobile-friendly issues (e.g., text too small, clickable elements too close).
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Helps optimize for mobile search (important for rankings).
6. Core Web Vitals Report
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Measures page experience (loading, interactivity, visual stability).
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Tracks LCP (Largest Contentful Paint), FID (First Input Delay), and CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift).
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Helps improve user experience and SEO.
7. Security & Manual Actions Report
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Alerts if Google detects security issues (e.g., hacking, malware).
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Shows manual penalties for violating Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.
8. Links Report
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Internal Links: Shows which pages link to others within your site.
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External Links: Lists sites linking to yours.
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Top Linked Pages: Identifies your most linked content.
9. Rich Results (Structured Data) Report
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Checks if Google can display rich snippets (e.g., FAQs, reviews, breadcrumbs).
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Reports errors in structured data markup.
10. Removals Tool
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Temporarily hide URLs from Google Search.
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Clear cached copies of pages.
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Remove outdated or sensitive content.
11. Legacy Tools (Still Useful)
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Fetch as Google: Simulate how Googlebot crawls a page.
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PageSpeed Insights Integration: Check loading speed.
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International Targeting: Set hreflang for multilingual sites.
How to Access Google Search Console?
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Visit Google Search Console.
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Verify ownership (via HTML file, DNS record, Google Analytics, etc.).
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Start analyzing and optimizing your site’s search performance.
Would you like help with a specific tool or report?
