Google Search Console

Google Search Console is Google's free tool for following and improving a website's visibility in Google's search results. It shows how Google sees your site: which keywords it is found on, which pages are indexed, and whether anything technical stands in the way.

The performance report is the heart of it. Clicks, impressions, CTR and average position are available per keyword and per page, and these are the only ranking figures that come from Google itself. Every other tool estimates. Search Console measures. Around that sits the rest of the dialogue between website and search engine: index coverage with the reason a page was left out, sitemap submission and crawl requests, Core Web Vitals and signals like mobile usability and HTTPS, and the notices Google sends when it finds a security problem or issues a manual action.

Search Console and Google Analytics

The two tools are often confused, but they measure different halves of the journey. Search Console covers the way in, meaning performance in the results before anyone clicks. Google Analytics, in its GA4 form, covers what happens after the click: behavior, engagement and conversions. A serious SEO setup holds both, and the guide to search analytics and reporting shows how the two data sources fit together.