Google Search Console Tips
Google Search Console (previously called Webmaster Tools) is a free tool provided by Google for website owners to monitor performance and traffic. GSC also offers search engine optimization recommendations and fixes. Our SEO Office Hours recaps below cover a range of advice from Google to help you better understand and get the most out of this fundamental SEO tool.
Verify HTTP and HTTPS in Search Console to Migrate
If you migrate from HTTP to HTTPS, you need to have both verified in Webmaster Tools and set up a redirect, but you don’t need to use the change of address tool which is only for moving between different domains.
Manual Penalties Expire Automatically
Manual penalties will show up in Webmaster Tools, and will expire naturally after an amount of time. Algorithmic penalties are only updated when the algorithm and data is refreshed, or the algorithm is retired.
Search Console Reports Canonicalised Pages with Duplicate Titles
Search Console will report pages as having duplicate titles, even if they have been canonicalised
Soft 404 Errors Can Identify Thin Pages
The Soft 404 errors report in Webmaster Tools is a good way of identifying thin pages which Google don’t think have any original content.
Only Manual Penalties Show in Search Console
Only manual Google penalties are shown in Webmaster Tools. They can be applied to a single subdomain, or all subdomains of a domain. They are removed automatically after a fixed period.
Submit Sitemaps with Changed URLs
If you change many URLs, you should submit a sitemap with the old URLs to Google which will help them pick up the redirects to the new URLs. Webmaster tools will report errors with the sitemap, because it only contains redirecting URLs, but this is fine.
Verify All Domain Variations in Search Console
In Webmaster Tools, you need to verify all combinations of your domain. e.g. www/non-www, http/https in order to see all the backlinks.
Backlink Data in Search Console Is Delayed
Backlinks reported in Webmaster Tools come directly from the Googebot web crawling process, give or take a few days delay.