How to use Google Search Console: a step-by-step guide for beginners

Google Search Console is Google’s free tool for website owners. It shows which searches bring up your pages, how often people click, which pages Google has indexed and what stops the others. This tutorial on how to use Google Search Console follows the order I would use on a new site: add it, verify it, submit the sitemap, then read the reports that matter.

You need about twenty minutes and access to the DNS settings of your domain, wherever it is registered. Menu names are those of the English interface at the time of writing (October 2026).

The last steps cover this year’s AI reports and Bing Webmaster Tools. This tutorial is part of my guide to small business SEO.

What Google Search Console shows you (and what it does not)

Search Console reports on your site as Google sees it. Each question has its own report:

What it does not show is what visitors do once they land. I use Microsoft Clarity for that: it shows where people engage, whether they came for something specific and which parts of a page make them leave, so I can tell whether the copy, a picture or the layout is the problem. My Microsoft Clarity tutorial covers the set-up.

Step 1: add your site as a Domain property

A property is the site, or the part of a site, that Search Console reports on. There are two types:

Choose the Domain property whenever you can. It catches every version of your address, including the old http one and the www or non-www version you forgot about.

1. Go to search.google.com/search-console and sign in with the Google account the business will keep: not a freelancer’s account, and not a personal address you might lose.
2. On your first visit, the welcome screen shows both property types. Otherwise, open the property menu at the top left and click Add property.
3. In the Domain box, type the bare domain (yourbusiness.co.uk, without https:// or www) and click Continue.

Step 2: verify the domain with a DNS TXT record

Search Console now shows a TXT record: a line of text you add to your domain’s DNS to prove you control it. It starts with google-site-verification= followed by a code unique to you. Copy it with the Copy button.

In another tab, open the DNS settings where your domain is managed (Namecheap, Spaceship, OVHcloud, Squarespace Domains or another registrar) and add this record:

Type:   TXT
Host:   @    (the root of the domain; at OVHcloud, leave the sub-domain empty)
Value:  google-site-verification=AbC123xYz...   (your own code)
TTL:    default

Save, return to Search Console and click Verify. If Search Console does not find the record yet, nothing is broken: a DNS change can take a few hours, sometimes a day, to spread. Try again later.

Add this record next to your existing TXT records rather than replacing them: the SPF record, the one starting with v=spf1, keeps your email working. No trailing dot is needed either: the final dot that catches people out at OVH applies to CNAME targets, not to a TXT value. DNS records explained covers each record type with examples.

Connecting the domain is the last thing I do before a site goes live. If you are at that stage, the DNS panel is already open: add the Search Console record in the same sitting.

Step 3: submit your sitemap

A sitemap is a file that lists the pages you want search engines to find. Most platforms create it for you: Squarespace, Wix and Shopify publish it at /sitemap.xml, WordPress at /wp-sitemap.xml (or /sitemap_index.xml with Yoast SEO). Open that address in your browser first: a list of links means it works.

1. In the left menu, open Indexing > Sitemaps.
2. Under Add a new sitemap, type the end of the address after your domain, for example sitemap.xml, and click Submit.
3. Check the status under Submitted sitemaps. Success means Google has read it. Couldn’t fetch is common on a brand-new site: check that the address opens in your browser, then give it a day or two.

You submit a sitemap once: Google comes back to read it on its own, so there is no need to resubmit it after each new page. If your site still does not appear on Google, my tutorial on how to get your website on Google goes through the usual blockers one by one.

Step 4: inspect a page and request indexing

URL Inspection tells you whether one page is on Google, and why. Paste the full address of a page into the search bar at the top of Search Console and press Enter.

The result opens with a verdict, URL is on Google or URL is not on Google, followed by the reason. The details show how Google found the page (your sitemap, a link), when it last crawled it and which address it treats as the main version, called the canonical. Two buttons matter:

• Test live URL checks the page as it is now, which is useful right after a fix.
• Request indexing asks Google to crawl the page soon. Keep it for a new page that matters or a page you have changed a lot: the sitemap handles the rest, Search Console limits requests per day and asking twice does not speed anything up.

A request is not a guarantee. Google still decides whether the page earns a place in its index.

Step 5: read the Performance report

Open Performance > Search results. Four totals sit above the chart; click one to show or hide its line:

• Total clicks: visits from Google Search to your site.
• Total impressions: the number of times one of your pages appeared in the results someone loaded.
• Average CTR: clicks divided by impressions.
• Average position: where your highest result sat on average, 1 being the top.

The default period is the last three months. The Date filter goes back 16 months, and its Compare tab sets one period against another, such as this month against the same month last year. Below the chart, the tabs break the totals down by Queries (what people typed), Pages, Countries, Devices, Search appearance and Dates. Click a query or a page to filter the whole report on it.

Three readings are worth your time:

1. Many impressions, few clicks. Sort the queries by impressions. A query that shows your page often but brings hardly any clicks usually points to a title or description that does not match the search: my on-page SEO checklist shows how to rewrite them.
2. Positions 8 to 20. These pages sit on the edge of page one: improving them often pays faster than writing something new.
3. One page at a time. Click a page in the Pages tab, then open Queries: you see what that page ranks for, which is not always what you wrote it for.

Since 17 November 2025 you can also add your own annotations to the chart, up to 120 characters each and visible to everyone with access to the property. Add one when you publish a page, rewrite titles or change platform: three months later, you will know why the curve moved.

Separate branded and non-branded searches

Searches for your business name come from people who already know you. Searches without it are the ones SEO brings. Since 20 November 2025, Search Console can tell them apart: the branded queries filter, extended to all eligible sites in March 2026, splits every metric between branded searches and the rest. Google classifies the queries itself and you cannot add your own brand terms. It also decides which properties are eligible, so the filter may not appear on yours.

Non-branded clicks are the number to follow month after month: they are new people finding you.

Step 6: fix what matters in the Page indexing report

Open Indexing > Pages. The chart splits the pages Google knows into indexed and not indexed, and the table Why pages aren’t indexed gives the reasons.

A long list of non-indexed pages is normal. Page with redirect, Alternate page with proper canonical tag and Not found (404) for pages you deleted are expected. What needs attention is a page you want on Google showing one of these reasons:

Once the fix is live, open the reason and click Validate fix. Google rechecks the affected pages over the following days or weeks and shows the outcome there.

Keep your priorities straight, though. In the SEO work I did for Pilotech, technical fixes came fourth, after the pages, the content and the Google Business Profile. A clean indexing report does not make a thin page rank.

Step 7: check your visibility in AI Overviews and AI Mode

The generative AI reports

Google announced generative AI reports for Search Console on 3 June 2026, and every site has had them since 31 August 2026. They sit with the other Performance reports: one for Search, covering AI Overviews and AI Mode, and one for Discover. Read them knowing their limits:

• They count impressions only, by page, country, device and date: no clicks, no CTR, no position and no queries.
• The same impressions already appear in the Web search type of the main report, so do not add the two together. Clicks from AI Mode have been counted under Web since June 2025.

What they are good for is seeing which of your pages Google’s AI features show, and how often. To become one of the cited sources, read how to get your site cited in AI Overviews and AI Mode; to measure the visits AI assistants send you, see how to track AI traffic.

The Search generative AI setting

In Settings, the Search generative AI setting decides whether your content can appear in AI Overviews, AI Mode and Discover summaries. Every site is included by default. Google first tested the setting with UK sites in June 2026 and has been extending it to other countries since August, so it may not appear on your property yet. An exclusion takes a few days to apply, and Google says it is not a ranking signal: your ordinary results stay as they are. The Gemini app and the training of Google’s models are a separate matter, controlled by the Google-Extended token in your robots.txt file (Google’s help page on the setting).

For most small businesses, the default is the right choice: an AI answer that quotes you puts your name in front of people who are comparing options. Excluding a site mainly makes sense for publishers whose articles are the product.

Add your site to Bing Webmaster Tools

Bing Webmaster Tools is Microsoft’s version of Search Console. Bing had about 6% of UK searches in June 2026, against about 91% for Google (Statcounter), and Microsoft Copilot runs Bing searches to build its answers. Once Google is set up, Bing takes a few minutes:

1. Go to bing.com/webmasters and sign in.
2. Choose to import your sites from Google Search Console and allow access. Bing brings over your verified sites and their sitemaps, with no new verification.
3. Open Sitemaps in Bing. If yours is missing, submit it there.

Two features are worth knowing:

• IndexNow tells search engines the moment a page is added, changed or deleted. Bing, Yandex, Seznam, Naver and Yep use it; Google does not (IndexNow FAQ). Some platforms and SEO plugins send these notifications for you.
• AI Performance, in public preview since February 2026, counts how often Copilot and Bing’s AI summaries cite your pages, and lists the grounding queries: the searches the AI ran before answering. Like Google’s report, it shows no clicks, and the data is sampled.

How to use Google Search Console every month

Once it is set up, Search Console needs about fifteen minutes a month:

1. Read the emails Search Console sends when it finds a new problem, then glance at Overview.
2. Compare periods in Performance: the last 28 days against the previous 28, then against the same period last year. Non-branded clicks are your SEO trend.
3. Rewrite one title: take a query with many impressions and few clicks, and rework the title and description of the page that shows for it.
4. Scan Page indexing for a new reason on a page you care about.
5. Open the generative AI report and note which pages appear.
6. Check Security & Manual Actions: both reports should say that no issues were detected.
7. Add an annotation to the chart for anything you changed this month.

When to hand it over: if pages you need stay out of the index after you have fixed the obvious causes, or clicks fall sharply with no reason you can see, a second pair of eyes saves time. That technical work is part of my SEO service. If the Security issues report flags your site, treat it as a hack and act the same day.