We set up Google Search Console on every site we build. On sites we take over, we often find it was never set up at all, or that it’s tied to a former developer’s personal Gmail account. Either way, the business is missing the one place Google tells you directly what it thinks of your website.
Search Console shows which searches you appear for, which pages Google has indexed and which it’s ignoring, and whether anything is broken. It’s free. Once it’s set up, a monthly check takes about 20 minutes.
Set it up so the business owns it
Go to Google Search Console and sign in with a Google account the business controls. Not your web developer’s personal account, and not a staff member’s. If you change developers or someone leaves, the history should stay with you. Add your developer as a user instead.
You’ll be asked to choose a property type. A Domain property covers every version of your site (http and https, www and non-www, any subdomains) and is verified by adding a TXT record to your DNS. That’s what we use. A URL-prefix property covers one exact address, such as https://www.example.com.au/, and can be verified with a file or tag on the site, but it misses the other versions. If you can’t get into your DNS, ask whoever manages your domain. It’s a five-minute job for them.
Next, submit your sitemap. On WordPress with Yoast SEO or Rank Math it’s normally at yourdomain.com.au/sitemap_index.xml. In Search Console open Sitemaps, enter sitemap_index.xml and submit. Google can find pages without one, but it helps, and the report flags when something changes.
The monthly check
Set a reminder for the first week of each month and work through these in order.
1. Performance: more clicks or fewer?
Open Performance (shown as “Search results”). Click the date filter, choose Compare, and compare the last three months with the three before. Turn on all four totals at the top: clicks, impressions, average CTR and average position.
Impressions are how often you appeared in results. Clicks are how often someone chose you. CTR is clicks divided by impressions. Average position is the average ranking of your highest result, and it’s best read as a trend rather than a score. It jumps around, and a new page sitting 40th for a hundred searches can drag the average down even while things are improving.
Seasons matter too. A pool builder peaks in spring and summer and a firewood supplier in winter. Once you have more than a year of data (Search Console keeps 16 months), compare against the same months last year.
Then go through the tabs below the chart:
- Queries: sort by clicks, then by impressions. Are your main services in there? Any searches that deserve their own page?
- Pages: which pages bring traffic. If a service page has dropped, click into it and check the queries it lost.
- Countries and Devices: usually dull, but if a big share of impressions are from overseas, you’re ranking for things that won’t become customers.
If your site gets enough traffic, you may also see a branded queries filter. Google introduced it in late 2025 to separate searches that include your business name from those that don’t. At the time of writing it isn’t offered for sites with low impressions. If you have it, the non-branded figure is the more honest measure of SEO, because people searching your name would probably find you anyway. If you don’t, add a query filter that excludes your business name and you’ll get a rough version of the same thing.
2. Page indexing: has anything gone missing?
Go to Indexing > Pages. The chart shows indexed and not-indexed pages, and the table underneath lists why pages aren’t indexed.
Not-indexed pages are normal. Every WordPress site has redirects, archive pages and other addresses that shouldn’t be in Google. What you’re watching for is change: a sudden jump, or an important page turning up under a reason it shouldn’t. These are the ones you’ll see most, using Google’s labels (full list here):
| Reason | What it means | Worry? |
|---|---|---|
| Crawled – currently not indexed | Google looked and decided not to include it for now | Only if it’s a key page. It usually needs stronger, more distinct content |
| Discovered – currently not indexed | Google knows the page exists but hasn’t crawled it yet | Common on new sites. Internal links help |
| URL marked ‘noindex’ | Something told Google not to index it | Fine for thank-you pages. Urgent if it’s your homepage |
| Duplicate without user-selected canonical | Google treats it as a copy of another page | Common with near-identical location pages |
| Page with redirect | The address forwards somewhere else | Normal after a rebuild |
| Not found (404) | The page doesn’t exist | Fine for old pages properly retired. Check none should exist |
When a page you care about isn’t indexed, paste its address into the URL Inspection bar at the top. It shows whether the page is on Google, when it was last crawled and which version Google chose as the main one. Fix the problem, then click Request indexing. For a full diagnosis when pages won’t show at all, see why your website isn’t showing up on Google.
3. Sitemaps: still being read?
Open Sitemaps and check the status says Success and the last read date is recent. “Couldn’t fetch”, or a date months old, means something has changed. The usual suspects are a plugin update, a security setting blocking Google, or a site move.
4. Core Web Vitals
Under Experience you’ll find the Core Web Vitals report, based on real visits from Chrome users. Quieter sites often see “Not enough usage data”, which is normal. If pages show as Poor, our explainer on Core Web Vitals in plain English covers what each measure means and what usually fixes it.
5. Security and manual actions
Check Security & Manual Actions. Both should say no issues detected. Google also emails the account’s owners when something appears here, which is another reason the account should belong to the business.
6. Write down three numbers
Keep a simple spreadsheet with the month, total clicks, total impressions and indexed pages. After a year you’ll see real trends rather than reacting to one bad week, and you’ll have something solid to compare against when anyone (us included) tells you your SEO is working.
What’s normal and what isn’t
Normal: clicks wobbling from month to month on a small site, because the numbers are small and one busy week moves them. Positions shifting a few places. Not-indexed addresses slowly creeping up as WordPress creates archive pages.
Worth a closer look: a sharp drop in clicks that lasts more than a couple of weeks, a key page disappearing from the Pages tab, a jump in “URL marked ‘noindex'” or “Not found (404)” after a site change, or anything at all under manual actions or security.
When something drops, check the timing. Did it coincide with a redesign, a plugin update or a hosting change? Google’s Search Status Dashboard lists confirmed ranking updates and incidents, so you can see whether everyone else got hit the same week.
What Search Console won’t tell you
It doesn’t show what happens after the click. Calls, enquiries and bookings live in Google Analytics and your own records. Some rare searches are hidden for privacy, so the query list never quite adds up to your total clicks. And it covers Google only. Bing feeds results into some AI tools, so it’s worth setting up Bing Webmaster Tools as well. It can import your Search Console settings in a couple of clicks.
Your first check
If you’ve never opened it, start with steps 1 and 2 this week. Look at your top ten queries and ask whether they match the work you want, then check your homepage and main service pages with URL Inspection.
Search Console, Analytics and Bing come set up on every website we build. If you’d rather someone ran the monthly check and explained what changed, that’s part of our SEO service.