Google Search Console is the single most important free tool for SEO. It shows exactly how Google sees your site - which queries bring impressions, which pages get clicked, what is indexed, and what is broken.
Unlike third-party tools that estimate rankings, GSC provides actual data from Google. If you only use one SEO tool, this should be it.
What Is Google Search Console?
Google Search Console (GSC) is a free web service from Google that helps site owners monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot their site’s presence in Google Search results.
What GSC provides:
- Search performance data (clicks, impressions, CTR, average position)
- Indexing status for every URL
- Core Web Vitals scores from real users
- Backlink data (who links to you)
- Security and manual action alerts
- Sitemap management
- URL inspection for individual pages
GSC does not show data from other search engines (Bing has its own Webmaster Tools). It also does not show on-site behavior like time on page or conversion data - that is what GA4 handles.
Setting Up Google Search Console
Step 1: Add Your Property
Go to search.google.com/search-console and sign in with your Google account.
You will see two property types:
| Type | Format | What It Covers |
|---|---|---|
| Domain property | example.com | All subdomains, protocols (http/https), and paths |
| URL prefix | https://www.example.com/ | Only that specific prefix |
Recommendation: Use a Domain property when possible. It captures all variations of your site in one view. URL prefix properties miss data from other subdomains or protocol variations.
Step 2: Verify Ownership
Verification proves you own or manage the site. Methods available:
For Domain properties:
- DNS record (recommended) - add a TXT record to your domain’s DNS settings
For URL prefix properties:
- HTML file upload - upload a verification file to your root directory
- HTML meta tag - add a meta tag to your homepage head section
- Google Analytics - verify through an existing GA tracking code
- Google Tag Manager - verify through an existing GTM container
DNS verification is the most reliable because it survives site redesigns, CMS changes, and hosting migrations.
Step 3: Submit Your Sitemap
After verification, submit your XML sitemap:
- Go to Sitemaps in the left menu
- Enter your sitemap URL (usually /sitemap.xml or /sitemap-index.xml)
- Click Submit
GSC will show the submission status and how many URLs were discovered. Check back in a few days to confirm Google has processed it.
Step 4: Wait for Data
Performance data starts appearing within 2 to 3 days after verification. The data has a 3 to 4 day processing delay, so the most recent available data is always a few days old. Full historical data (up to 16 months) populates over a few weeks.
The Performance Report
This is the report you will use most. It shows how your site performs in Google Search.
Four Core Metrics
| Metric | Definition |
|---|---|
| Clicks | Number of times users clicked through to your site from search results |
| Impressions | Number of times your site appeared in search results (user may not have scrolled to see it) |
| Average CTR | Clicks divided by impressions, shown as a percentage |
| Average Position | Average ranking position across all queries (lower is better) |
Filtering Performance Data
The power of the Performance report is in its filters:
- Queries - see which search terms trigger your pages
- Pages - see performance for specific URLs
- Countries - isolate traffic from Malaysia or any target country
- Devices - compare mobile vs desktop vs tablet
- Search Appearance - filter by rich results, Web Stories, etc.
- Dates - compare periods (this month vs last month, or vs same month last year)
Finding Quick Wins
Quick wins are pages ranking in positions 5 to 20 with decent impressions but low clicks. A small ranking improvement pushes them onto page one where CTR increases sharply.
How to find them:
- Open Performance report
- Click the “Average position” box to enable it
- Filter by position 5 to 20
- Sort by impressions (descending)
- Look for queries with high impressions but low CTR
These are your priority optimization targets. Improve the content, update the title tag, add internal links, and strengthen the page’s backlink profile.
Keyword Discovery
GSC reveals keywords you rank for that you did not deliberately target. These are opportunities.
- Go to Performance > Queries
- Sort by impressions (descending)
- Look for queries you do not have dedicated content for
- Cross-reference with your keyword research to assess volume and competition
- Create new content or optimize existing pages for these queries
For Malaysian sites, filter by Country = Malaysia to find locally relevant queries you might miss in global data.
URL Inspection Tool
The URL Inspection tool shows exactly how Google sees a specific page on your site.
What It Shows
- Whether the URL is indexed
- Which canonical URL Google selected
- When Google last crawled it
- Whether the page is mobile-friendly
- Any structured data detected (and errors)
- The rendered HTML Google sees
How to Use It
- Paste any URL from your site into the search bar at the top of GSC
- GSC checks its index and returns the current status
- Click “Test Live URL” to have Google fetch the page in real time
- Click “View Tested Page” to see the rendered HTML and screenshot
Common Use Cases
- Debugging indexing issues - why is this page not appearing in search?
- After publishing new content - request indexing to speed up discovery
- After making changes - confirm Google sees the updated version
- Canonical conflicts - check if Google respects your preferred canonical
Requesting indexing: After publishing or updating a page, paste the URL into the inspection tool and click “Request Indexing.” This does not guarantee immediate indexing, but it puts the URL in Google’s priority crawl queue.
Indexing Report
The Indexing report shows which of your pages are in Google’s index and why others are not.
Status Categories
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Indexed | Page is in Google’s index and can appear in search results |
| Not indexed - Crawled, currently not indexed | Google crawled it but chose not to index it (often a quality signal) |
| Not indexed - Discovered, currently not indexed | Google knows the URL exists but has not crawled it yet |
| Not indexed - Excluded by noindex tag | You told Google not to index this page |
| Not indexed - Blocked by robots.txt | robots.txt prevents Google from crawling the page |
| Not indexed - Duplicate without canonical | Google considers it a duplicate and chose a different canonical |
Fixing Indexing Issues
”Crawled, currently not indexed” is the most frustrating status because Google saw your page and decided it was not worth indexing.
Fixes:
- Improve content quality and depth
- Add unique value that other indexed pages do not provide
- Strengthen internal links pointing to the page
- Ensure the page targets a distinct keyword not already covered by other pages
- Build external links to the page
”Discovered, currently not indexed” usually means Google has not gotten around to crawling it yet. Speed this up by:
- Adding internal links from high-authority pages
- Submitting the URL via URL Inspection
- Ensuring the page is in your XML sitemap
- Improving overall site crawlability (see our crawlability guide)
Sitemaps Report
Manage your XML sitemaps through GSC.
What to Monitor
- Submitted sitemaps - ensure your sitemap is submitted and not erroring
- Discovered URLs - how many URLs Google found in your sitemap
- Indexed URLs - how many of those URLs made it into the index
A large gap between discovered and indexed URLs signals a quality or technical problem. Investigate the Indexing report to understand why.
Sitemap Best Practices for GSC
- Submit your sitemap index file, not individual sitemaps
- Keep sitemaps under 50,000 URLs and 50MB
- Only include canonical, indexable URLs
- Update lastmod dates accurately (do not set them all to today’s date)
- Remove URLs that return 404 or are redirected
Core Web Vitals Report
This report shows field data from real Chrome users visiting your site, grouped by mobile and desktop.
Reading the Report
Pages are grouped into three categories:
- Good - passing all three Core Web Vitals metrics
- Needs improvement - at least one metric in the warning range
- Poor - at least one metric failing
The report groups similar URLs together, so fixing one page often fixes the entire group. Click into a group to see example URLs and specific metric values.
Acting on the Data
- Start with “Poor” URLs - these have the biggest impact on user experience
- Click the group to see which metric (LCP, INP, or CLS) is failing
- Use PageSpeed Insights on a specific URL for diagnostic recommendations
- Fix the issue and validate in GSC (click “Validate Fix” on the issue group)
- GSC monitors the fix over 28 days and confirms resolution
For a detailed breakdown of each metric and how to fix them, see our Core Web Vitals guide.
Links Report
The Links report shows your site’s internal and external link profile.
External Links
- Top linked pages - which of your pages have the most backlinks
- Top linking sites - which domains link to you most
- Top linking text - most common anchor text used in links to your site
This data is useful for identifying your most linkable content, spotting unnatural anchor text patterns, and discovering new linking relationships.
Internal Links
- Top internally linked pages - shows which pages receive the most internal links
Use this to check that your most important pages (money pages, pillar content) receive proportionally more internal links. If a key service page has fewer internal links than a random blog post, your internal linking strategy needs adjustment.
Manual Actions
Manual actions are penalties applied by Google’s human reviewers, not by algorithms.
Where to find it: GSC > Security & Manual Actions > Manual Actions
If you see “No issues detected,” you are clear. If there is a manual action, it will describe the issue:
- Unnatural links to your site
- Unnatural links from your site
- Thin content with little value
- Spammy structured markup
- User-generated spam
How to resolve:
- Fix the cited issues
- Document what you changed
- Submit a reconsideration request through GSC
- Wait for Google’s review (typically 2 to 4 weeks)
Manual actions are rare but serious. They can suppress your entire site from search results.
GSC for Malaysian Sites
Country Filtering
Filter the Performance report by Country = Malaysia to see:
- Which queries Malaysians use to find your site
- Your average position in Malaysian search results specifically
- CTR for Malaysian users (may differ from global due to SERP features)
Bilingual Considerations
If you run content in both English and Bahasa Malaysia:
- Set up separate GSC properties if using subdomains (en.example.com, ms.example.com)
- For subdirectory setups (/en/, /ms/), use one property and filter by page path
- Check that hreflang tags are correctly implemented (GSC shows hreflang errors in the International Targeting report under Legacy tools)
Local Keyword Patterns
Malaysian users search differently than global English audiences. Common patterns:
- Mixed language queries (“best makan place KL” combines English and Malay)
- Location-specific terms (“near me,” “dekat sini”)
- Brand plus location (“Grab driver KL,” “Shopee sale Malaysia”)
GSC’s query data reveals these patterns. Use them to inform your content and keyword strategy.
GSC vs GA4: When to Use Which
| Question | Use GSC | Use GA4 |
|---|---|---|
| What keywords bring traffic? | Yes | No (GA4 shows “(not provided)“) |
| How many organic visits? | Approximate (clicks) | Exact (sessions) |
| What is my average ranking? | Yes | No |
| Do visitors convert? | No | Yes |
| Is my page indexed? | Yes | No |
| How do users navigate my site? | No | Yes |
| Core Web Vitals field data? | Yes | No |
| Traffic from non-Google sources? | No | Yes |
Use both together. GSC tells you how people find you. GA4 tells you what they do after arriving. Linking them in GA4 (Admin > Search Console Links) lets you see GSC query data alongside GA4 behavior metrics in one report.
Advanced GSC Techniques
Regex Filters
The Performance report supports regex in query and page filters. Use this to:
- Group branded vs non-branded queries: exclude your brand name to see pure organic discovery
- Isolate specific content clusters: filter pages by path pattern (e.g.,
/seo/strategy/.*) - Find question queries: filter queries matching
^(what|how|why|when|where|can|does|is)
Data Export and Analysis
GSC limits the UI to 1,000 rows. For deeper analysis:
- Export to Google Sheets or CSV
- Use the Search Console API for full data access
- Connect to Looker Studio for automated dashboards
- Use third-party tools like Search Analytics for Sheets (free Google Sheets add-on)
Compare Periods
Always compare current performance against a previous period:
- Month over month for recent trends
- Year over year for seasonal context
- Before vs after for measuring the impact of changes
Click “Date” filter in Performance, select “Compare,” and choose your periods. This is essential for understanding whether changes in traffic are due to your actions, seasonal patterns, or algorithm updates.
GSC Setup Checklist
Initial Setup
- Property created (Domain type preferred)
- Ownership verified via DNS
- XML sitemap submitted
- Users and permissions configured for team members
Regular Monitoring
- Performance report checked weekly
- Indexing report reviewed monthly
- Core Web Vitals report checked monthly
- Manual Actions checked monthly
- Sitemap errors reviewed after submissions
Optimization Workflow
- Quick-win keywords identified (position 5-20 with high impressions)
- New keyword opportunities from query data logged
- Indexing issues diagnosed and fixed
- Internal linking adjusted based on Links report
- Country filter applied for Malaysian market analysis
Google Search Console should be the first tool you open when working on SEO. It costs nothing, the data comes straight from Google, and it surfaces problems and opportunities that no paid tool can replicate.
Pair it with your SEO KPIs dashboard for a complete measurement system, and integrate findings into your broader SEO strategy to ensure every action is backed by data. For crawl-level diagnostics beyond what GSC provides, use Screaming Frog alongside the crawlability fundamentals to keep your site fully accessible to search engines.