The new Search Console beta adds sixteen months of search data and a report explaining which pages Google has indexed and why others are missing. Check the right property, last year's searches, and the indexing errors first.

What arrived today

Google has started opening the new version of Search Console to every verified site owner, after months of testing with a smaller group. A message appears in the old Search Console when a site's turn comes.

The new version is labelled beta, and it runs alongside the old one rather than replacing it. Links in the menus move you between the two.

For a small business, two things in it are worth an hour this month: far more history in the search data, and a clear account of which pages Google has indexed and which it has left out.

What Search Console is

Search Console is Google's free tool for site owners. It shows how a site appears in Google search: which searches it turns up for, how often people click, and what problems Google has found.

It is not Analytics. Analytics counts what visitors do once they arrive. Search Console reports what happens before they arrive, on Google's own results pages.

Many small business sites were verified in it once, at launch, and never opened again.

What is in the new version

The first is the one most owners will use. The old version kept about three months of search data, which made it impossible to compare this winter with last winter.

What is still only in the old version

Most of the familiar tools have not moved yet.

The mobile usability report, the links reports, the fetch tool that shows a page as Google sees it, the robots.txt tester, the structured data report and any manual penalty messages are all still in the old version.

Google says more will move across over time. Until then, both versions are worth keeping open.

First, the right property

Search Console treats each version of an address as a separate property. The plain HTTP version, the HTTPS version, and the versions with and without www are four different sites as far as it is concerned.

A site verified years ago on plain HTTP, and since moved to HTTPS, often shows almost nothing in the old property. The data sits in a property nobody added.

Make sure the exact version your site uses today is verified. If it is not, add and verify it now. Until then you are reading reports about an address the site no longer uses.

Second, last year's searches

Open the Performance report and set the date range to the full sixteen months. Then compare the last three months with the same three months a year earlier.

Look at the queries first, the actual words people searched before seeing your site, and then at the pages those searches led to.

The useful findings are usually specific. A service that appears in many searches but draws few clicks. A page ranking for work the business no longer wants. A town you serve that never appears.

Impressions count how often your site appeared in results; clicks count how often someone chose it. Where the site ranks well for an important search but few people click, the page title is often worth rewriting.

Third, the pages Google left out

The Index Coverage report sorts every page Google knows about by status: error, valid with warnings, valid, or excluded.

Read the errors first. These are pages you asked Google to index, usually by listing them in a sitemap, that it could not or would not include. Each comes with a reason.

Then look through the excluded pages. Much of that list is normal, such as duplicates and redirected addresses. What matters is any important page sitting there: a main service, the contact page, a location page.

Once something is fixed, the validate button asks Google to check the affected pages again, and the report tracks the result.

A worked example

A locksmith with two vans added a page last summer for each of the nine suburbs it serves. The pages were built on a test copy of the site and then copied across.

The test copy had been set to tell search engines not to index it, which is right for a test copy. The instruction travelled with the pages.

For six months nobody noticed. The pages were on the site and in the menu, and they looked fine to anyone visiting.

The new Index Coverage report listed all nine as errors: submitted in the sitemap, but marked not to be indexed. The reason was spelled out beside each one.

Removing the instruction took whoever maintains the site a few minutes. Pressing validate asked Google to look again, and the report now shows the progress.

What it does not do

The new version does not tell you what to change. It shows symptoms: a page missing, a search with few clicks, a fall in impressions.

The causes still need working out, and the fixes still need making on the site, by someone who knows how it is built.

And it covers only Google. It says nothing about the calls the site produced, which is why it sits beside your own records rather than replacing them.

The counter-case

For a very small site whose handful of pages are all indexed, the new version will mostly confirm that things are fine.

That is worth knowing, and the sixteen months of data will be useful the first time something changes. But it is a quick check, not a project.

A site in the middle of a rebuild can leave the coverage report until the new site is live, as long as the rebuild includes verifying the right property from the start.

For everyone else, an hour this month is well spent: the right property, the year's searches, and the errors.

The hour this month

  1. Open Search Console and try the new version.
  2. Confirm the exact address your site uses is verified.
  3. Set Performance to the full sixteen months.
  4. Compare last quarter with a year earlier.
  5. Read every Index Coverage error and its reason.
  6. Check excluded pages for anything important.
  7. Share the report with whoever maintains the site.

Step two comes before everything else. Every finding in the other steps is only as good as the property it came from, and a property for an address the site stopped using years ago reports on almost nothing.

The same habit of checking the counting before reading it applies to opening Analytics for the first time in a year.

Frequently asked questions

What is new in Search Console?

A Performance report with sixteen months of search data, an Index Coverage report explaining which pages are indexed, issue tracking with a validate button, and sharing links.

Has the old Search Console gone?

No. The new version is a beta running alongside it. Mobile usability, links, the fetch tool and several other reports are still only in the old one.

Why would my reports look almost empty?

Often because the property is for an address the site no longer uses, such as plain HTTP after a move to HTTPS. Verify the version actually in use.

What should I look for in Performance?

The searches that led to your site and the pages they reached, compared with a year earlier. Searches with many impressions and few clicks deserve attention.

What does Index Coverage show?

Every page Google knows about, sorted into errors, valid with warnings, valid and excluded, with a reason for each. Errors first, then important pages that were excluded.

Does Search Console replace Analytics?

No. Search Console reports what happens on Google's results pages before people arrive. Analytics reports what they do once they are on your site.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

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Send us your site's address. We will check which property is verified and what the coverage report shows.

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