Google wants to help you optimize your web presence. One of their tools for doing this is Google Search Console. If you are already signed up, you will most likely have received an email from Google saying that the new search console is ready.
For now, the new search console is running alongside the old version. You can use whichever one you like via interconnected links.
According to Google, the new search console reports offer: “more transparency into Google’s indexing, stateful two-way communications between Google and website owners to help resolve issues faster, and a responsive user-interface.”
Here’s what you need to know to get the most from Google’s new search console.
Improved Usability
They have made the most popular functions easier to use day-to-day. This version aims to make it easier to fix pending issues. You can also share reports to improve collaboration.
When you go in, you’ll see that it looks very different. The driving force behind the changes was not cosmetic. The search console has been completely rebuilt. The old functionality is still there, but Google has made many improvements.
Search Performance Report
Let’s start with the main difference in this new version of Search Console. Google has kept that brilliant feature that lets you overlay total clicks, total impressions, average position data, and clickthrough rate on the same page. This visualization remains just a click away.
In addition, however, you can now filter by multiple variables. You no longer have to choose between search type, page, query, device, and country, one at a time.
This allows you to be much more specific about your analytics research. It will save you time if you want to know more about your clickthrough rate on mobile phones during Easter, for example.
That’s not all. Google says that users were consistent in asking for more months of search data. The new search performance report has improved on the three months of data to give you up to 16 months of data.
Index Coverage Report
This has been updated from the Index Status report. It will give you insight into how your URLs are being indexed, including warning you about potential issues and letting you know why Google is not indexing some of them.
With new issue-tracking functionality, Google will alert you to new issues as they are detected, making it easier for you to monitor and fix problems.
You can export the data so that you can analyze it more deeply, though this functionality is best for sites that submit sitemap files.
AMP and Job Postings
Search Console will now help you to implement Search Enhancements, starting with accelerated mobile pages and job postings. With these reports, you will be able to see the specific warnings and problems associated with these areas.
• AMP- Feedback is faster now. Google will run several tests at once and let you know without delay when your pages do not pass. You will also receive a log of URLs that have been successfully fixed, across multiple pages.
When issues have been fixed, Google will recrawl and reprocess the URLs, giving them a higher priority.
• Job Posting report – If you post job listings on your website, you can use this report to see relevant statistics. Google has made it easy for you to spot indexing issues and resolve them.
As with the other reports, Google has made its processes more transparent and is providing the tools to gain insights and achieve better rankings.
The Future
We think that Google has done a great job with these Search Console improvements. They allow website owners and web professionals to work smarter and achieve better results in less time. What’s not to like?
What’s yet to come? We think it would be good if Google also provides some handy functionality regarding backlinks and link-building. Since this is the key indicator by which Google ranks websites, businesses would benefit from being able to build links authentically and identify issues. Those issues would include broken links, of course, but also some functionality for improving the level of internal linking wouldn’t go unused!
