Guides for Rankpilot
Google Search Console for beginners: set it up and read the reports
Google Search Console is the only place where Google tells you directly how your website does in search: which searches you appear for, how often people click, which pages are indexed and what’s broken. It’s free, but the first visit can be confusing – two property types, several verification methods and a sidebar full of reports.
This guide takes you from zero to a working setup and then explains the reports you’ll actually use: Performance, URL Inspection, Pages, Sitemaps and a few others. At the end you’ll find a short routine for checking Search Console without spending hours in it.
Step 1: Add your site – domain or URL prefix?
Go to search.google.com/search-console, sign in with a Google account and click Add property. You choose between two types:
- Domain property: covers your whole domain, including all subdomains and both http and https. It can only be verified via a DNS record. This is the better choice if you can edit your DNS.
- URL-prefix property: covers only URLs that start with exactly the address you enter, for example https://www.example.com/. It offers more verification methods and is useful if you can’t touch DNS or only manage one section of a site.
Step 2: Verify ownership
For a domain property, Search Console shows you a TXT record that starts with “google-site-verification=”. Add it in your domain provider’s DNS settings, wait a few minutes (sometimes longer) and click Verify. The record must stay in place, or you’ll lose access later.
For a URL-prefix property you can also upload an HTML file to your server, add a meta tag to your homepage, or use an existing Google Analytics or Google Tag Manager setup. If you use a website builder or CMS, check its help pages – many have a field where you just paste the verification code.
Data starts collecting once the property exists. The first numbers usually show up within a few days.
Step 3: Submit your sitemap
Open Sitemaps in the sidebar, enter the address of your XML sitemap (often /sitemap.xml or /sitemap_index.xml) and click Submit. Most CMS create one automatically. The report then shows when Google last read it and how many URLs it found.
A sitemap helps Google discover your pages, but it doesn’t guarantee that they get indexed. Make sure it lists only pages you want in Google – no redirects, no noindex pages, no 404s.
Step 4: Read the Performance report
Performance → Search results is the report you’ll open most. It shows four metrics; click each box to show it in the chart:
| Metric | What it means |
|---|---|
| Total clicks | How often someone clicked through to your site from Google Search |
| Total impressions | How often a link to your site appeared in results the user saw or could scroll to |
| Average CTR | Clicks divided by impressions |
| Average position | The position of your topmost result, averaged over all impressions |
Do it with RankpilotLearn more →Filters, tabs and comparisons
Below the chart are tabs for Queries, Pages, Countries, Devices, Search appearance and Dates. Queries shows the searches you appear for, Pages shows which URLs get clicks. Click a query and switch to the Pages tab to see which page ranks for it – or the other way round.
The date filter lets you compare periods, for example the last 3 months with the previous 3 months. Data goes back 16 months, and the standard reports lag by about two to three days, so a dip on the last day is often just incomplete data. There is a view for the last 24 hours if you need fresher numbers.
A made-up example: a page with 2,000 impressions, 20 clicks and an average position of 4 has a CTR of 1 %. That’s low for position 4 and a hint to improve the title and description. If clicks fall suddenly, our guide on Google clicks that dropped helps you find the cause.
URL Inspection and the Pages report
Paste any URL of your site into the inspection bar at the top. URL Inspection shows whether the page is indexed, when it was last crawled, which canonical Google chose and whether there were problems. Test live URL checks the current version, and Request indexing asks Google to crawl it again – useful after an important change, but there is a limited daily quota and no guarantee.
Indexing → Pages lists all URLs Google knows, split into indexed and not indexed, each with a reason such as “Excluded by ‘noindex’ tag”, “Crawled – currently not indexed” or “Page with redirect”. Many of these are fine. Once you’ve fixed a real problem, open the reason and click Validate fix. For the common statuses and their fixes, read why a page is not indexed.
The other reports worth knowing
Beyond Performance and indexing, a few more reports are worth a regular look. A simple routine: once a week, compare the last 28 days in Performance with the previous period, glance at Pages for new errors and check that Manual actions and Security issues are empty. Search Console also sends emails about new problems, so keep notifications on. The other reports in short:
- Core Web Vitals: field data from real Chrome users for mobile and desktop, grouped into good, needs improvement and poor URLs.
- HTTPS: shows whether your indexed pages are served over HTTPS.
- Links: top linked pages, top linking sites, top linking text and internal links, with an export of external links.
- Manual actions: empty is good. An entry means a human reviewer found a violation of Google’s spam policies.
- Security issues: warns about hacked content or malware.
- Crawl stats (under Settings): how often Googlebot visits, response times and server errors.
Search Console on your iPhone with Rankpilot
Search Console works best on a large screen. Rankpilot is an iPhone and iPad app, coming soon to the App Store and not available yet, that connects to your Search Console and shows clicks, impressions, CTR, positions and your top searches and pages in a phone-friendly way. Charts show markers for Google updates, and the app alerts you when clicks drop or when pages fall out of the index.
On top of the raw numbers, Rankpilot suggests a weekly plan with estimated extra clicks, finds content gaps and pages competing for the same searches, and lets you compare before and after a change. The app is free without an account. With Rankpilot Pro, a monthly or yearly subscription with a 7-day free trial, you get 90 days of data.
Frequently asked questions
Is Google Search Console free?
Yes. Google Search Console is completely free. You only need a Google account and access to your website or its DNS settings to verify ownership.
Should I use a domain property or a URL-prefix property?
Use a domain property if you can add a DNS record, because it covers all subdomains and both http and https. Use a URL-prefix property if you can’t edit DNS or only want to track part of a site.
Why is there no data for the last few days?
The standard Performance reports lag by about two to three days. The most recent days fill in later, so a drop at the very end of the chart is often not real.
What does average position mean in Search Console?
It’s the position of your topmost result in Google, averaged over all impressions. A page can rank for many searches, so the average can hide big differences between them.
How far back does Search Console data go?
The Performance report keeps 16 months of data. If you need older numbers, export them regularly.
How do I get a new page indexed faster?
Link to it from existing pages, make sure it’s in your sitemap and use Request indexing in URL Inspection. That speeds up crawling but doesn’t guarantee indexing.