Kris Spisak — October 3, 2019 
You could argue Google is more than a search engine. It was added to the Oxford English Dictionary as a verb in 2006, meaning to search the internet utilizing the Google search engine, but it’s become a generic word for looking things up.
Go google that.
Let’s google it.
You’ve probably used it yourself.
But what does your business need to know about showing up in the results of the search giant? When something is this influential in our daily lives, it’s time to pay attention.
Let’s talk about the Google Search Console, which could be argued to be ground zero when it comes to technical SEO.
Once known as Google Webmaster Central and later Google Webmaster Tools, Google Search Console (GSC) has had its present name since 2015. This is the place you need to know for monitoring and optimizing your website’s performance within the Google search index. From crawling data to search traffic to technical status updates, there’s a lot you can dive into here, and we suggest you not only register your domain and do some exploring, but also take advantage of everything offered to you on the GSC.
Why is it helpful to access your Google Search Console?
- Get yourself ahead so that your website has improved results on Google search
- Understand how Google search sees your website and web presence
- Optimize your site with tools like Google AMP and Rich Results.
- Enable greater content optimization
- Submit your sitemap and/or individual URLs for crawling
- Test your usability across devices
- Receive alerts for what’s not working on your website
- And so much more
There are countless step-by-step guides for how to utilize Google Search Console, and GSC is frequently updated enabling new tools and insights. Google’s not one for keeping things static. They are constantly tweaking and evolving just as much as the rest of the technology sector is. For example, some of the latest updates to GSC include:
- “Google Search Console Can Now Report on Same-Day Data”
- “Google Search Console adds auto-DNS verification”
- “Google Adds Breadcrumb Structured Data To Search Console Enhancement Report”
- “Google Delivers On Webmasters Request To Control Search Result Snippets”
- “Google Search Console drops preferred domain setting”
- “Bing Webmaster Tools allows site verification via Google Search Console”
- “Google Search Console adds mobile-first indexing features”
- “Google Search Console adds Discover report”
And this is just a snapshot of recent updates.
As with everything else on the Web, GSC is not a set-it-and-forget-it tool; however, periodic check-ins will keep your website in a stronger shape than ever.
There are so many things a business can do to stay ahead, and what this means sometimes feels like it gets more complicated every year that goes by; however, sometimes, it comes down to web basics. On the Web, there’s not much that’s more basic than having a powerful presence when it comes to Google.
Things change fast in our digital world, but when you’re feeling intimidated, that’s where there’s power in having a knowledgeable partner at your side. Whether your internal IT team can tackle this for you or you hire external support, make sure you don’t skip over this SEO essential. Your website might just suffer for it. And nobody wants that.
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