Google Search Console is a free Google tool that shows how your website performs in Google Search and flags the problems holding it back. Once your site is verified, the reports worth checking regularly are Page indexing (pages Google can’t or won’t index), Security issues, Manual actions, Core Web Vitals (speed and stability) and Performance (the searches you appear for). Each one points at a specific fix.
Here’s what each report tells you and what to do about it.
Page indexing: pages Google isn’t showing
If a page isn’t indexed, it can’t appear in search results. The Page indexing report lists every URL Google knows about and, for those it hasn’t indexed, the reason. Common ones include “Not found (404)”, “Blocked by robots.txt”, “Excluded by ‘noindex’ tag” and “Crawled, currently not indexed”.
Not every excluded page is a problem. The ones to worry about are pages you want found, such as a service page or a recent article. Open the URL Inspection tool, check what Google sees, fix the cause, then click “Request indexing”.
404 errors: broken pages
404s show up in the Page indexing report under “Not found”. Most come from deleted or renamed pages. If a missing page had links pointing to it or used to get traffic, set up a 301 redirect to the closest live page. If it was genuinely junk, leave it. Google will drop it over time.
Security issues
If Google detects hacked content, malware or deceptive pages on your site, it lists them under Security issues and may warn visitors before they reach you. Treat any entry here as urgent. Clean the site, close the hole that let it in, then request a review from the same report. Our post on how to stop your website getting exploited covers the usual causes.
Manual actions
A manual action is a penalty applied by a person on Google’s team, usually for spammy links, thin content or hidden text. Affected pages can drop sharply or disappear from results. The Manual actions report explains what was found and which pages are affected. Fix every instance, document what you did, and submit a reconsideration request. We cover this step by step in how to recover your website from a Google penalty.
Core Web Vitals: speed and stability
This report groups your pages as Good, Needs improvement or Poor, based on how quickly the main content loads, how fast the page responds to a tap or click, and how much the layout shifts while loading. Fix the templates behind the poor pages first, since one fix often covers hundreds of URLs.
Performance: what people search to find you
The Performance report shows the searches your site appears for, with clicks, impressions, average position and click-through rate. Look for pages with plenty of impressions and few clicks. A clearer title and description can often lift clicks without any change in ranking.
Search Console won’t fix anything for you, but it tells you exactly where to look.
How we use it
Search Console is one of the first things we check in any SEO project, because it shows the problems Google itself has found. If the reports are full of warnings you’re not sure how to prioritise, our SEO team can help.
FAQs
What can Google Search Console tell you about your website?
It shows which searches your site appears for, how often people click, which pages Google has and hasn’t indexed and why, whether your pages pass Core Web Vitals, and whether Google has found security problems or applied a manual action. It also lets you submit sitemaps and request indexing for individual pages.
Is Google Search Console free?
Yes. You only need a Google account and a way to verify that you own the site, such as a DNS record or a tag added to your pages.
