Google Search Console

Google's free service that shows site owners how their site does in Google Search, which searches show it, and the problems Google finds with it.

Also called Search Console.

Google describes Search Console as “a free service offered by Google that helps you monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot your site’s presence in Google Search results”. You don’t need it to appear in Google Search, but it helps you see your site the way Google does (Google Search Console Help).

What it shows

Google’s list includes:

• how often your site appears in Google Search, which searches show it, and how often searchers click through;
• whether Google can find and crawl your site, with a way to ask it to index new or updated pages;
• alerts when Google finds indexing, spam or other problems on your site;
• which sites link to yours.

Its reports also cover Core Web Vitals, from real-world usage data, and the structured data Google could or couldn’t read for rich results (Google Search Central).

Getting started

Google’s first steps are to verify that you own the site, check that Google can find and read your pages, and consider submitting a sitemap, which “might speed up your site’s discovery”. There’s no need to sign in every day: Search Console emails you when Google finds new issues, and Google suggests checking around once a month, or when you change the site’s content.

If an SEO agency offers to audit your site, Google says to give it read access to Search Console only, not write access at that stage (Google Search Central).

Related terms

• Sitemap
• Core Web Vitals
• Rich results

Tools for it

• Technical SEO, audits and speed
• Reporting and dashboards

Sources

• https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/9128668 (Oct 8, 2026)
• https://developers.google.com/search/docs/monitor-debug/search-console-start (Oct 8, 2026)
• https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/do-i-need-seo (Oct 8, 2026)

Updated Oct 8, 2026.