What is Google Search Console?
Perhaps you’ve heard of Google’s Webmaster Tools console or if you haven’t heard of it, it might ring a bell. What we used to refer to as GWT is now called “Google’s Search Console”. Not much has changed in the way it’s presented, and its various useful tools for webmasters; however, some minor improvements have been made giving webmasters an even deeper look into how Google see’s your website.
But for the sake of this course, and what it is called, which is a “beginners guide”, we will start at the very beginning.
First, here is Google Search Console in a nutshell:
Google Search Console is a free service that lets you learn a great deal of information about your website and the people who visit it. You can use it to find out things like how many people are visiting your site and how they are finding it, whether more people are visiting your site on a mobile device or desktop computer, and which pages on your site are the most popular. It can also help you find and fix website errors, submit a sitemap, and create and check a robots.txt file.
Each tool that Google Console provides, simply gives you a birdseye view of your website. For webmasters, Google Search Console seems easier, and most will understand how to navigate. However, for small business owners, and beginners, some helpful tips are needed along with an easy how to guide.
Ready to start taking advantage of all that Google Search Console has to offer? Then let’s do this!
Step #1: Download Plush Global Media’s PDF guide
This is directly from the courses you attended, and we hold in-house. You can download it, and get a fresher perspective on what you are about to learn. We’ve also included several helpful links, for a better understanding of each tool, provided to you from Google. This is well worth learning, and the effort you put in. Your site only benefits from using these kind of tools.
For our courses online, we’ve added a few extra slides, giving you an even better beginners guide. If you remember us going through this slideshow, and the slides therein, then by all means, skip past and get started on the new set of slides available here, only online.
Google Webmaster Tools PDF – Course #1
Step #2
If you don’t already have one, we recommend setting up a Gmail account. Having an ordinary gmail email account allows you to connect to all of Google’s products. This includes Google Search Console, Google Analytic, Google Tag Manager, Google Adwords and more. If you already use Google’s App for Business, then you’re pretty much set to go!
Google Search Console Cheat Sheet
The thing about Google Search Console (AKA Google Webmaster Tools) is that it’s a platform specifically designed for the “Webmasters”. Webmasters can be those individuals who either built your website from the ground up or online marketers and SEO professionals. For someone just trying to wrap their head around Google’s search parameters or how Google works, Google Search Console can be a bit intimidating.
In our opinion, and our reasons for creating a course, Google Search Console can help you get a better understanding of how your website looks online. Not the front end with all the pretty pictures and colours, but behind the scenes from the perspective of a webmaster or online marketer. By helping you get a deeper understanding of Google, in the long run it actually helps us do a better job.
This particular cheat sheet, which you can download below is a great start to understanding status codes. Google Search Console will show you a lot of status codes, and this is the part that might scare you off. But, by understanding status codes and their meanings, you can very well save a lot of time, energy and MONEY when attempting to solve site issues. The point is not to panic, and this cheat sheet will help you avoid stress.
