But where do you start?

Get started with search

In this module...

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Hey! Want a great tool to get your website more traffic? Then this is the video for you. We’re going to tell you all about a free Google service called Search Console. And show how it can help you, and how you can get it set up. So what exactly is Google Search Console? Well, it's a service that gives you feedback about how your website is doing in Google search results.

It has two primary functions. It monitors your performance in Google Search results. And it also shows you how Google “sees” your site.

Say you own a coffee shop, and your website needs some updating. Let’s take a closer look at a few ways Search Console might be able to help you out. One way is through its “Search Analytics” reports. This can help you answer a few important questions like which searches bring people to your site. Or tell you when searchers click on your links. They can even let you know which other sites link to yours.

Why is this important?

Well, the “Search Analytics” report shows lots of things, including the most common searches bringing people to your site. Ideally you’d see words and phrases relevant to your business, like:

'Coffee shop Cotswolds', 'Coffeehouse near me', 'Pastries near Cotswolds', or 'Fair trade coffee near me'.

If you review the report and see unrelated or irrelevant words and phrases, it’s a hint that the text on your website needs some attention.

Another thing to look for is the number of clicks. You’ll want to know how often your site appears but gets no clicks—that’s a sign your content doesn’t match what people are looking for.

The “Links to your site” report shows websites that link to your site. Think of these as “referrals.” The list should include websites relevant to coffee. More and more people use mobile devices to access the Internet, so while you’re in Google Search Console you should also check out the “Mobile Usability Report”. This’ll point out pages on your site that don’t work well on mobile phones, which you can then fix to improve your website performance when people search on mobile. There are two more really handy features within Search Console to know about: “Crawl” reports, and “Google Index” reports.

“Crawl” reports let you monitor whether Google can visit your web pages. This is important because if Google can’t access your web pages, your content can’t be included in Google’s search results.

The “Google Index” reports show what information Google recorded about your site and tells you if your pages are accessible. It’s easy to get started with Search Console.

Go to www.google.com/webmasters.

Once signed in, add your website and complete the verification to prove you own the website.

Now Search Console can generate reports for your site—for free! It might take a few days before you see useful information because it must first gather and process the data. If you see a "No data yet" message, check back later. Now that your site’s set up in Google Search Console, you can use the reports to figure out how to improve your presence on Google. Using the reports, you can make changes to help Google better understand your web pages and as a result make your website perform better.

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FUNDAMENTALS OF DIGITAL MARKETING: MODULE 10/26