How do you interpret the reports from Google Search Console? (2023.10.21)

Google Search Console might give some confusing reports. Let’s try to clear up the confusion.

Below is an article (text), some images (a gallery), and a video tutorial.

Video:

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View Gallery »

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Inside this Article:

Initial readings on the matter:
1. General principles
- 1.a. Find out more
- 1.b. What to do after fixing an error?
2. What kind of things can you discover in Google Search Console?
3. About the reports Google Search Console sends
4. Some particular messages Google Search Console sends
5. E-commerce errors – Product snippets
6. E-commerce errors – Merchant listings
7. Export data from Google Search Console

Initial readings on the matter:

1. General principles

1.a. Find out more

If you want to understand it well, google the messages you receive.

When googling the error, you’ll likely reach some people with a similar issue.

1.b. What to do after fixing an error?

Generally, there’s a button called „Validate fix” in Google Search Console; use it!

2. What kind of things can you discover in Google Search Console?

RARELY – to check this very rarely, perhaps once every few months.
AVERAGE – according to your priorities, between RARELY and OFTEN.
OFTEN – to check one or multiple times a month. Perhaps even weekly, if possible.

AVERAGE: Dashboard

You should check from time-to-time the overview shown here:

https://search.google.com/search-console?resource_id=https%3A%2F%2Folivian.ro%2F

AVERAGE Performance

Go to: Performance to see how your website fares.

Clicks: Clicks from Google search pages (SERP) to your website.

Total impressions: How many times does your website show up on Google.

You should look at Search Type: Web and Images for data.

Tip: You can filter data by Query/Page, and can even use RegEx (Regular Expressions).

Generally, changing the date for the previous 16 months is better. Note – you can’t go older than 16 months.

The most important reports are down the page, on Queries / Pages – it will give you information on what people search for when getting to your website, and also the most visited pages on your website, based on Google traffic only, of course.

https://search.google.com/search-console/performance/search-analytics?resource_id=https%3A%2F%2Folivian.ro%2F&num_of_months=16

and:

https://search.google.com/search-console/performance/search-analytics?resource_id=https%3A%2F%2Folivian.ro%2F&breakdown=page&num_of_months=16

OFTEN – Indexing

Indexing =» Pages – to see if there are issues with Google crawling your website, in general.

To me, this is the most important report of them all in Google Search Console.

You should be checking this report from time to time.

https://search.google.com/search-console/index?resource_id=https%3A%2F%2Folivian.ro%2F

You should click on the Magnifier Icon (Inspect URL) to find additional details about an error.

Crawling means „Navigated by Google bots (robots).” Indexing means „ability to show in Google searches.” So, a page is first navigated (crawled) by bots, and, generally, if all is well, it should be indexed (saved by Google on its servers). If the page is indexed, it has the ability to be shown as a result in Google (ranking). If it’s not indexed, you can be sure it cannot be displayed on Google searches.

Do note that Google has a limited crawling budget (so, if you keep feeding Google pages that are irrelevant, at some point, it will even stop crawling/navigating through your website; of course, after a while it will resume), and also an indexing budget (so, if pages you serve are irrelevant, Google will take this as a signal and index fewer of them).

This is a technical aspect, but try to see in there if there are some pages that Google said, for various reasons, that they are not indexed or give some errors, and you know that those pages are important to you.

But you should use your judgment, as there are likely quite a few pages that Google chooses not to index.

https://search.google.com/search-console/index?resource_id=https%3A%2F%2Folivian.ro%2F

Note: when deciding on what errors to work on, look at the number of URLs affected, and then see if you identify patterns that you can fix.

RARELY Video indexing

Indexing =» Video pages – to see a report with Google having issues in „understanding” the code for videos on your website.

If your website depends on video ranking on Google, check the reports more often and take action.

https://search.google.com/search-console/video-index?resource_id=https%3A%2F%2Folivian.ro%2F

RARELY Sitemaps

Sitemaps – make sure you add the Sitemap Index URL in there.

RARELY Page experience

Experience =» Page experience – for an overview of how well your website does for mobile display and site speed purposes.

https://search.google.com/search-console/page-experience?resource_id=https%3A%2F%2Folivian.ro%2F

RARELY Core Web Vitals

Experience =» Core Web Vitals – to have an idea of how well your website does for speed.

The problem with this report is that it doesn’t tell you what the issues are.

https://search.google.com/search-console/core-web-vitals?resource_id=https%3A%2F%2Folivian.ro%2F

To fix this, you’ll need to scan your website with:

https://pagespeed.web.dev/

Other tools for measuring speed:

Test multiple pages with that tool.

Try and fix the errors from the tools, because Google Search Console currently doesn’t give you much information.

That’s why we suggest you only view the Google Search Console report speed rarely, as once you fix some issues on speed, there’s not much to be changed from one visit to another.

But Google will likely keep sending you emails that you have some pages that are loading slowly.

https://search.google.com/search-console/core-web-vitals?resource_id=https%3A%2F%2Folivian.ro%2F

Try to get the low-hanging fruits – solve the most important and easy-to-fix issues at the beginning.

RARELY Mobile Usability

Experience =» Mobile Usability – is your website friendly for mobile users?

https://search.google.com/search-console/mobile-usability?resource_id=https%3A%2F%2Folivian.ro%2F

AVERAGE Product Snippets

Shopping (here, the elements will vary, based on what your website is about) =» Product snippets – details about products (a technical aspect called Schema.org).

In here, you might see warnings, not errors. You can safely ignore them.

https://search.google.com/search-console/r/product?resource_id=https%3A%2F%2Folivian.ro%2F

AVERAGE Shopping

Shopping (here, the elements will vary, based on what your website is about) =» Merchant listings – details about how your products show up on Google.

https://search.google.com/search-console/r/merchant-listings?resource_id=https%3A%2F%2Folivian.ro%2F

AVERAGE Schema.org

Enhancements (this is Schema.org) =» Breadcrumbs – are, for example, the breadcrumbs set up correctly to be shown on Google searches?

https://search.google.com/search-console/r/breadcrumbs?resource_id=https%3A%2F%2Folivian.ro%2F

OFTEN Security & Manual Actions

Are there any security issues? Are there any penalties for SPAM? these ones are very easy to check; just see from time to time that all is fine there. You should generally also get an email if there’s something wrong.

(I suggested OFTEN, as it’s very easy to check; just two/three clicks and you’re done)

https://search.google.com/search-console/manual-actions?resource_id=https%3A%2F%2Folivian.ro%2F

and

https://search.google.com/search-console/security-issues?resource_id=https%3A%2F%2Folivian.ro%2F

About Manual Actions:

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/9044175?hl=en

https://seo-hacker.com/google-manual-actions-guide/

https://www.onely.com/blog/what-are-manual-actions/

https://delante.co/definitions/manual-action/

RARELY Links

Links – You can see some of the links Google „sees” about your website.

https://search.google.com/search-console/links?resource_id=https%3A%2F%2Folivian.ro%2F

RARELY Crawl Stats

Settings =» Crawl stats – here, you can see Google bots (they’re some sort of robots, but for software) and navigate your website. There’s not much you can do, but it will give you an understanding of how often & how much Google navigates your website.

https://search.google.com/search-console/settings/crawl-stats?resource_id=https%3A%2F%2Folivian.ro%2F

3. About the reports Google Search Console sends

As a general rule, Google will send you bizarre reports.

Google „knows” about most of the pages on your website:

https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Aolivian.ro

But, still, when a single page has whatever error or warning, they will send an email.

It’s natural for a website with hundreds and thousands of pages to have a few pages with issues.

But Google will not tell you „one page out of 700 has an error.” No, they will tell you something like, „some pages have some errors.” Even if „some” is only a few or hundreds of pages. Even if the error is of high or low importance.

You can think of the emails Google sends, like an instant message sent on WhatsApp about a single issue vs. a detailed report with a global view.

It’s much better, in our opinion, to focus on the global issues of the website to go to Google Search Console https://search.google.com/search-console?resource_id=https%3A%2F%2Folivian.ro%2F from time to time, and see, in general, how things are going, and fix the important errors, rather than reacting to each message Google sends you.

Another comparison – someone asks you, „Should I buy this phone or not?”. You generally need more details than „it’s a good phone or not?”. Budget, the purpose of using it, what alternatives are on the market, what kind of phone the person prefers, do they want Apple (iOS) or Android, etc. By just asking, „Is the phone good?” you don’t have enough data to answer. Of course, any phone is good for some person within a context. By looking at the global view of Google Search Console, you can make more informed decisions rather than just reacting to a quick message.

In an ideal world, you would want to fix all the errors Google Search Console gives you. But it’s a much better approach to look at all of the mistakes and understand and prioritize the ones that matter.

Is a Samsung Model X good for one person? Yes. Is an iPhone good? Yes. The real decision comes from comparing things to a particular situation – what should one pick between an iPhone, a Samsung, and a Google Pixel phone? What is best for a user?

4. Some particular messages Google Search Console sends

4.a. Your [INSERTMONTHHERE] Search performance

These kinds of messages are about Google Search Performance only.

They can give you some insights into how well your website performed on Google searches.

Note that although Google has a large market share, it’s not 100%.

Also, any website does not only SEO (for Google and other search engines), but other types of online marketing.

But it’s a nice report, you should read it.

Also, as you know, there are seasonality and special events.

Also, the Internet, as a whole, is growing.

Also, websites in your niche are likely growing, so the market you are in also grows.

More than this, investing in an online channel will have at least a minimum impact on organic (Google) searches.

All things considered, traffic and impressions from Google organic sources can fluctuate due to many factors, not only how well you did month-to-month.

See here Google Trends for massage chairs in the past five years:

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&geo=US&q=bios%20messages&hl=en

See here the evolution of Internet users in the US:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/209117/us-internet-penetration/

4.b. New owner for X

This means that there is a new user added to the specific (X) Google Search Console account.

4.c. New reasons prevent videos from being indexed on site X

This might be a very small error, but you can investigate.

4.d. Page indexing issues detected in X

You should treat this error seriously; it might imply that there are problems on the website.

4.e. New Mobile Usability issues detected for X

This might be important, but from my experience, it’s generally not a big error.

5. E-commerce errors – Product snippets

This kind of error generally appears only on e-commerce websites.

Common errors:

Missing field „aggregateRating”
Missing field „review”

6. E-commerce errors – Merchant listings

These help with a better display of products on Google.

Sample errors:

Missing field „hasMerchantReturnPolicy” (in „offers”)
Missing field „shippingDetails” (in „offers”)
No global identifier provided (e.g., gtin, brand)
Not a globally valid GTIN

It’s best to fix this kind of error. If there are warnings, not errors, you can ignore them.

7. Export data from Google Search Console

Sure – you can export a report via CSV.

But an even better solution is to use this Google Sheets add-on:

https://workspace.google.com/marketplace/app/search_analytics_for_sheets/1035646374811

And import data into Google Search Console.

How to interpret the reports from Google Search Console

PS, 2023.10.22: Some things that I missed from my article:

You can go to Settings => User and permissions to give access rights to others (as long as you have enough rights, of course);
You can go to Settings => Associations to associate GSC to Google Analytics (and you should do this!). Make sure to link to the correct version of website (so the GSC needs to be associated to the exact domain – https://domainname.com vs https://www.domainname.com or http://domainname.com or http://domainname.com);
Google Search Console needs to be associated with the right domain name, written exactly like the domain https://domainname.com (it can vary – https vs. http; and www. vs. no-www.).

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