Measuring Success→Lesson 1

Google Search Console & Analytics

Core
7 min
beginner

You'll learn:

  • •Set up Google Search Console
  • •Track essential SEO metrics

Google Search Console: Your SEO Dashboard

Google Search Console (GSC) is a free tool that shows how Google sees your site. It's essential for SEO—every website owner should have it installed. GSC tells you what's working and what needs fixing.

Setting Up Search Console

Getting started takes just a few minutes:

  • 1. Go to search.google.com/search-console
  • 2. Click "Add a property" and enter your website URL
  • 3. Verify ownership (HTML file upload, HTML tag, or DNS record)
  • 4. Submit your XML sitemap
  • Done! Start exploring the data
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Verify both http:// and https:// versions, and www and non-www versions of your site. Google treats these as separate properties. Use canonical tags to tell Google which is the preferred version.

Key Search Console Reports

GSC provides several critical reports for monitoring SEO performance:

  • Performance Report: Shows clicks, impressions, CTR, and position for each keyword
  • Coverage Report: Indexing status of your pages (indexed, excluded, errors)
  • Enhancements: Core Web Vitals, mobile usability, structured data
  • URL Inspection: See exactly how Google crawled a specific URL

Understanding the Performance Report

The Performance report is the most used section. Here's what each metric means:

  • Impressions: How many times your page appeared in search results
  • Clicks: How many times people clicked through to your site
  • CTR (Click-Through Rate): Clicks divided by impressions (higher is better)
  • Position: Your average ranking position for that query

Example

If your page has 1,000 impressions, 50 clicks, and position 5.0: • Your CTR is 5% (50/1000) • You're ranking around 5th position on average • Opportunity: Improve CTR by optimizing title tag and meta description

Google Analytics: User Behavior Data

While GSC shows search performance, Google Analytics (GA4) shows what users do after they arrive. Connect both tools to see the complete picture.

  • Organic traffic: Visits from search engines (segment by "Organic Search")
  • Bounce rate: Percentage who leave without interacting (lower is better)
  • Pages per session: How many pages users visit (higher means more engagement)
  • Conversion rate: Percentage who complete goals (purchases, sign-ups)
  • Landing pages: Which pages get the most organic traffic
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Link GSC and GA4 to see search queries alongside user behavior. Go to GSC > Settings > Association and select your GA4 property.

Key SEO KPIs to Track

Monitor these metrics regularly to assess SEO health:

  • Organic traffic growth: Month-over-month percentage increase
  • Keyword rankings: Positions for target keywords
  • Indexed pages: Number of pages in Google's index
  • CTR from search: Average for top keywords
  • Core Web Vitals: Percentage of "Good" URLs
  • Backlinks acquired: New quality links per month
Key Takeaway:
SEO is a marathon, not a sprint. Focus on trends over weeks and months, not daily fluctuations. Small, consistent improvements compound into significant results.