GEO Search Console FAQ: Search Console and Claude SEO skills, answered

These Google Search Console questions are the ones people ask most about Google's free tool for site owners, taken from the People Also Ask box Google shows for Search Console.

Our Google Search Console FAQ puts all 14 on one page.

What is Search Console data?

Search Console data is what Google recorded about your site in its own systems: the searches your pages showed up for, the clicks and impressions they got, their average position, and whether each page is indexed. Google keeps 16 months of it.

Full answer: what Search Console data is and how long Google keeps it.

What data can you get from the Google Search Console?

The data you can get from the Google Search Console comes in two kinds: performance data (queries, pages, clicks, impressions, click-through rate and position) and status data (indexing, sitemaps, Core Web Vitals, structured data, links, manual actions and security issues). The interface exports up to 1,000 rows, the API up to 50,000 rows a day.

Full answer: the data you can get from Search Console, and the export limits.

What can I do with Google Search Console?

You can do six main jobs with Google Search Console: see the searches that bring people to your site, fix pages Google hasn't indexed, inspect a single address, submit sitemaps, read your links, and catch problems before they cost you traffic.

Full answer: the six jobs you can do with Google Search Console.

What is Google Console for?

Google Console is usually short for Google Search Console, the free Google tool for checking how your site does in Google Search. Google also runs the Cloud console, Play Console and Admin console, each for a different job.

Full answer: what each Google console is for.

How do I open the Search Console?

You open the Search Console at search.google.com/search-console, the same address on a computer or a phone, signed in with the Google account that has access to your site.

Full answer: how to open Search Console, step by step.

How do I login to the Search Console?

You login to the Search Console with an ordinary Google account: a Gmail address or a Google Workspace address both work, and there is no separate Search Console password. If your site is missing, you are probably signed in with the wrong account.

Full answer: the Search Console login and which account to use.

How to connect Search Console to website?

To connect Search Console to a website, you add the site as a property, prove you own it with a DNS record, file or tag, then submit your sitemap. Data starts to fill in within a few days.

Full answer: how to connect Search Console to a website in five steps.

What is Google Search Console Access?

Google Search Console Access is the permission level a Google account has on a site's property: owner, full user or restricted user. Owners can do everything, full users see all the data and take some actions, and restricted users only read.

Full answer: Google Search Console access levels explained.

How to share Search Console access?

To share Search Console access, an owner opens Settings, then Users and permissions, clicks Add user, types the person's Google account address and picks Full or Restricted.

Full answer: how to share Search Console access, and which level to give.

Is there a Search Console app?

There is no official Search Console app for phones. The Search Console website works in a phone's browser, and Google emails the alerts that matter.

Full answer: Search Console on a phone, alerts and third-party apps.

Can I use Google Console for free?

You can use Google Console for free: Google Search Console has no paid plan and no trial, and every report is free for every site you verify. Its limits are 16 months of data and 1,000-row exports.

Full answer: what is free in Google Search Console, and its two limits.

Does the Google Search Console collect personal data?

The Google Search Console does not give you personal data about the people who search for you: it reports totals, such as how many impressions a query got, and never who searched. Rare queries are anonymized.

Full answer: what personal data Google Search Console keeps.

Can I tell who has googled my name?

You can't tell who has googled your name, because Google doesn't share who searched for anything, and no tool can show it. Search Console can show how often a search for your name showed your own site.

Full answer: what you can see when people google your name.

What is the Google Search Console called now?

The Google Search Console is still called Google Search Console. Before that it was Google Webmaster Tools, and Google renamed it on May 20, 2015.

Full answer: Google Search Console's old name and why it changed.