Google Search Console

Definition

Google Search Console (GSC) is a free service from Google that helps you monitor and optimize your website's performance in Google Search. Key features include: Performance reports (impressions, clicks, CTR, average position for every query and page), Index Coverage (which pages Google has indexed, crawl errors, and reasons pages are excluded), URL Inspection (test how Google sees a specific page), Sitemaps (submit and monitor XML sitemaps), Core Web Vitals (field data on LCP, CLS, INP), Mobile Usability (mobile-friendliness issues), Links (internal and external links to your site), and Manual Actions (penalties from Google's webspam team). Every website owner should set up GSC — it's the most reliable source of data about how Google interacts with your site. Verify ownership via DNS, HTML tag, HTML file, or Google Analytics/Tag Manager.