The Search Console (or Google Webmaster Tools as it used to be known) is a completely free and indispensably useful service offered by Google to all webmasters.
Although you certainly don't have to be signed up to Search Console in order to be crawled and indexed by Google, it can definitely help with optimising your site and its content for search.
Search Console is where you can monitor your site's performance, identify issues, submit content for crawling, remove content you don't want indexed, view the search queries that brought visitors to your site, monitor backlinks... there's lots of good stuff here.
Perhaps most importantly though, Search Console is where Google will communicate with you should anything go wrong (crawling errors, manual penalties, increase in 404 pages, malware detected, etc.)
If you don't have a Search Console account, then you should get one now. You may find that you won't actually need some of the other fancier, more expensive tools that essentially do the same thing.
To get started, all you need is a Google sign-in, which you probably already have if you regularly use Google or Gmail, and visit Search Console.
Then follow this complete guide which will take you through every tool and feature, as clearly and concisely as possible.
Please note: we published a guide to the old Webmaster Tools service, written by Simon Heseltine, back in 2014. This is an updated, rewritten version that reflects the changes and updates to Search Console since, but much of the credit should go to Simon for laying the original groundwork.
Quick Links:
* Add a property
* Verification
* Dashboard
* Settings
o Search Console Preferences
o Site Settings
o Change of Address
o Google Analytics Property
o Users & Property Owners
o Verification Details
o Associates
* Messages
* Search Appearance
o Structured Data
o Data Highlighter
o HTML Improvements
o Sitelinks
o Accelerated Mobile Pages
* Search Traffic
o Search Analytics
o Links to Your Site
o Internal Links
o Manual Actions
o International Targeting
o Mobile Usability
* Google Index
o Index Status
o Content Keywords
o Blocked Resources
o Remove URLS
* Crawl
o Crawl Errors
o Crawl Stats
o Fetch as Google
o robots.txt Tester
o Sitemaps
o URL Parameters
* Security Issues
* Other Resources
Add a property
If you haven't already, you will have to add your website to Search Console.
Just click on the big red Add a Property button, then add your URL to the pop-up box.
Verification
Before Search Console can access your site, you have to prove to Google that you're an authorized webmaster. You don't have be in charge, but you do need permission from whoever is.
There are five methods of verification for Search Console There's no real preference as to which method you use, although Google does give prominence to its 'recommended method'...
1) The HTML file upload: Google provides you with a HTML verification file that you need to upload to the root directory of your site. Once you've done that, you just click on the provided URL, hit the verify button and you'll have full access to Search Console data for the site.
There are also four alternative methods if the above doesn't suit...
2) HTML tag: this provides you with a meta tag that needs to be inserted in the section of your homepage, before the first section.
If you make any further updates to the HTML of your homepage, make sure the tag is still in place, otherwise your verification will be revoked. If this does happen, you'll just have to go through the process again.
3) Domain Name Provider: here you're presented with a drop down list of domain registrars or name providers, then Google will give you a step-by-step guide for inserting a TXT record to your DNS configuration.
4) Google Analytics: assuming you're using Google Analytics and your Google account is the same one you're using for Search Console, then you can verify the site this way, as long as the GA code is in the section of your home page (and remains there), and you have 'edit' permission.
5) Google Tag Manager: this option allows you to use your own Google Tag Manager account to verify your site, providing you're using the 'container snippet' and you have 'manage' permission.
Now that you're verified, you'll be able to see your site on the Home screen. (As well as any sites you're also a webmaster for). Here you can access the site, add another property and see how many unread messages you've received from Google.
if you click on your site, you will be taken to its own unique Dashboard.
For the purposes of the following walk-throughs, I'll be using my own website Methods Unsound, which means you can see all the things I need to fix and optimise in my own project.
Dashboard
Here's where you can access all of your site's data, adjust your settings and see how many unread messages you have.
The left-hand Dashboard Menu is where you can navigate to all the reports and tools at your disposal.
The three visualisations presented on the Dashboard itself (Crawl Errors, Search Analytics, and Sitemaps) are quick glimpses at your general site health and crawlability. These act as short-cuts to reports found in the left-hand menu, so we'll cover these as we walk-through the tools.
Also note that Google may communicate a message directly on the dashboard, if it's deemed important enough to be pulled out of your Messages. As you can see I have errors on my AMP pages that need fixing, but we'll look at this when we get to the Dashboard Menu section further down.
First let's take a look at settings...
Settings
Clicking on the gear icon in the top right corner will give you access to a variety of simple tools, preferences and admin features.
