Google Search Console is a free service from Google that shows how your site appears in Google Search. After verifying ownership of a domain, you get data straight from Google about the queries that surface your pages, which URLs are indexed, and any problems Google ran into while crawling.
What it shows
- Performance report. Total clicks, impressions, average click-through rate, and average position, sliceable by query, page, country, and device.
- Pages report. Which URLs are indexed and the reasons others are excluded, such as “Crawled, currently not indexed.”
- URL Inspection. The live index status of any single URL, plus a button to request indexing.
- Experience reports. Core Web Vitals and mobile usability data from real visitors.
Why it matters
Search Console is the only source of Google’s own query data. Analytics tools tell you what visitors did after arriving, but GSC tells you what people searched to find you, including impressions that never turned into clicks. That gap is where you find pages ranking on page two or terms with a weak click-through rate.
How to use it
Check the Pages report to confirm important URLs are indexed, watch organic traffic trends in the Performance report, and submit your XML sitemap so Google discovers new content faster. Use the query data to refine titles and content for terms where you earn impressions but few clicks.