Are you ready to get serious about blogging?
Then you’re probably looking to expand your reach for maximum exposure!
Pinterest is an incredible tool for blogging, isn’t it? Maybe you’re even already aware that it has more than 250 million active users a month!
But did you know that Google gets 3.5 billion search queries every single day? This figure is astronomical, isn’t it?
Learning how to use Google Search Console has the potential to put your site in front of billions of people! And the demographic differences between Google and Pinterest are certainly notable:
While 81% of Pinterest users are female, Google users are more likely to be male than those who use Bing and Yahoo (Check out this study by Further to learn more on search demographics).
Talk about diversifying your audience!
The first key to generating blog traffic is visibility.
And in order to be visible in search results, you’re going to want to start working on your Google Search Ranking!
First time visiting? Thanks so much for stopping by! You may also enjoy the following posts:
How to Use Google Search Console: GSC for Beginners
Google Search Console (GSC) is a powerful tool that allows you to learn an enormous amount of information about your website’s performance as well as your audience.
Use GSC to discover things like:
- How many people have visited your site within the past day, week, or even 6 months
- What queries your site visitors are using to find you
- Which of your posts or pages are your top performers
- Whether more people are finding you using a desktop computer, mobile, or tablet
- Whether or not you have errors on your site
Some other more advanced ways to use GSC also include:
- Identifying your highest-traffic queries
- Identifying your highest-click through rate queries
- Determining you average click through rate
- Monitoring your overall impressions over given time periods
- Monitoring your average position over given time periods
- Identifying increases and decreases in your search rankings
- Discovering how many of your pages have been indexed
- Determining which site pages have not been indexed + why
- Discovering how many backlinks your site has
- Identifying which URLs have resulted in the most backlinks
- Identifying which sites link to your blog most
- Identifying which posts or pages have the most internal links
- Discovering how many internal links your site has overall
So, let’s learn how to use Google Search Console by starting with the setup and then explore how you can use this powerful tool to increase your Google Search Ranking using a few of the above ideas. We’ll even do a breakdown of some essential terms!
How To Add Your Blog To Google Search Console
- Sign into your Google Account
- Click on the Google Webmaster Tools
- Click Add a property
- Choose Website from the drop-down menu and enter your blog’s URL
- Click Add
- Choose how you would like to verify your site from the following methods:
- HTML file upload
- Upload a verification HTML file to a specific location on your blog; by default, this is also the first option proposed by Google Search Console
- HTML tag
- Use your HTML editor to open the code for your blog’s homepage and place the providedtag in thesection of that HTML code
- Domain name provider
- Sign into your Domain Registrar (SiteGround, Bluehost, GoDaddy, etc.) and verify your site directly from Google Search Console; alternatively, you can create a DNS TXT or, if that doesn’t work for your provider, a CNAME record instead
- Google Analytics
- Copy the Google Analytics tracking code that you already use on your site; by far the simplest verification method if you’ve already synced Google Analytics to your site!
- Google Tag Manager
- Copy the Google Tag Manager code associated with your site; you will need to have View, Edit, and Manage container-level permissions enabled in your Google Tag Manager account if you choose this option
7. If your site supports both an http:// and an https:// version, be sure to add all variants to your properties.
You will also need to add each domain, for instance:
- nikkiblogs.com
- www.nikkiblogs.com
I bet you’re wondering…
Isn’t nikkiblogs.com the same domain as www.nikkiblogs.com?
Actually, no! Each one represents a different server.
While the URLs might look VERY similar, they are indeed two different domains.
But if you type www.nikkiblogs.com into your browser bar, you’ll end up on https://nikkiblogs.com!
Okay, why?
Nikkiblogs.com is my preferred domain and Google knows that I want my URLs displayed in searches as nikkiblogs.com/ …
And thus, anytime that another site or blogger links to nikkiblogs.com or a specific post from my blog, those URLs will also be treated as nikkiblogs.com/ …
If you have NOT set a canonical URL, Google could treat the non-www version and the www version of your domains as separate entities.
This means your page views, any of your internal links, and even engagement would be split into two separate groups. Ugh!
By April 10, 2019, Google intends to transition all performance data so that Google Search Console will assign search metrics to Google-Selected canonical URLs rather than URLs that have been referred to by Google Searches.
For more information about these changes, please continue reading here.
Do you need a Site Map?
A site map will improve your site’s crawlability if it:
- Is incredibly large
- Has a ton of isolated or pages that are not linked together
- Is new and has relatively few external links linking back to it
- Uses rich media content
- Appears in Google News
Adding A Sitemap On WordPress
If you’re a WordPress User, you can quickly and easily build a sitemap by installing the Sitemap Generator Plugin.
Once installed, simply click Generate your sitemap to create an XML sitemap for your blog.
Now, head over to Google Search Console.
Click the Sitemaps tab.
Under Add a new sitemap, type /sitemap.xml into the field that reads Enter sitemap URL.
Congratulations! You have a Sitemap.
Basic Terminology For Google Search Console
The following are a few basic terms that you should know in order to use Google Search Console as effectively as possible.
Query: A search query that triggered an impression.
Impression: How many times a user saw a link to your site within their search results.
Click: How many times a user clicked on your site.
Average Position: the average ranking of your site’s URLs in search results; based on the highest position whenever it appeared in a user’s search.
Click Through Rate (CTR): the percentage of impressions that resulted in a click on your site; click/Impressions x 100.
How To Filter In Google Search Console
There are a few different options for viewing your data on GSC.
Search Type
There are three types of searches you can do:
- Web
- Image
- Video
The vast majority of my traffic comes from the web (and especially Pinterest) but, if you are receiving a large number of views from images or videos, make sure to adjust this filter to suit your needs.
You can also compare two types of traffic by clicking on the Compare tab after you have selected the two categories you want to face off.
When you’re ready, just click Apply to see how they line up.
Date Range
Google Search Console can provide you with up to 16 months of data for your blog.
Choose from pre-determined time periods like 7 or 28 days, or even set a custom range that you have determined for yourself.
Just like we did above with Search Type, you can even compare two date ranges by selecting the Compare tab here.
Other Options
By clicking on New just underneath the Performance bar, you can add up to five other types of filters including:
- Query
- Page
- Country
- Device
- Search Appearance
Consider layering your filters for an even more in-depth analysis as well.
For example, want to know how many people find you using the query “Instagram Caption Ideas” on mobile devices? Add a filter for that Term using the Query tab and select Mobile in the Device tab!
Now, let’s practice using Google Search Console for a few of the more advanced ideas we talked about earlier.
Identifying Highest Traffic Posts Or Pages
Click Performance.
Change the Date Range to fit your needs: For example, when you started your blog or when you started blogging full-time might give you a good idea about how your site has improved over that duration!
Click the Pages tab.
Clicks should be displayed in descending order so that you are viewing your posts and pages from most popular onward.
Identifying Highest Click-Through Rate (CTR) Queries
Click Performance.
Change the Date Range to fit your needs.
Click Average CTR above the graph.
Click the Queries tab.
Click CTR within the Queries tab to display data in descending order and see your top performing posts and pages first.
Pro Tip: It’s especially useful to view CTR alongside your Impressions data!
For example, some pages may have a high impression count but low CTR. Use the data from your Queries to make posts and pages more enticing to viewers.
Improve the Titles and Meta-Descriptions of your posts to align better with the Queries that are bringing you the most Impressions.
Identifying Your Highest-Ranking Post Or Pages
Click Performance.
Click the Date Range to adjust for the time period of your choice.
Select Average Position.
Click the Pages tab.
Click Position within the Pages tab twice to display results in ascending order.
Since you’re viewing average positions by URL, the number you see here is the mean of all of that page’s rankings.
For example, if you rank first overall for a low-volume query and ninth for a high-volume one, your average ranking would still be fifth.
Determining Your Average Click-Through Rate (CTR)
Click Performance.
Click the Date Range to adjust for the time period of your choice.
View Average CTR.
Identifying Ranking Increases and Decreases
Click Performance.
The Queries tab should be selected by default.
Click Date Range.
Click the Compare Tab.
Choose from the given options or set your own custom start and end dates to compare two equivalent time periods.
Click Apply.
Identifying Your Highest-Traffic Queries
Click Performance.
Click the Date Range to adjust for the time period of your choice.
Scroll down to the Queries Tab.
Clicks should be selected by default and will display the Queries that have led to your site most often first.
Click on Impressions to compare the results and see how you can better optimize pages that rank for these Queries!
Comparing Your Site’s Search Performance Across Devices
Click Performance.
Above the graph, select Total Clicks, Total Impressions, Average CTR, and Average Position to display all details.
Click the Devices tab.
Have a look at how your site performs across Desktop, Mobile, and Tablet.
Comparing Your Site’s Search Performance Across Different Countries
Click Performance.
Above the graph, select Total Clicks, Total Impressions, Average CTR, and Average Position to display all details.
Click the Countries tab.
Have a look at how your site performs in different countries!
Discovering How Many Of Your Pages Have Been Indexed
From the Performance page, click on the Overview tab at the left of your screen.
Scroll down to Coverage.
Have a look at your Valid Pages count here.
Click Open Report for more details.
Discovering How Many Total Internal Links Your Site Has
Click the Links tab in the lefthand menu of your Google Search Console window.
Open the Top Linked Pages report by clicking More at the bottom of the box.
The number of Total Internal Links will be displayed in a box at the top lefthand corner of your browser.
Discovering Which URLs Have The Most Internal Links
Click Links.
Open the Top Linked Pages Report by clicking More at the bottom of the box.
Pages should automatically be displayed in descending order
Discovering Which Pages Link To You Most
Click Links.
Scroll down to Top Linking Sites and click the More tab.
Have a look and see how who’s linked to your blog!
Are there a couple of other bloggers just like you there? Awesome!
How flattering and exciting, right?
Consider offering to do a Guest Post on their site and vice versa in addition to seeking them out on Social Media.
Where are my Instagram influencers at? Think future joint Giveaways and #WomanCrushWednesday features!
Which method did you choose for verifying your site on Google Search Console? Were you surprised by any of the Queries that were leading people to your blog? How about creating a Sitemap?
I’d love to hear about your experience with learning how to use Google Search Console in the comments below!
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Very good article. Thanks.
Thanks so much! I’m glad you enjoyed it 🙂