Google Search Console is a free tool website administrators can use to track website performance in Google Search results. Search Console is different from other analytics tools in that it helps online store owners (and other website admins) focus in on search as an inbound marketing and referral channel. You can use it to optimize your website’s SEO and make sure you’re doing everything you can to get higher search rankings for your online store.

How do you add your website to Google Search Console?

If you already have a Google Account, adding your website to Search Console is relatively easy. Here’s how to get started.

1. Sign in to Google Search Console.
2. Click the “Add a property” button.
3. Add your website’s URL.
4. Follow one of the methods provided to verify your site.

Voila! You can now start measuring search traffic to your website using Search Console.

What can you measure with Search Console?

Unlike the analytics program you use to track day-to-day interaction within your online store, Search Console offers you a deep dive into how customers reach your store through search engines. You can get a number of different insights using the dashboard.

• How your store looks in search results: Under the “Search appearance” tab, you track information on appearance factors like rich snippets (crucial for Google Shopping results) and AMP pages (essential for tracking mobile performance). You’ll also get HTML tips that can help your site perform better in search overall.
• Keyword and general traffic analyses: “Search traffic” is where you can see detailed demographic and behavioral analyses of search traffic to your online store. You can parse traffic by categories like queries (keywords), pages, countries, devices, and more. You’ll also get a better idea of where referral traffic is coming from and tips on how to make sure your site is performing well on mobile devices, among other insights.
• Site indexing, crawl, and security information: Search Console includes tons of information about how Google finds and indexes your website, as well as tools to temporarily remove specific URLs on your site from search results. You can also get insights into which old pages on your online store are producing 404 errors and create redirects to ensure old links on other sites still lead people who follow them to a useful place in your online store. Lastly, you can get tips on how to improve the security of your website to make sure it’s well protected from hackers and other malicious fraudsters.