Conduct a Comprehensive Google Search Console SEO Audit

A comprehensive Google Search Console SEO audit is essential to understand how your website performs in search engine results pages (SERPs). This audit can help you identify areas of improvement and optimize your website for better visibility.

To start, navigate to your Google Search Console account and click on the "Search Analytics" report. Here, you'll find a breakdown of your website's search traffic, including impressions, clicks, and average position.

Focus on the "Queries" tab, which shows the specific search terms that users have entered to find your website. This data can help you identify popular keywords and phrases to target in your SEO efforts.

A key metric to examine is the "Average Position" column, which indicates where your website appears in search results. A lower average position typically means your website is more visible to users.

By examining your Search Console data, you can gain valuable insights into how users are interacting with your website and make data-driven decisions to improve your SEO strategy.

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To get started with Google Search Console, you'll need to add your website first. You can do this by logging in to Search Console or creating an account.

To add your website, click the upper left drop-down bar and click Add property. Then, enter your domain address, which can be the entire new domain or some specific URLs depending on what you want to track.

You'll need to verify your website ownership next, which can be done through various methods including DNS records or Google Analytics tracking codes. The website verification process usually goes smoothly, but make sure your server responds properly and your website can be accessed.

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To get started with Google Search Console, you need to add your website first. This is a straightforward process that will help you learn where to go and what to look for on the dashboard.

You'll want to log in to Search Console or create an account, then click the upper left drop-down bar and click Add property. This will start the process of adding your website.

Enter your domain address, which can be the entire new domain or some specific URLs depending on what you want to track. You can choose to add the whole domain or specific URLs.

To verify your website ownership, you'll need to follow the instructions provided by Google Search Console. This will guide you through the process of choosing your provider and verifying your website.

Your server needs to respond properly and your website needs to be accessible for the verification process to go smoothly. If you encounter any errors, make sure to check your server and website.

Let's dive into the advanced features of Google Search Console that can give you an edge over your competition.

You can use the advanced features of Google Search Console to get more insights into your website's performance.

One of the advanced features is the ability to filter data by specific date ranges, which can help you identify trends and patterns in your website's traffic.

The advanced Google Search Console features also allow you to see which pages on your website are getting the most impressions and clicks.

Having this information can help you identify which content is resonating with your audience and make informed decisions about your content strategy.

Another advanced feature is the ability to see how your website is performing on different devices, such as desktops, tablets, and mobile phones.

This can help you identify any issues with your website's mobile usability and make necessary adjustments to improve the user experience.

If this caught your attention, see: Mobile Search Engine Optimisation

Indexing and crawling are crucial for SEO success, and Google Search Console is your window into how Googlebot interacts with your website. It reports any indexing and crawling issues that might hinder your site's visibility in search results.

Common issues include crawl errors, duplicate content, and pages blocked from indexing. Addressing these issues is crucial for SEO success.

To check whether you have any indexing issues, go to Google Search Console and navigate to Index > Coverage. Pay attention to the Error and Valid with warning sections to figure out what's wrong with these pages and how to fix the issues.

Additional reading: Html Microdata Seo

Googlebot needs to load your page, just like a visitor does, so improving your site speed will help improve crawl rate and thereby improve your crawl budget.

A 404 error is a page that isn't loading or can't be found. In the case of this website, it's only nine pages, and they are category pages that we don't want Google to crawl because we don't care if they rank.

If Google can't find your website, you can't rank! Visit the “Coverage” tab and it will display valid, excluded, and problematic pages. Preferably everything will be green. If you see red, that's bad. That needs fixing.

Here are some common issues to look out for in the Index Coverage report:

By addressing these issues, you can ensure that Googlebot can easily access and index your website's content.

Technical analysis is crucial in a Google Search Console SEO audit. Technical issues can hinder page indexing and harm user experience, impacting SEO.

4XX and 5XX status code issues are common problems that can make content inaccessible or non-existent. These issues send negative signals to both users and Google.

Redirects, missing pages from sitemaps, and duplicate URLs are also technical issues to watch out for.

Technical issues can be a huge hindrance in getting your pages indexed on Google but they can also be harmful to your user experience which impacts SEO.

Technical issues like 4XX and 5XX status code problems can make your content inaccessible or non-existent.

These issues send negative signals to both users and Google, making it very important to fix them quickly.

Redirects can also cause problems, while missing pages from your sitemap can make it harder for Google to crawl your site.

Duplicate URLs can confuse search engines and affect your site's overall performance.

I've seen firsthand how quickly these issues can add up and negatively impact a site's visibility.

The average position metric is a crucial aspect of technical analysis, and it's essential to understand what it means. Average position refers to the average ranking of your website's pages in search results.

To improve your website's visibility, focus on keywords with high impressions but low clicks, which indicate areas where you can improve your meta titles and descriptions to attract more clicks.

Analyzing the average position of your website's pages can help you identify trends and patterns in your search performance data.

An SEO audit is a thorough examination of your website's performance in search engines, and Google Search Console is an essential tool for this process. You can use it to find underperforming keywords and optimize your content to improve your ranking.

To start, identify keywords that are on the verge of occupying high traffic positions in SERP by using Google Search Console's Performance > Search results feature. Filter by Total impressions and Average position, and scroll down to the table of queries to find underperforming keywords.

You can also find keywords you rank for but aren't using by looking at your site's performance in Google Search Console. This can give your site a boost by adding relevant keywords to your content.

Here are some general guidelines for assessing opportunity pages:

The content has low impressions, low or no clicks, good positioning – Your target query may have very little search volume, rework to target a new topic.

The content has high impressions, low or no clicks, poor positioning – The target topic has high volume but you may need to add to and modify your content to cover the topic more thoroughly. Adjustments to metadata may be necessary as well.

The content has high impressions, low or no clicks, good positioning – Analyze your metadata vs. target keyword, your title and meta description may not be communicating or enticing clicks properly. Analyze the SERP and assess why other links are getting clicks vs. yours.

If this caught your attention, see: Semrush Search Volume

To access data in Google Search Console, you need to verify ownership of your website through various methods, including HTML file uploads, DNS records, or Google Analytics tracking codes.

This process is usually straightforward, so you can get started with your SEO audit soon enough.

You can verify your website by adding your website to Google Search Console, which can be done by logging in to Search Console or creating an account, clicking the upper left drop-down bar, and clicking Add property.

Once you've added your website, you'll need to verify your website ownership, which can be done through DNS verification if you've added a new domain.

If you've added a specific URL, you have a wider choice of verification options, including HTML file uploads, DNS records, or Google Analytics tracking codes.

Make sure your server responds properly and your website can be accessed to avoid any errors during the verification process.

Recommended read: Weebly Search Console Verification

Once verified, you'll gain access to your site's data in Google Search Console, which includes information on your website's crawl errors, search analytics, and more.

Here are the verification methods you can use:

The Coverage report in Google Search Console is a vital part of an SEO audit. It provides insights into how Googlebot crawls and indexes your site, highlighting any errors, warnings, or excluded pages.

You can find issues with pages such as 404's, pages blocked by robots.txt, and noindexing. These issues need to be addressed promptly to ensure proper indexing.

The Coverage dashboard shows a graph that displays the trend over time for pages with errors, warnings, no errors or warnings (valid), and excluded pages. If you have a very large site with a number of errors and warnings, it's best to export the data into a spreadsheet and work through the pages starting with the highest priority items first.

Here are some key things to look for in the Coverage report:

By reviewing the Coverage report regularly, you can identify and fix any issues that may be preventing your site from being indexed properly. This will help improve your site's visibility and ranking in search engine results.

Google may label your pages as valid with warning if they've been indexed but aren't sure if it was necessary.

This can bring even more trouble than errors, as Google might display pages you didn't want to show. Warnings can be just as problematic as errors in terms of SEO.

If your page is indexed despite being blocked by robots.txt, you'll see an "Indexed, though blocked by robots.txt" warning. To fix this, decide whether to block the page or not.

If you want to block it, add the noindex tag, limit access with a login request, or remove the page from the Index > Removals > New request section. Note that many SEOs mistakenly assume robots.txt is the right mechanism to hide pages from Google – it's not.

Robots.txt mainly prevents overloading your website with requests, but Google will still display the page in search results if it's blocked.

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Google Search Console has a range of reports under the Enhancements tab that show what kind of structured data you're using on your website.

You can see multiple types of structured data reports, such as FAQ, logos, products, and reviews, depending on what's on your website.

There's also a report for unparsable structured data, which means Google can't recognize it due to a syntax error.

GSC explains the issue clearly, stating the problem in plain English, like "Missing field 'image'".

Click on the report, check the details, and find the solution, which is usually a straightforward process.

You can use Google Search Console to identify areas ripe for an update. One area is underperforming keywords, which can be found by going to Performance > Search results, enabling Total impressions and Average position, and scrolling down to the table of queries. This will show you keywords that are on the verge of occupying high traffic positions in SERP.

Expand your knowledge: How to Search Keywords Locally in Semrush

To find underperforming keywords, you can set up filters to show keywords with a certain position or impression count. For example, you can filter by position > greater than and set the cutoff point to 3 or 10, depending on your strategy.

Another area ripe for an update is opportunity keywords, which can be found by looking at the impressions and rankings of your existing content. For example, if you have an article titled "Best Sellers: Our Top 15 Armchairs Under $500", you may find that it's driving very little organic traffic, but the impressions are in the thousands. This is an opportunity to adjust your content to target a more specific and relevant keyword, such as "accent chairs under $100".

You can also use Google Search Console to find keywords you rank for but aren't using. This can be done by going to the Performance tab and scrolling down to the table of queries. You may find that you're ranking for a keyword like "smart soccer ball", but it's not included in your article content. Adding this keyword to your content can help you earn a top of page one ranking.

Broaden your view: How to Use Google Search Console for Keyword Research

Additionally, you can review underperforming content by filtering by lowest clicks and highest impressions. This will show you content that is ranking somewhat well but not getting any clicks. You can consider changing up your meta descriptions and title tags to make them more enticing.

Here's a table summarizing the areas ripe for an update:

By identifying and updating these areas, you can improve your SEO and drive more traffic to your website.

Checking for redirects is a crucial step in an SEO audit. You want to make sure all redirects have the right status.

Look for 301 or 302 redirects, which are indicated by a blue arrow next to the URL. This is where issues can arise if pages are being redirected and shouldn't be.

Check the URL, host, and backend coding of the page to find the redirect code, just like you would with a page that's been redirected and shouldn't have been.

If you notice any pages that are being redirected and shouldn't be, you'll want to address the issue to ensure your website's crawlability and ranking potential aren't impacted.

Performance metrics are vital for tracking the effectiveness of your SEO efforts. Google Search Console provides a wealth of performance metrics, such as click-through rates, impressions, and average positions.

Analyzing these metrics over time allows you to gauge the impact of your SEO strategies and make data-driven adjustments. Measuring your website's performance is essential for understanding what's working and what's not.

Total impressions refer to the number of times your website's pages appeared in search results. This metric can help you identify areas of your site that are generating traffic.

Click-through rate is the number of users that click your organic result, and impressions are the number of people that view your result on a browser. A higher click-through rate is generally better, as it indicates more users are finding your content relevant.

Average position measures the ranking of your website's pages in search results. Identifying trends and patterns in this data can help you uncover opportunities for improvement.

Look for keywords with high impressions but low clicks, which can indicate areas where you can improve your meta titles and descriptions to attract more clicks.

Mobile usability is a critical factor in SEO rankings, and Google Search Console can help you identify and fix issues. Mobile-friendliness has become a critical factor in SEO rankings with the increasing use of mobile devices.

Google Search Console offers a "Mobile Usability" report that highlights issues specific to mobile users. Ensuring your website is mobile-responsive and accessible from mobile usability errors is essential for improving your search rankings and providing a positive user experience.

In the "Mobile Usability" report, check for any mobile-specific issues that could affect user experience on smartphones and tablets. Addressing these issues will improve your site's rankings and enhance the overall user experience for mobile users.

Some common mobile usability issues include elements too close together, content wider than the screen, and font sizes that are too small. These issues can reduce the chances of outranking your competition because the page isn't user-friendly, according to Google.

To determine if your site is mobile-friendly, go to the "Experience" tab in Google Search Console and select "Mobile Usability". This will show you all the pages on your website that are usable on mobile.

Here are some common mobile usability issues to look out for:

By addressing these issues, you can improve the user experience for mobile users and enhance your search rankings.

Core Web Vitals is a newer addition to Google Search Console that allows you to closely monitor site speed across pages on both mobile and desktop. It includes three important metrics: Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS).

These metrics can impact the overall performance of your website, so it's essential to address any issues that arise. Make sure all your images are compressed and properly sized, limit non-essential scripts, minimize JavaScript to reduce loading time, and avoid excessive dynamic content to prevent page hopping.

Keeping your site format simple is a great way to prevent issues with Core Web Vitals. By following these best practices, you can improve the performance of your website and enhance the user experience for both mobile and desktop users.

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Security and errors are a top priority in Google Search Console. Security issues are an immediate red flag that you'll want to fix right away. If you scroll down to the security and manual actions section, you'll find penalties applied to your website based on Google's human reviewers.

Manual actions are different from algorithmic penalties, where a website's ranking drops due to automatic algorithm updates. Some common issues that get you flagged include black hat linking, thin content that provides no value, spam, link cloaking, and hacking or malware.

To identify these issues, check the manual actions section in Google Search Console. If you find anything other than "no issues detected", make it your number one priority because it's likely resulting in a major dip in traffic and little to no rankings for your site.

You should also investigate status codes and page errors. Certain redirects are done on purpose, but you want to know what pages are being redirected or blocked and for what reason. Go to indexing > pages in GSC to find this information.

Here are some examples of pages you might want to have a noindex tag for:

Errors are a normal part of the web development process.

You might find some type of error when looking through your pages in Google Search Console, but keep in mind that an error is not always an actual error. Certain redirects are done on purpose.

A 404 happens when Google cannot find a webpage as it was entered into the search bar, and it's generally an error that you'll want to fix.

Sometimes a 404 is done on purpose, but usually, it's caused by changing URLs or deleting content.

Pages with noindex tags should be pages that you don't want Google to crawl. If pages have noindex tags and you're actually trying to rank them, it will be impossible because Google cannot crawl the page and identify keywords.

You'll want to check for 301 or 302 redirects, which are pages being redirected and shouldn't be. Make sure to open this section and look at the URLs inside.

Having too many 404 errors on your site is not ideal, and noindex and robots.txt tags are the correct way to prevent search engines from crawling pages.

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Security is a top priority when it comes to your website. If Google determines that your website has security issues, it's an immediate red flag that needs to be fixed right away.

Some common security issues include hacking or malware, which can harm users and compromise your website's integrity. If you scroll down to the security and manual actions section in Google Search Console, you'll find penalties applied to your website based on Google's human reviewers.

Manual actions are different from algorithmic penalties, and they're applied manually by Google's team after a thorough review. You'll want to investigate the details of any security issues, fix all of them, and request a review to get your website back on track.

Some common security issues include:

If you find any security issues, it's essential to fix them all, not just some, to avoid any further penalties. Once you've fixed the issues, click Request review and describe what you've done to fix the problem. A good request should explain the exact quality issue, describe the steps you've taken to fix it, and document the outcome.

Auditing and improving your SEO with Google Search Console is a must-do task. It's the most important SEO tool you'll use, and it's free.

Google Search Console may just be the most important SEO tool you use. I use it every day and for every piece of content I write. It's that valuable.

Make auditing a routine to maintain and improve your SEO strategy. Monitor your performance data, address new issues as they arise, and continually optimize your content based on insights gained from Google Search Console.

The "Performance" report is where you'll spend most of your time if you're interested in improving your SEO long term. It's the bread and butter of Search Console.

Focus on the following metrics in the "Performance" report: search query data, rankings for specific pages, or specific sections of your site (using filters). This will help you identify areas of improvement.

The most important sections to audit include Sitemaps, Crawling and indexing performance, Organic impressions and CTR, Top organic queries, Internal and external links, and Manual actions. Ensure these are all working as intended.

Here are the key metrics to analyze in the "Performance" report:

SEO is a game of compounding wins. What you do today will pay off months ahead. Check in every few months to see how you're doing and adjust your strategy accordingly.