The most important settings in Google Search Console

Setting up Google Search Console is one of the first things you need to set up properly if you are serious about your website. Without Google Search Console, you miss crucial insights about findability, technical errors and performance in Google - a shame, because the tool is free and enormously powerful.

In this article, I explain to you which settings in Google Search Console are most important, why they matter and how to use them smartly.Practical, clear and without unnecessary jargon.

What is Google Search Console?

Google Search Console is a free tool from Google that gives you insight into how your website is performing in search results. You can see what keywords you are being found on, which pages are being indexed and where technical or usability issues are. By setting up Search Console, you get a grip on your findability and know exactly where you need to adjust.

Why Search Console is indispensable

When you set up Google Search Console, you get a look behind the scenes at Google. You see how Google reads your site, where it's going wrong and where there are opportunities to rank better.

Consider insights such as:

• What keywords you are being found on
• Which pages are generating clicks
• Technical errors that are holding back your rankings
• Problems with indexing or mobile usability
• Without this data, you are basically steering blind.

Without this data, you are basically steering blind.

Here's how to set up Google Search Console

Everything starts with setting up your property correctly. In almost all cases, you choose a domain property. This automatically measures all variants of your website, such as:

• HTTP and HTTPS
• With and without www
• Any subdomains

This way you avoid data fragmentation and you can be sure you have a complete picture once you set up Search Console. Setting up Search Console is done through DNS authentication. This is a method so Google can be sure you are the owner of the website.

Setting 1. Add XML sitemap

After setting up the property, the sitemap is the logical next step. With an XML sitemap, you give Google direction. You show which pages are important and which URLs may be indexed.

Without a sitemap, Google can crawl your website just fine, but with a sitemap it is faster and more controlled. Especially with larger websites or new content, this is an essential part of Search Console setup. This way you can be sure that all of your website will be properly indexed by Google.

Setting 2. Checking the indexing

Have you added the sitemap? Top. Then you go to see if Google is actually indexing the pages. The indexing report shows you which pages are indexed and where Google is running into problems.

Pay particular attention here to pages that are important but not indexed. Notifications such as "discovered - currently not indexed" or "crawled - currently not indexed" are often signals that something could be better technically or content-wise. Of course, it can also happen that certain pages need to be deliberately not indexed. You do this by indicating a noindex tag to Google. This basically tells Google that you do not want a certain page in the search results. These are often pages such as thank you pages, login pages and so on.

Setting 3. Core Web Vitals and mobile usability

Now that Google knows your pages, it's time to start looking at the Core Web Vitals. The Core Web Vitals are Google's new metrics to assess usability. Google wants to show fast, stable and mobile-friendly Web sites. That's why Core Web Vitals and mobile usability are fixed components when setting up Search Console correctly.

You can see how your website is performing on usability by looking under the ''Functionality'' heading and then clicking on ''Site vitality.'' Here you can see how your pages are performing on mobile and desktop.

Do you see errors here? Then it is useful to take action for this. You can do this yourself or hire a developer for this. Think for example of improving the loading speed of certain pages.

Setting 4. Checking security and manual actions

This part is quick to check, but crucial when setting up search console. After all, you want to make sure that Google trusts your website and has not restricted it in search results.

You can find this in Google Search Console via the left menu. Scroll all the way down and click on:

Settings → Security and manual actions

In this overview, you will see two sections:

• Manual actions
• Security issues

Are both items set to "No problems detected"? Then you're fine and can continue optimizing. If you do see a message here, it means that Google has restricted your website because of spam, abuse or security issues, for example. This needs to be resolved first.

Tip: always check this section when setting up Search Console or when performance suddenly drops.

Setting 5. Analyze performance

Only now comes the part many people look at first, analyzing performance. And that's precisely why it's useful to do this part last in your process of setting up Google Search Console.

Because now you know that your pages are indexing, technical issues are limited and your user experience is up -to -date. As a result, you can actually interpret the data about keywords, clicks, CTR and positions correctly and use it to optimize.

Need help setting up Google Search Console?

Doubting whether your Search Console is set up correctly or not sure what to do with all the data? At OMA, we help you set everything up correctly and translate insights into concrete points of improvement. That way you can be sure that you are steering on the right data.

Wondering if your Search Console is optimally set up? If so, we'd love to take a look with you - get in touch!