In this post, I\u2019ll show you some simple strategies to improve your SEO with Google Search Console that anyone can implement. Now although I will show you some basic reports in Search Console, the main point of this post is to show you how Search Console can directly help your SEO strategy<\/a>.<\/p>\n There are many ways to use Search Console to improve your SEO, I\u2019ll be focusing on low-hanging fruit strategies that will help you to move the needle quickly on your SEO.<\/p>\n What\u2019s more, I\u2019ll be showing you two ways to use this awesome free tool. Yes, you can use Search Console to:<\/p>\n That said, Search Console does have its limitations and I\u2019ll show you what they are by demonstrating where you need a paid rank tracker. With that out the way, strap in, and let\u2019s get going.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s start with the Performance report\u2026<\/p>\n Once you\u2019ve published some content, promoted the heck out of it, and let it sit for a while, the first place to look is position data in the Google Search Console Performance Report. When you publish new content on the web, it takes time for Google to figure out where to place it on the SERPs. Google will test it out in various SERPs in various positions.<\/p>\n What I\u2019ve noticed over the years is your post won\u2019t always end up on the target SERP. Surprises do happen. Sometimes Google simply can\u2019t make heads or tails of what you\u2019ve written. A quick glance at Search Console Performance Report will reveal:<\/p>\n To get started, scroll down to the Performance report and click on Search results. Take a look at the queries. For instance, in the screenshot below, Search Console is showing data for a blog post about situational awareness.<\/p>\n Now I have to admit that \u2018kryptonite leveling kit\u2019 is a fascinating keyword, guaranteed to make Superman run with his tail between his legs. As you can see, none of the search terms make any sense for the article. When you see a situation like this, you know there is work to be done. To do this I covered the basics by:<\/p>\n Here are the keywords for the same article, tracked over the last three months. All of the keywords now make perfect sense for the article.<\/p>\n As you can see, Google now understands what the article is about. This means the article is showing up on the right SERPs.<\/p>\n This is my first pass. Once your article is ranking for the right terms, you want to make sure that your article gets to the top of Google. Now that Google is ranking your pages on the right SERPs your work has just begun. If you\u2019ve done a good job of your on-page SEO<\/a> and your content promotion, your page should rank towards the top of Google, perhaps on page two and maybe even on page one. This means, if your content is nowhere near page two for any queries, take a look at what\u2019s ranking in the top spots for your target keyword and try to see if your content is missing anything that is included in those pages. I\u2019ll explain this a bit more in detail later in this blog post.<\/p>\n If on the other hand, your content is getting impressions and maybe one or two clicks, your next low-hanging fruit strategy is to find page two rankings and improve those. Now, at this point I usually move over to the Similarweb rank tracker, however, you can also do this using Search Console.<\/p>\n Back to finding page two keywords in Search Console. Next, make sure you\u2019re viewing your page by entering the URL into the Page filter.<\/p>\n Once there, click on Queries and you\u2019ll see a list of queries with a Position column. Now scroll down until you see positions that are higher than 10, but not higher than 20. These are your page two queries. Your goal is to get your URL to show up on page one for these queries.<\/p>\n Generally, you can do this by answering these queries in the body of your blog post. To do this, look for a keyword that:<\/p>\n If on the other hand, you don\u2019t see anything that makes sense to include in your post, but you have found a query that might make an interesting blog post, you might have found a great cluster content opportunity. As you can see in the screenshot above, \u2018situational awareness activities\u2019 has an average ranking position of 16.1. This means it\u2019s ranking towards the middle of page two.<\/p>\n Also, answering this query in the blog post makes perfect sense as the post deals with situational awareness in a general way. Adding activities and exercises seems like a natural next step.<\/p>\n At this stage, it\u2019s important to confirm that the term gets enough search volume<\/a> to justify spending the time to write a new subsection for the article. Before writing anything, you must know how Google understands the term so that you can write an answer that Google sees as a good answer to the query. SERP analysis is a quick easy way to understand what Google considers as good content that convincingly answers the query.<\/p>\n To do SERP analysis, type the query into Google and see what\u2019s ranking at the top. Usually by reading the top three or four posts will give you a good indication of what Google expects to see in an answer to this query.<\/p>\n At this point, you should have some search terms that, with a slight push, you could rank on page one. You should also understand what top-ranking content should look like based on the top-ranking URLs in Google. In other words, use the top-ranking website<\/a> content as a guide. However, don\u2019t just rewrite their content in your own words. Instead, use their content to see what points to add. Make sure to expand on it and make it better than what\u2019s currently ranking. Also, make sure that whatever you add will enhance your content. It has to make sense in the context of what you have already written. If it doesn\u2019t, it will provide a bad user experience, which could hurt your rankings. So you\u2019ve improved your content and you\u2019re hoping to see it rising in the rankings. As an SEO it pays to rely on more than one tactic to improve your rankings. I\u2019ve learned from experience that improving your internal links is one of the fastest ways to see your rankings improve. To get started, scroll down to the Links tab in the right-hand menu.<\/p>\n Once there, check out the Internal Links report. If you have hundreds of pages you can use the filter to find the URL you are working on. The report will show you the number of internal links pointing to the page. If you click on the URL, Search Console will show you all the pages on your site that are linking to your URL.<\/p>\n This is super useful if you are optimizing your anchor text.<\/p>\n That said, I personally find it frustrating that Search Console doesn\u2019t show you the anchor text. If you want to see anchor texts, you\u2019ll have to either go to the actual pages that are linking to your target page or use another tool.<\/p>\n Once you\u2019ve improved your anchor text and added some new internal links to your blog post, you can give the rest of your site a boost by finding pages that have a small number of internal links.<\/p>\n As an SEO you are most likely always looking for opportunities to improve your rankings. Especially low-hanging fruit that won\u2019t take hours to implement. Simply go to the report. You\u2019ll notice that the report will show you the URLs with the most internal links at the top. If you click the top of the report where it says \u2018Internal Links\u2019 the report will invert, showing URLs that have a minimum of one internal link pointing to them.<\/p>\n You\u2019ll now see the URLs with the least amount of internal links. Although it\u2019s not always appropriate, you might find older content that could use a few more internal links. If that content is high quality and relevant, it\u2019s likely that some well-structured internal links will result in a quick boost in rankings.<\/p>\n Another way to use Search Console to improve your SEO is to increase your click-through rates<\/a>.<\/p>\n Use Search Console to improve your click-through rates by looking for pages that are ranking at the top of Google and that get a large number of impressions but have a low click-through rate.<\/p>\n In the screenshot above, the bottom query got 4648 impressions over a period of three months. What is interesting is the URL is ranked in position one but only has a 0.5% click-through rate.<\/p>\n What could possibly be causing the low click-through rate? What\u2019s more, Google might be answering the query in the SERP meaning there is no reason for your audience to click through to your page. As you can see in the screenshot below, which is showing the Google SERP for the term \u2018architectural software\u2019, the Featured Snippet is gigantic, taking attention away from the organic result below it.<\/p>\n In a case like this, your best bet would be to try to win the Featured Snippet<\/a>.<\/p>\n As I mentioned above, sometimes your URL\u2019s CTR is low due to Google Ads drawing attention away from your URL.<\/p>\n In the screenshot above, I typed the term \u2018architectural software\u2019 into Google.<\/p>\n It\u2019s important to note that this is the exact same term that I showed you in the previous example. The reason this screenshot is showing ads while the previous one didn\u2019t is for the second one, I specifically looked at the results that are showing in the United States while for the first one I made the search outside of the United States. I used I Search From<\/a> to do this. In a situation like this, you have very little chance of increasing your click-through rate in a substantial way. You should first ask yourself, is the content country-specific? If not, you might still get substantial website traffic. Ranking your content on the same SERP in countries where the ads are not showing should result in an increase in average click-through rates.<\/p>\n What\u2019s more, since ads are being shown for this term, you know that the term has commercial intent. This means you might still be able to make sales. In a case like this, it might make sense to optimize for the Featured Snippet in the hopes that your content will rank at the top of Google in different countries. If you see that your content ranks globally, it might make sense to try to increase the click-through rate by optimizing for the Featured Snippet. Now that you know how I use Search Console to improve my rankings, I want to point out one of the areas that I feel Search Console is lacking in.<\/p>\n There\u2019s no secret that Google now includes user experience in its algorithms. This means as an SEO you must be concerned with how easy the content is to access and interact with. Although the primary way to rank content is to make sure that it\u2019s relevant, answers the search intent<\/a>, and is authoritative, having a great user experience is considered a minor ranking factor.<\/p>\n With Google\u2019s Page Experience update including Core Web Vitals<\/a>, you must keep an eye on site speed. When you do that you\u2019ll see an overview of your Page Experience metrics.<\/p>\n From here, if you see any issues you can click through to the Core Web Vitals report.<\/p>\n In the Core Web Vitals report, you can see how many URLs are:<\/p>\n If there are URLs that are either poor or need improvement, scroll down and you\u2019ll see a list of issues you can work on.<\/p>\n Now even though Core Web Vitals is a relatively lightweight ranking factor, it\u2019s important to understand that successful SEO results from getting a combination of things right. This means you shouldn\u2019t neglect site speed.<\/p>\n There are times when your content is just not showing up the way you\u2019d expect in the search results. If you\u2019ve done a great job of creating well-researched authoritative content<\/a> and your on-page SEO is on point and your content is simply not showing up, you might have an indexing problem.<\/p>\n To see if your page is indexed correctly, drop the URL into the inspect search box in the top bar.<\/p>\n This will bring you the status of your page based on Google\u2019s last crawl of the page.<\/p>\n As you can see from the screenshot above, this report is broken up into three sections.<\/p>\n If you spot any issues, once you\u2019ve fixed them, click the Test Live URL button in the top right-hand corner of the page. This will compare the live page with the indexed URL.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve not gone into all the details in this post but if you have any questions about this tool, check out the URL Inspection Tool on Google\u2019s Help Center<\/a>.<\/p>\n Now that you are working on how Google indexes your pages, you might want to deal with any crawl errors. Although this blog is mainly about how you can incorporate Search Console into your SEO strategy, no post about Search Console would be complete without mentioning the Coverage Report.<\/p>\n The reason this is so important is, that even with the best strategy in place, your site traffic<\/a> won\u2019t improve if you have technical issues or crawl errors. The report will show you:<\/p>\n As time is limited, you should generally focus on the Errors tab. Errors stop the pages from being indexed. This means the pages won\u2019t show up in Google search. Once you\u2019ve fixed all of your Error pages, you should look through your Warnings. It\u2019s likely that you\u2019ll find some errors that are preventing some of your pages from being indexed.<\/p>\n Once you\u2019re done there, look over your Excluded pages. Search Console includes pages that it assumes were intentionally excluded. It makes sense to look through these pages just to make sure that\u2019s the case.<\/p>\n Now that you\u2019ve looked at the data in Search Console the next step is to find your most profitable keywords and track them in a rank tracker.<\/p>\n You can use Search Console data to help you pick high-impact keywords to track<\/a>. Once you\u2019ve done that, it\u2019s important to add them to your rank tracker.<\/p>\n The reason this is so important is a rank tracker will give you granular data that you simply can\u2019t find in Search Console.<\/p>\n As you can see above, the Similarweb Rank Tracker shows you keyword metrics including Search Volume, Position Trend, and more.<\/p>\n What\u2019s more the tool allows you to track keyword clusters<\/a> separately with Keyword Tags.<\/p>\n Keyword Tags allow you to see how each cluster is performing, giving you separate visibility metrics such as:<\/p>\nHow to Improve Your SEO Using Google Search Console<\/h2>\n
\n
How to Use the Performance Report<\/h2>\n
\nHere\u2019s why\u2026<\/p>\n
\nWhen this happens, your content might find itself ranking on page four of some very strange SERPs.<\/p>\n\n
\nThen, enter the URL into the Page filter and go to the Queries tab.<\/p>\n![\"Search](\"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/rank-ranger\/blog_6\/search-console_page_filter.png\"){kind=icon}
<\/div>\n
\nIf the keywords make sense for your post, you know that Google understands it. The next step is to get your content to the top.
\nIf, on the other hand, the keywords are somewhat bizarre or have nothing to do with what you\u2019ve written, that means Google has no idea what you\u2019ve written about.<\/p>\n![\"Search](\"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/rank-ranger\/blog_6\/search-console_queries_page.png\"){kind=icon}
<\/div>\n
\nThe problem is, it has absolutely nothing to do with situational awareness. In fact, almost none of these keywords do.<\/p>\n
\nIn the example above, when I looked at the article, I realized that the target keyword wasn\u2019t clear to me. And if it isn\u2019t clear to me, it certainly isn\u2019t clear to Google.<\/p>\n\n
![\"Search](\"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/rank-ranger\/blog_6\/search-console_focused_queries.png\"){kind=icon}
<\/div>\n
\nTo do this, look at the position data for terms that are ranking on page two.<\/p>\nImprove Your Page Two Rankings<\/h3>\n
\nIf not, perhaps you\u2019ve chosen a keyword that\u2019s too competitive or maybe Google doesn\u2019t see your content as a good answer to the search query.<\/p>\n
\nFirst, make sure that you click Average Position.<\/p>\n![\"Search](\"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/rank-ranger\/blog_6\/search-console_average_position.jpg\"){kind=icon}
<\/p>\n![\"Search](\"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/rank-ranger\/blog_6\/search-console_new_page.jpg\"){kind=icon}
<\/p>\n
\nClick on Position at the top of the Position column. This will order your queries from the highest position to the lowest.<\/p>\n![\"Search](\"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/rank-ranger\/blog_6\/search-console_position.jpg\"){kind=icon}
<\/a><\/p>\n\n
\nSo, here is an example of a query that you could add to your post\u2026
\nIf we go back to the blog post about situational awareness and look in Search Console we easily find keywords that are ranking on page two that make sense to be added to the post.<\/p>\n![\"Search](\"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/rank-ranger\/blog_6\/search-console_page_two_query.jpg\"){kind=icon}
<\/p>\n
\nYou can get this data from your keyword research tool<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\nTo do that, you\u2019ll need to do some SERP analysis<\/a>.<\/p>\nSERP Analysis<\/h3>\n
Improving Your Content<\/h3>\n
\nThe next step is to include similar content in your post. Although this is the process that I use, it\u2019s important to make sure that you are not just \u2018SEOing\u2019 your content.<\/p>\n
\nIn other words, think of the user first.<\/p>\n
\nOnce you\u2019ve improved the quality of your content, the next go-to strategy to improve your rankings is internal linking<\/a>.<\/p>\nUsing the Links Report for Internal Linking<\/h2>\n
\nSearch Console is a great place to do this.<\/p>\nImproving Anchor Text<\/h3>\n
![\"Search](\"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/rank-ranger\/blog_8\/search-console-links-tab.jpg\"){kind=icon}
<\/div>\nImprove Pages With Almost No Internal Links<\/h3>\n
\nThe Search Console Internal Links report can show you many easy-to-implement internal link opportunities.<\/p>\n![\"Search](\"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/rank-ranger\/blog_8\/minimal-internal-links.jpg\"){kind=icon}
<\/div>\nImproving Your Click-through Rate<\/h2>\n
![\"Search](\"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/rank-ranger\/blog_6\/search-console_low_ctr.jpg\"){kind=icon}
<\/p>\n
\nIn all likelihood, there is something attracting more attention than your number one listing. This could either mean there are SERP features<\/a> pushing the listing below the fold or there are Google Ads that are attracting attention away from the organic results.<\/p>\n
\nIf I were using a paid rank tracker, I could immediately see if there are SERP features ranking on the SERP. However, Search Console won\u2019t tell you this. Instead, you will have to type the term into Google and take a look for yourself.<\/p>\nSERP Features Pushing Your URL Below-The-Fold<\/h2>\n
![\"Google](\"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/rank-ranger\/blog_6\/search-console_large_featured_snippet.jpg\"){kind=icon}
<\/p>\nGoogle Ads Taking Attention Away from Your URL<\/h2>\n
![\"Google](\"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/rank-ranger\/blog_6\/search-console_ads.jpg\"){kind=icon}
<\/p>\n
\nLooking at the screenshot, you\u2019ll notice that not even the Featured Snippet is above the fold due to the ads that appear on the SERP.<\/p>\n
\nHowever, with everything in SEO, it really depends.<\/p>\n
\nYou see, people running Google Ads only target countries where they expect to make the most money. This means the ads are not likely to show up in all countries.<\/p>\n
\nTo see what countries your content is ranking in, click on the Countries tab.<\/p>\n![\"Search](\"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/rank-ranger\/blog_6\/search-console_countries.jpg\"){kind=icon}
<\/p>\n
\nHowever, if you feel that ranking your URL in other countries is not worth the time or effort, your only chance of stealing attention away from the ads is to create your own ads or to rank on a different SERP.<\/p>\nCore Web Vitals<\/h2>\n
\nSearch Console is the first place to optimize your Core Web Vitals. To get started, scroll down to the Experience tab and click Page Experience.<\/p>\n![\"Search](\"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/rank-ranger\/blog_8\/search-console-experience-tab.jpg\"){kind=icon}
<\/div>\n![\"Search](\"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/rank-ranger\/blog_8\/page-experience-report.jpg\"){kind=icon}
<\/p>\n![\"Search](\"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/rank-ranger\/blog_8\/core-web-vitals-report.jpg\"){kind=icon}
<\/p>\n\n
URL Inspection Tool<\/h2>\n
![\"Search](\"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/rank-ranger\/blog_8\/url-inspection-bar.jpg\"){kind=icon}
<\/p>\n![\"Search](\"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/rank-ranger\/blog_8\/url-inspection-tool-report.jpg\"){kind=icon}
<\/p>\n\n
![\"Search](\"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/rank-ranger\/blog_8\/test-live-url.jpg\"){kind=icon}
<\/div>\n
\nThis is pretty easy to do with the Coverage Report under the Index tab.<\/p>\nCoverage Report<\/h3>\n
\nEnter the coverage report.
\nYou can find the Coverage Report under the Index tab in the right-hand menu.<\/p>\n![\"Search](\"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/rank-ranger\/blog_8\/index-coverage-report-tab.jpg\"){kind=icon}
<\/div>\n\n
\nSimply click on the Error check box and scroll down to the Details table to see what to work on.<\/p>\n![\"Search](\"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/rank-ranger\/blog_8\/error-check-box.jpg\"){kind=icon}
<\/p>\nUse Your Rank Tracking Tool<\/h2>\n
![\"rank](\"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/keywords-table.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"clicks](\"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/keyword-tags-graph.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
![\"keywords](\"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/keyword-tags.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"separate](\"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/separate-keywords.jpg\")
<\/p>\n