Learn to Use Google Search Console

Why this matters

Every fix so far is invisible until you confirm Google picked it up. Search Console is the only place that tells you directly — which pages are indexed, which are ignored, what people search before clicking your site, and whether anything is broken. It's the dashboard for everything we've built.

Getting in

If you set up Search Console back in Step 01, you're already in — just go to search.google.com/search-console and sign in with the same Google account. If you skipped that step, go back and do it now. Everything below assumes your site is verified and connected.

The five things to check

1. 1

   Inspect any URL

   easyAnyone~2 min

   The inspection bar sits at the top of every Search Console page. Paste any URL from your site and hit Enter. Google tells you three things: whether the page is in Google's index, whether there are any errors stopping it, and when Google last looked at it. If a page isn't indexed and you think it should be, this is where you start.

2. 2

   Submit your sitemap

   easyAnyone~3 min

   Click "Sitemaps" in the left menu. Type your sitemap URL — usually yoursite.com/sitemap.xml — and click Submit. This hands Google your table of contents so it doesn't have to guess which pages exist. You only need to do this once. After that, Google re-reads it automatically whenever you add new pages.

3. 3

   Check which pages are indexed

   easyAnyone~5 min

   Click "Pages" under the Indexing section. You'll see two numbers: how many pages Google has indexed, and how many it excluded. Click the excluded list to see why — common reasons are accidental "noindex" tags, redirect chains, or duplicate content. If an important page is excluded, fix the cause and then use the URL inspection tool to request re-indexing.

4. 4

   See what people are searching to find you

   easyAnyone~5 min

   Click "Performance" in the left menu, then "Search Results." The Queries tab shows the exact words people typed into Google before your site appeared in their results. This is gold — it tells you what your audience actually looks for, in their own words. You can use those phrases in your page titles, headings, and content to match what real people are searching for.

5. 5

   Request re-indexing after a change

   easyAnyone~2 min

   Whenever you make a meaningful change to a page — update the title tag, add alt text to images, rewrite a section — paste that page's URL into the inspection bar and click "Request Indexing." Google re-crawls it within hours instead of waiting days or weeks for the next scheduled visit. This is how you make your fixes show up fast.

See a real sitemap

Your weekly routine

Once everything is set up, Search Console takes about five minutes a week. Here's what to check each time you log in:

• Glance at the Performance report — are impressions and clicks trending up, down, or flat?
• Check the Pages report under Indexing — any new pages excluded that shouldn't be?
• Look at the Queries tab — any new search terms appearing that you could write content about?
• If you made changes to your site that week, inspect the updated URLs to confirm Google has picked them up.

Open Search Console

What changes after this

Instead of guessing whether your SEO changes are working, you check a dashboard once a week and make decisions based on real data. That's the shift — from hoping to knowing.

Next on the climb

• →Log into Search Console and submit your sitemap if you haven't already. Then inspect your homepage — confirm it's indexed with no errors.
• →Set a weekly calendar reminder to check the Performance and Pages reports. Five minutes, same day each week.
• →Next up: backlinks — getting other websites to link to yours. It's the hardest step so far, but a few real links from relevant local sites can move the needle more than anything else we've done.