Google Search Console – the Best Free Resource You’re Not Using

What Does Google Search Want?

Google search optimization can feel like a black box with a hopeless number of complicated, sneaky caveats you can never hope to understand. You do your best to build a website that Google likes, but you’re never sure if you’re getting it right. There’s no green check-mark that appears telling you you’re done. Maybe at some point the information coming out (search results) shifts in the right direction, but it’s impossible to know exactly what Google is thinking, right? This is intentional. Google wants to avoid being scammed – they want great content made for people, not content made to satisfy a computer program, no matter how sophisticated.  Utilizing Google Search Console illuminates the black box.

Welcome, Google – Please Stay a While

When we hope to entice Google to visit our site, look around, and decide what we are about, we need to take advantage of every tool available within our budget. Unfortunately, there are thousands of websites out there trying to sell us techno-snake oil. And while there are plenty that offer valid services and tools for a price, wouldn’t it be cool to have a comprehensive set of tools, approved by Google itself, for the very purpose of building a foundation of trust and understanding with the search giant? Well, there is such a thing, and it’s free.

Google Is the Bruce Lee of the Web

Want to know how Google decides what results to show you? That’s simple. Google has one goal: parse the web for useful content and deliver that to its users on demand. That directive informs every algorithm change, search app update, and UX tweak they make. If the search results Google delivers are garbage, they will lose user traffic, which is their salable product. It’s in Google’s best interest to show you how to improve their product. They get free labor to build their empire, you get more traffic. Win-win, right?

What’s This Secret Search Weapon?

Google doesn’t want to have to guess what a website is about, or where to look for content, or who your content is for. Google Search Console, formerly known as Google Webmaster tools, are the tools Google built to help you help them. These tools allow you to build a foundation of trust and communication with Google (and other search engines as a side benefit.) Learning to use these tools effectively takes time and some coding knowledge, but is the most efficient way
to get noticed in the right way online.

Site Optimization With Google Search Console

So now that you know that you and Google are on the same side, life online just got a little better, right? Once you’ve registered with Google Search Console and claimed your property, usually by adding an HTML file to your site’s root directory, you’ll be able to upload a site map, set your preferred country, see how your HTML performs, find errors in your site code, view your structured data and rich snippets, and much more. There will be work to be done, but you’ll know for sure that you are working with, not against, Google’s prime directive.

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Absorb what is useful, discard what is useless and add what is specifically your own.  – Bruce Lee

Search Engine Console post by Winslow Jenkins – our technical SEO expert.