Google Search Console (often shortened to GSC, and formerly Google Webmaster Tools) is the only place to get data about your site straight from Google. It’s free. You verify that you own the site, and from then on Google reports how it sees your pages and how they perform in search.
The reports that matter most
Performance. Clicks, impressions, click-through rate and average position, broken down by query, page, country, device, search appearance and date. It holds up to 16 months of data.
Page indexing. Which pages are indexed and which aren’t, with the reason for each group: noindex, redirect, 404, duplicate, “crawled, currently not indexed” and so on. See indexing.
URL Inspection. A detailed check of one URL: whether it’s indexed, the canonical Google chose, when it was last crawled, and the rendered HTML. You can request indexing here after fixing a page.
Sitemaps. Submit your XML sitemap and see how many URLs were discovered from it.
Core Web Vitals. Real-user page experience data grouped by URL type.
Links. Top linked pages, top linking sites and top internal links.
Manual actions and Security issues. Whether a Google reviewer has penalized the site, or Google has detected hacking or malware. Check these first if traffic suddenly collapses.
Why it matters
Brightside Dental’s office manager noticed fewer online bookings. Search Console’s Performance report, compared month on month, showed clicks to the implants page down 40% while impressions were flat. The cause was a lower CTR: a competitor had added prices to their result and Brightside’s title looked generic next to it. Without Search Console, the practice would only have known that bookings dropped.
Good habits
- Verify a Domain property (via DNS), which covers
http,https,wwwand subdomains together. - Compare date ranges fairly: month on month for trends, year on year for seasonal businesses.
- Filter out branded queries to see how non-brand search is doing.
- Check Page indexing after launches, redesigns and migrations.
Common mistakes
- Expecting the numbers to match Google Analytics. Search Console counts clicks from Google; analytics counts sessions, and they’re measured differently.
- Reading average position without filtering by query.
- Ignoring data delays. The latest day or two is incomplete.
- Only checking it when something goes wrong.
Using it in RankThat
RankThat connects to Search Console so its data sits next to rankings, audits and reports. Search Performance shows clicks, impressions and positions inside the platform, and the monthly reports include Search Console figures with fair comparisons. Pair it with Google Analytics 4 to see what visitors do after they arrive.