What is Google Search Console, and do I need to register?

Google Search Console is a free tool that tells you whether Google has read your website, which search terms it showed your site for and how many times, and how many times people clicked. Your site can appear in search without registering, but if you don't register you have no way of knowing why it doesn't show up. Be sure to register.

What you can see in Google Search Console

• Impressions and clicks: which search terms showed your site, how many times, and how many clicks you got. This is where you learn the words customers actually use.
• Index status: which pages are in Google and which are missing.
• Problem alerts: it emails you when pages break on phones, load slowly, or have security issues.

How do I register?

Go to search.google.com/search-console with your Google account, enter your website address and verify ownership. You do this either by adding one DNS record at your domain registrar or by adding a verification tag to your website. ISSYMO handles this registration and the sitemap submission for you at launch, and connects it so you can see impressions and clicks right in your admin screen.

What to look at after registering

One or two months after launch, look at the list of search terms in the "Performance" report. If you see customers arriving with words you didn't expect, write those words more clearly in your website's text. For search terms with many impressions but few clicks, improving the title and description makes a big difference.

Google Search Console is a map, not a report card. It tells you the words customers use to find you.