At a glance, a content manager’s job seems simple: create stuff to post online that will get people to look at your other stuff. Easy, right? However, good content managers know that there’s far more that goes into a content manager’s job besides content creation and hoping that people will show up. Even the “build it and they will come” people know they need a building plan first.
This article explores tools provided by Google and how you can use them to maximize content strategy and drive your website traffic to the next level. Today we’re looking at Google Search Console.
Starting with the easiest of tools to set up and interpret, Google Search Console is one of our favorites. Originally called Google Webmaster Tools, GSC allows you to interface directly with the Google search engine. You won’t need any advanced programming skills to use GSC, but you will need to confirm ownership of your website before gaining access using a simple step-by-step process that may involve your web hosting pro.
#1: GSC Performance Report
This report shows four data sets critical for a content manager:
Top Queries – This shows the top search terms people use when (1) your website appears in their search results; and (2) people click on your website in their search results. Your website has a target market, and you know the search terms you want your visitors to use to find you. This report may show you how those terms are doing or reveal that they find you through other terms you hadn’t considered.
- How do I use this?: You know the terms people use to find you because your current content is optimized for those terms. If needed, adjust your content strategy to optimize for other phrases or pat yourself if the report shows you have been optimizing for those terms. Layering your content can help your search rankings and reach a targeted audience.
Top Pages – This shows the individual site pages appearing in all Google searches from your website, how often each page has been clicked on, and the number of times each page displays in results.
- How do I use this?: If you’re happy with this report’s contents, keep doing what you’re doing to drive traffic to your desired pages. Looking at the results, you’ll probably find a page or two that people are going to from years ago. If the page’s content is still mostly valid, go in and gently update any outdated information and add internal links to related newer pages. While you can delete pages containing obsolete information, consider using 301 redirects to send visitors to better information while retaining the original entry’s good page rank and reputation.
Clicks & Click-Thru Rate (CTR) – This is the number and percentage of the total number of impressions that resulted in a click to your site. The average click-thru rate takes into account all pages on your site.
- How do I use this?: People click on search results because of the post title and meta description. They may also affect your page rank. Learn from your high-performing pages and update your titles and meta descriptions accordingly.
Position – This report shows how far each of your pages is from the top of the search engine’s organic results.
- How do I use this?: It’s important to point out that a 2022 analysis by Backlinko showed that the #1 organic search result has an average CTR of 27.6% and that results past listing 10, moving up or down a single position is mostly insignificant. SEO pros have been trying to figure out Google’s algorithm for page rank for years. Our advice is to use it for its face value, determine which search terms people use that result in high-ranking pages, and optimize, optimize, optimize!
#2: Links Report
This is a more straightforward report, but still a very valuable one. The links report shows the three statistics:
- Top Linked Pages – This is a beneficial report that shows the top pages on your website that are linked to by other sites. A deeper dive into the report will show the specific sites linking to that page.
- Top Linking Sites – This is a list of pages that link to your site from outside your domain. A deeper dive will show the specific site and page being linked to.
- Top Linking Text – This report shows the text a user clicks on from outside your domain to get to your website.
- Top Internal Linked Pages – This shows which pages in your website are linked to by other pages on the site. Internal linking makes your website easier to navigate and helps Google find, index, and understand all the pages on your site. In addition, it can provide page authority (page rank) to important pages.
Check out our blog post on linking’s impact on search engine optimization to learn more about using this information to increase your site’s visibility. (Hey, that’s an internal link!)
#3: URL Inspection
The URL Inspection screen is both a report and a tool. You can check if Google has indexed a specific URL/page. You can also find out what Google sees when it indexes that page. It will also show you when Google last indexed the page. If the page is not in Google already, you can add it to be indexed there.
#4: Sitemaps
The sitemaps report/tool helps ensure that any sitemaps submitted to Google are correctly read and indexed. We last mentioned sitemaps in our post on Spring Cleaning, and that advice hasn’t changed; it’s even more critical. If you have built your website on WordPress, I have tested numerous plugins that generate sitemaps, and I love the free version of All in One SEO plugin due to its multiple other SEO features. In addition, when I write posts for our WriterAccess clients, I will frequently use the AIOSEO suite to improve the SEO quality of content.
Now that you are equipped with these tools, begin analyzing your website’s search engine data. Keep optimizing, and generate new content based on where you see gaps in coverage. Don’t forget the team at WriterAccess includes experienced SEO writers who can help with this as well. Stay tuned for our next Content Manager’s Toolbox article and keep at the “write” stuff!
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