Google Search Console: setup and the five reports businesses actually need
Google Search Console is the free tool where Google tells you how it sees your website: which pages are indexed, which queries you appear for and whether there are problems. Many businesses have no access or never look. This article shows the setup and the reports that matter for small and mid-sized businesses.
Setup in three steps
Set up Search Console on a company account, not an agency's, and give providers user rights only:
- Create a domain property, not just a URL-prefix property: it covers all variants with and without www and all subdomains.
- Verify ownership with a DNS record at your domain registrar.
- Submit the website's sitemap, usually at /sitemap.xml.
The five most important reports
Five reports cover day-to-day needs:
- Performance: clicks, impressions, average position and the queries you appear for.
- Page indexing: which pages are indexed and why others aren't, such as "Crawled – currently not indexed".
- URL inspection: shows for a single address whether it's indexed and lets you request indexing.
- Sitemaps: whether Google could read your sitemap and how many addresses it found.
- Security and manual actions: warnings about hacks or policy violations.
What the numbers mean
Non-indexed pages aren't automatically errors: redirects, deliberately excluded pages and duplicates belong there. It becomes critical when important service pages are missing. Average position is an average across all queries; compare individual pages and countries rather than the total. New websites need a few weeks before the data is meaningful.
Alerts and routine
Turn on email notifications; Google then reports new issues with indexing, security and performance. Look at the performance report monthly and at page indexing after major website changes. Setting up Search Console, sitemap and Bing Webmaster Tools is part of our SEO setup from €450.
Frequently asked questions
- How often should I request indexing?
- Only for new or substantially changed important pages. The daily quota is limited and repeated requests don't speed anything up.
- Why does Search Console show fewer clicks than my analytics shows visits?
- They're different measurements: Search Console counts clicks from Google Search; analytics counts visits from all sources and can be limited by consent.
- Do I also need Bing Webmaster Tools?
- It's worth it because Bing data also feeds other search services. Setup takes a few minutes.
Sources
We set up Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools on your company account and explain in a short session what the reports mean.
Set up Search Console