Step-by-Step Google Search Console Action Guide

Here is my step-by-step actionable guide to using Google Search Console (GSC), tailored for SEOs, content leads, and founders who want to build a reliable content growth engine using GSC as their primary diagnostic tool.

Step 0: Set Up and Verify Your GSC

Before you dive in, you need to make sure:

• You’ve added your property (both domain-level and URL-prefix if needed).

• You’ve verified it via DNS, HTML file, or Google Tag Manager.

• You’ve connected GSC with Google Analytics for deeper analysis (this is optional but useful).

Once setup is done, GSC will start collecting data, and within 24-48 hours, you’ll see search performance data flow in.

GSC is divided into four core functional areas:

1. Performance (Top 1 Tab)

2. Index (Coverage + Sitemaps)

3. Experience (Core Web Vitals + Mobile Usability)

4. Security/Manual Actions

There are also miscellaneous tabs for Links, Settings, and URL Inspection. My advice is that 95% of the SEO utility comes from just three tabs—Performance, Index, and Experience. If you master these, you’ll know more than 90% of founders out there.

STEP 1: Weekly Performance Review (Search Performance Tab)

Objective: Track how your content is performing in SERPs (Google Search).

Key Actions:

1. Switch to the “Pages” Tab: Review your top-performing URLs and compare the number of impressions versus clicks each page receives. I identify pages with high impressions but low CTR and flag these for meta improvements.

2. Combine “Query” and “Page” Filters: This displays which keywords are driving traffic to specific pages. I use this to assess keyword cannibalization, find unexpected ranking keywords for new opportunities, and identify weak pages with low CTR despite a high position.

3. Compare vs. Last 28 Days / Last 3 Months: I use comparison mode to identify which pages are gaining visibility, losing clicks (potentially due to decay), or ranking for new queries.

4. Export Top Keywords + Pages Weekly: I recommend building a GSC to Airtable or GSheet workflow. You can use this data to prioritize content updates or refreshes.

STEP 2: Weekly Index Monitoring (Index > Coverage + Sitemaps)

Objective: Ensure all important pages are indexed—and none are broken or misconfigured.

Key Actions:

1. Review the "Pages" Tab under the Index Section: I focus on Valid pages (indexed & fine) and Excluded pages (review these manually). Pay close attention to "Discovered – currently not indexed," as this is critical to fix for crawlability or thin content issues. Also, check "Crawled – currently not indexed," which likely means the content isn't strong enough.

2. Submit Sitemap.xml: Make sure you’ve submitted all major sitemap.xml files. I suggest using separate sitemaps by content type if your site has hundreds or thousands of URLs.

3. Investigate Excluded URLs: Fix issues such as noindex tags accidentally left in place, orphan pages with no internal links, or pages blocked by robots.txt.

A tip from my experience: 30% of the websites I audit have critical content that is not indexed due to orphan pages, bad pagination, or non-existent internal links.

STEP 3: Experience Tab Check (Core Web Vitals + Mobile Usability)

Objective: Identify and resolve UX issues that directly impact rankings.

Key Actions:

1. Core Web Vitals: Look for CLS (Layout Shift), LCP (Load Time), and FID (Input Delay). I prioritize fixing pages that are marked as "Poor" or "Needs Improvement."

2. Mobile Usability: Ensure all key pages are marked “Mobile Friendly.” Fix issues like text being too small, clickable elements being too close, or the viewport not being set.

My advice here is that Google is now mobile-first, and many blog templates are bloated. I recommend running your main blog URLs through Core Web Vitals and Mobile checks often.

STEP 4: Run URL Inspection Before/After Content Changes

Objective: Ensure updated content is crawled and re-evaluated by Google.

Key Actions:

1. Paste the updated blog/product URL into the URL Inspection tool.

2. Check the index status, last crawl date, and then click “Request Indexing” after publishing or refreshing content.

3. I will watch this in combination with performance reports over the next 1–2 weeks. This is useful after refreshing content, changing meta titles/descriptions, or publishing new content.

STEP 5: Monitor Backlinks (Links Tab)

Objective: Track earned links and your anchor text profile.

Key Actions:

Open Links → External Links and check your top linking domains, top linked pages, and top anchor text. I look for brand mentions without links (so I can follow up) and spammy anchor patterns that might need to be flagged for disavowal.

STEP 6: Settings & Ownership Access

Objective: Ensure clean team access, ownership, and integration setup.

Key Actions:

I add users with full vs. restricted access thoughtfully and integrate GSC with Google Analytics, Looker Studio, and rank tracking tools.

My Simplified Weekly GSC Ritual

Day	Task
Monday	Review the “Performance” tab for top pages & CTRs.
Tuesday	Check Index Status, looking for new exclusions.
Wednesday	Spot content decay using comparison mode.
Thursday	Run URL Inspection for updated/published articles.
Friday	Audit Core Web Vitals & Mobile Usability.
Weekly	Export GSC data into my SEO dashboard or sheet.

Bonus: Using GSC to Build a Content Roadmap

Once I've stabilized basic hygiene, I use GSC to:

• Find top decaying pages and refresh them.

• Identify keywords ranked #5–10 and add FAQs, internal links, or refine the meta description.

• Spot pages with lots of impressions but <1% CTR and rewrite their titles/descriptions.

• Prioritize “Discovered – not indexed” pages by improving internal links and content quality.

A Guide to Improving Crawling and Indexing

This is the core of technical hygiene. Without crawling and indexing, your content doesn't exist—no matter how good it is. The technical SEO mantra I follow is:

• If Google can’t crawl it, it can’t rank it.

• If Google can’t render it, it can’t understand it.

• If Google can’t index it, it won’t show it.

Step 1: Start with the Index Coverage Report (GSC → Index → Pages)

This report shows how many of your pages are Valid, excluded, or have Errors and helps you detect why Google isn’t indexing certain pages.

Actions:

Go to GSC → Index → Pages. I focus on these statuses:

• Valid: No action needed.

• Excluded – Discovered but not indexed: Add internal links, ensure sitemap inclusion, improve content quality.

• Crawled – not indexed: The page might be thin or duplicate. Improve content and links.

• Duplicate, submitted URL not selected as canonical: Consolidate or canonicalize correctly.

• Blocked by robots.txt: If this was accidental, update robots.txt.

• Soft 404: Improve page content or redirect.

My advice: If a blog you spent 10 hours on is stuck in ‘Discovered – not indexed’ for weeks, it’s your fault—not Google’s.

Step 2: Submit a Sitemap (and Split It Smartly)

A sitemap tells Google what content to crawl. I submit my sitemap via GSC → Index → Sitemaps. If I'm managing thousands of URLs, I split the sitemap by content type (e.g., /blog-sitemap.xml, /product-sitemap.xml) to monitor indexing performance by section.

Step 3: Use URL Inspection to Debug Rendering and Indexing Issues

This tool shows exactly how Googlebot sees your page. Paste a URL into GSC → URL Inspection. Click “View Crawled Page” and then “View Rendered HTML.” I verify that key content is visible and that the canonical URL is correct, then I request indexing for new or updated content.

My pro debugging tip: Copy the rendered HTML, paste it into a text editor, and open it in Chrome. Compare what Googlebot sees vs. what a human sees. This is gold for debugging JS-heavy pages.

Step 4: Monitor Crawl Stats and Crawl Budget

This helps diagnose how often Google crawls your site. Go to GSC → Settings → Crawl Stats Report. I check pages crawled per day, crawl status codes, and crawl response time. To fix crawl budget issues, I improve internal linking, remove low-value pages, and ensure canonical and sitemap URLs match.

Step 5: Check robots.txt and Meta Robots Tags

Visit yourdomain.com/robots.txt to ensure you haven’t accidentally blocked important directories. I also check if pages have noindex tags, canonicals pointing to non-existent URLs, or disallow rules for important directories. My tip: If 30% of your pages are still not indexed after 60 days, robots.txt, internal links, and content quality are your three biggest suspects.

Step 6: Monitor Mobile-First Indexing Behavior

Google primarily indexes the mobile version of your site. Go to GSC → Mobile Usability and check for issues such as clickable elements being too close together or text being too small. I ensure that the mobile page contains all core content.

Step 7: Test JavaScript & Lazy Load Issues at Scale

This is an advanced move. I use GSC's Rendered HTML view and tools like Screaming Frog in JS-rendering mode. My note on this is that programmatic SEO and JS-based sites are dangerous unless you're prepared to debug render paths page by page.

Step 8: Reinforce Crawlability via Internal Linking

Even with all these fixes, Google needs internal link signals. I link from high-authority pages to new pages, create topic clusters, and use HTML sitemaps and breadcrumbs.

A Guide to Measuring Traffic and Analyzing Performance

This is your command center for organic performance. I call GSC the “MRI scan for organic search”—you can’t optimize what you don’t measure. GA tells you what users do after clicking; GSC tells you why they clicked—or didn’t.

Step 1: Access the Performance Report

Go to GSC → Search Results (Performance). This is the home base, showing four primary metrics: Total Clicks, Total Impressions, Average CTR, and Average Position.

Step 2: Analyze Organic Performance by Query

Go to the Queries tab. I sort by Clicks, Impressions, CTR, and Average Position to find different opportunities. My strategy is to review queries with a position between 6 and 15 and decent impressions. These are your low-hanging fruit for quick wins.

Step 3: Analyze Organic Performance by Page

Go to the Pages tab. Here, I identify top traffic pages, compare clicks vs. impressions to find underperforming content, and use CTR to spot pages that need better titles or meta descriptions.

Step 4: Track Trends Over Time (Date Filters)

I always use the Date Filter to compare performance. Don’t look at numbers in isolation—growth or decline only matters relative to the past.

Step 5: Separate Branded vs. Non-Branded Traffic

My point of view is that non-branded organic traffic is the truest measure of whether your SEO is working. To filter it, go to Performance → Queries → + New → Query → Does not contain → your brand name.

Step 6: Segment Performance by Country, Device, or Search Appearance

Use the + New Filter to slice data and understand where traffic is from, compare desktop vs. mobile, and analyze rich result performance.

Step 7: Debugging Traffic Drops

If there's a sudden drop in traffic, I use GSC to defend against it. I compare the date range in the Performance report to identify which queries or pages experienced drops. Then I check the Index Coverage Report, Manual Actions, Crawl Stats, and URL Inspection for the cause. My advice is never to guess. Let the data show you where the drop happened, then work backward.

Step 8: Build Real-Time Dashboards (Looker Studio)

For better visibility, I automate reporting by connecting GSC to Looker Studio. I provide dashboard templates in my SEO workshops. If you’re running multiple sites or reporting to leadership, dashboards save time and build trust.

Step 9: Bonus: Set Benchmarks and Growth Goals

I track total clicks, the percentage of clicks from non-branded terms, average CTR, queries ranked 4–15, and pages with declining click-through rates every month. My playbook is to monitor top declining queries/pages weekly and track growth in non-branded discovery traffic monthly.

A Guide to Technical SEO Auditing and Execution

I call GSC the "bread and butter" of any SEO audit because it’s Google telling you what it can see, what it likes, and what it’s indexing or penalizing.

Step 1: Index Coverage Report — Your First Stop

Go to GSC → Pages → Indexing → Why pages aren’t indexed. I fix Errors first, then review excluded pages. My rule is to run a full content audit quarterly and clean up stale or dead pages.

Step 2: URL Inspection Tool — Debug Specific Pages

I use this to check if a page is indexed, see the last crawl date, and view the rendered HTML. I use this to debug JS-heavy pages that hide critical content from Google.

Step 3: Sitemap & URL Submission

Go to GSC → Sitemaps and submit your XML file. My tip: Sitemaps aren’t optional. They’re a way to communicate priority and structure to Google.

Step 4: Crawl Stats Report — Diagnose Crawl Budget

Go to GSC → Settings → Crawl Stats. I watch for drops in crawl volume, a high number of 404s, or spikes in JS/CSS crawling. My play for large sites is to manage crawl budget carefully, because if Google is wasting time on junk pages, your important pages won’t get discovered.

Step 5: Mobile Usability Report — Check Mobile-First Experience

Go to GSC → Mobile Usability and fix any flagged issues. Your mobile experience is the baseline for your SEO.

Step 6: Security Issues & Manual Actions

Go to GSC → Security & Manual Actions. If you notice anything suspicious—such as malware or penalties—stop everything and address the issue immediately.

Step 7: Link Report — Audit Internal and External Link Health

Go to GSC → Links. I review top linked pages, linking sites, anchor text, and internal links. My recommendation is to create a targeted internal linking map that connects top-performing pages to strategic bottom-funnel content.

Step 8: User Access Management

Go to GSC → Settings → Users and permissions. I add key team members here. I recommend having both product and engineering teams inside GSC because if they can see the data, they’ll care more about fixing it.

Step 9: Site Health Alerts

GSC sends automated email alerts for new indexing errors, mobile usability issues, and security problems. These emails are your early warning system.

My Technical SEO Audit Workflow with GSC

1. I export Index Coverage data (Valid, Excluded, Error).

2. I annotate each status with the URL, issue type, fix, priority, and estimated traffic gain.

3. I create a Google Sheet or Airtable for this audit.

4. I tag each fix with who’s responsible, the timeline, and the current status.

5. I review monthly and report changes to traffic/coverage.

For a deep audit, I use Screaming Frog or Sitebulb. I use this combination to build developer-facing SEO task lists with Issue → Fix → Impact → Owner → ETA.

Closing

• Use GSC like an ongoing diagnostic, not a one-time fix.

• Your GSC Index Coverage is your site's scorecard—clean it up, and traffic follows.

• Combine GSC with internal tools, GA, and crawlers for full-stack audits.

• Turn findings into actionable tickets that developers and PMs can execute on.