Jared Atchison — June 11, 2020 Do you want to increase brand awareness, boost sales, and learn valuable information about your target audience? If so, you’re in the right place. You can accomplish all of this and more by using a free Google tool called Google Search Console (GSC).
There’s no doubt that Google is the most popular and frequently visited website in the world. Think of it this way; the search engine giant handles a mind-boggling 79,456 searches per second! It’s clear that if you want to grow your business, you should find ways to work with Google to improve your search engine optimization (SEO), understand your link sources, and create content that resonates with your customers.
Essentially, the GSC tool allows you to quickly and accurately review vital information about your website and the behavior of your visitors. The ability to see and use this information can take your brand from ordinary to extraordinary.
Today we are going to take a dive into GSC and show you 4 key benefits of using this tool that you don’t want to miss.
Let’s get started.
Track Your Keywords
Did you know that 95% of people visit websites that appear on the first page of their Google search? Compare that number to the paltry 5% that click links on the second page, and it’s not hard to see why SEO is so crucial for your business.
If your business doesn’t appear on the first page, you have a significantly lower chance of generating traffic, sales, and leads from folks searching for your keywords and phrases.
Luckily, GSC allows you to track your keywords directly from their tool. Specifically, you’ll be able to see which keywords your site is ranking for, which can help you plan future content and marketing campaigns.
If you check the performance tab of the GSC dashboard, you’ll see a tab that says Queries. Under this section, you can see what people are searching for to find your site. Also, you can click the pages tab and view keywords for specific pages.
Use this data to create content that addresses the patterns you notice in your keywords history. For instance, if you see people finding your website by typing “How to start a garden,” you may want to consider creating more content that fleshes out that idea and includes the keyword mentioned, and any other relevant words or phrases you find along the way.
Discover Link Traffic Sources
Website traffic is vital to your success, so uncovering your link traffic sources help you stay one step ahead of the game. GSC gives you the ability to see all internal and external links on your site.
We are going to touch on the importance of seeing when other people link to your company. Let’s say you go to the links tab on the search console, and notice that there’s another site in your niche that’s frequently mentioning your brand as a reputable company and product.
Now that you know this friendly site exists, you can get in touch with the owner and see if they are interested in working together on content or becoming an official brand ambassador.
Links to your website are important on social media, through email, and of course, on other websites. If you use GSC to track your links, you’ll have no problem finding new opportunities to work on your linkbuilding, which is arguably one of the most important SEO factors.
Analyze Specific Pages
Next, we are going to talk about the different ways you can analyze specific pages on your business website. Earlier, we mentioned the benefits of reviewing keywords on individual pages, but that’s only the beginning of what you can do with this tool.
GSC can help you analyze specific pages for information on traffic, clicks, and simple behavioral factors like the device used to browse. You want to know whether or not your traffic is coming from mobile or desktop so you can plan UX, content, and forms. When you consider that 58% of web traffic in the US comes from mobile devices, it’s clear that there is a need for this type of information.
Similarly, knowing the traffic and clicks on your individual pages will help you when split testing different aspects of your site. You can also identify when something is wrong with an existing page based on the trends you observe. For example, imagine if the bounce rate on one of your most viewed blog post was 50 percent, and they were all using a mobile device.
You can examine that individual page and look for errors with mobile UX. If you find something that’s causing mobile users to bounce, you can fix it and get everything back on track. All of this would be much more challenging without the help of GSC as a reference point.
Submit Your Site to Google
An XML sitemap can help you gradually grow your SEO ranking, which should be one of the primary goals of business owners and developers in every industry.
Google crawlers are bots that scan every website for information. These bots want to know what kind of content is on your website and how people interact with your site. Their purpose is to rank, and possibly re-rank your website based on how it’s organized.
The interesting think about Google crawlers is they have a very limited space when they are combing through your website. In other words, they will not be able to browse every page and come to a conclusion that makes sense without a little help. Here’s where your XML sitemap comes into play.
Your sitemap is designed by you, and submitting your site to Google will help the bots crawl your site more efficiently. Imagine the difference between traveling across the country with and without a map. You may eventually get to the same place, but if you don’t have a map, it’s going to take you a lot longer. The same rule applies to the crawler bots.
The best part is you can submit your XML sitemap to GSC in less than one minute! Simply go to the sitemap tab on the left side of the GSC, enter your sitemap URL, and confirm. It’s that easy to give your SEO a gradual boost over time.
Conclusion
There are plenty of other great features available with this free Google tool. The benefits we mentioned here are just the tip of the iceberg, but they stand as a strong motivator for people interested in growing their business.
It takes some time to get used to using GSC, but once you get comfortable with the program, you’ll wonder how you ever planned your SEO strategy without this handy little tool.
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