New look for Google Webmaster Tools or now Google Search Console! The most popular search engine optimization software for online operators for detailed query of impressions, clicks and rankings has changed its look. The design has become more modern, with compatibility for mobile web viewing. We wanted to take a direct look at the most important changes and give an overview for beginners and novices to the new design in Google Search Console. Today on Sunday we take a look at the new user interface but also at the most important settings for Internet site operators and online shop owners. If you want to advance your own search engine optimization, you have to deal daily with your own rankings, that means positioning in the search engine, but also with various topics such as content marketing, page structure and also with backlinks and internal links. We look at all the details today, so that you have directly a comprehensive overview of the current possibilities that arise with Google Search Console. At the end of the article I’ll give you some helpful links and videos so you can improve your own search engine optimization.
After the new interface, I of course have a few tips for you, among others on the international orientation of Search Console.
What is Google Webmaster Tools or new Search Console?
Anyone who runs a website or an online shop and wants to bring it forward in the search engine, through better search engine positioning, which must analyze its own page or the online shop and optimize. How to stand in the search engine, that is, at Google, Google itself shows you in the in-house software Google Search Console.
Impressions in the search engine
Here you can see, for example, how many impressions your page has reached. Impressions, that is the number of views within search results. So if we search for “Immobilienmakler Berlin” and our page is on position 8, the user must first scroll down to this position, so that we get an impression.
Clicks in the search engine
More important are the clicks. Every click that is made after an impression is registered and stored by Google. In the Google Search Console I can then view all the results and the resulting performance.
From this I can draw conclusions about which pages I invest my time in. Because of course a big project has hundreds or thousands or even tens of thousands of subpages. But often only “a few” are important, and you have to put all your energy into them. One of the things that helps here is an ABC analysis. Which page brings us the most impressions and which offers the most potential, e.g. because it is just before page 1 or just before position 1 in the search results.
Set up Google Search Console
Here you can find my detailed description how to set up Google Webmaster Tools or new Search Console.
Let’s move on to the new design and interface of the Google Search Console.
User interface: New beta for webmasters
Chic, modern and less cluttered! White has become a subtle, dark grey. The new design of Google’s user interface has adapted to the new important features, mobile first! While the Webmaster Tools were previously only flawlessly accessible from the desktop, the new Search Console is also cleanly and beautifully accessible from mobile devices.
Overview – performance, index coverage and improvement
First: The overview. In 3 clear diagrams you can see, graded by priority, the most important results. First the performance overview, with impressions and clicks. Directly behind that the index coverage with erroneous pages and suggestions for improvement for the mobile view.
Performance overview – search query analysis with clicks and impressions
What exactly clicks and impressions are, I had already explained in the introduction to the article. Each impression is a view in the search results and each click, therefore, a “click on this impression”. Collecting clicks is the high good for any website and online store. Because every click is a potential visitor and therefore buyer or prospect.
Many online shops spend vast sums on advertising agencies that improve search engine optimization. For many, however, a cornerstone is enough, it does not always have to be the expensive work of an advertising agency.
Further down you will see the individual results, which you can of course also filter.
The default view goes to 3 months. But you can also change the settings to e.g. 28 days (the last 4 weeks).
Index Cover – Faulty Pages
In the index coverage, Google displays all pages with errors. Here you can look at your individual pages and make improvements. The fewer errors are displayed, the better.
For the elimination of the errors in the index coverage there are many very good tutorials on the Internet. E.g. these are recommended for beginners and novices.
Index Sitemap – Page structure and updating
A sitemap is important for websites and online shops. In the sitemap are all pages that we “consider relevant”. Every time we update a page or when we publish a new page, it appears as an update or new publication in the sitemap. This actively alerts Google, as well as other search engines (if linked), that something has changed on our site. By permanently and regularly updating our site, we can improve our search engine positioning. There are also many practical and simple solutions for the sitemap, e.g. for WordPress. Many use e.g. SEO Yoast for sitemaps.
User friendliness on mobile devices
Google has now changed the display in the search results to “mobile first”. As a site owner, you should therefore always remember to think about the mobile view first. Meanwhile, the user and search behavior has changed so much that most people access information on the go. Even online shopping is done mobile today.
Google recognized this trend long ago and has also meanwhile informed all webmasters and page operators about it. Since September 2018, all search engine results have also been tailored to mobile pages. Therefore, much emphasis is also placed on this point in the Google Search Console. Therefore, when creating websites for your company, always remember to put the mobile view in the foreground. You only adjust the tablet and desktop version afterwards. Should you be working with your WordPress system directly in the desktop version, always try to imagine a simple mobile view. This helps with the web design!
Links – Internal linking and external backlinks
Backlinks are extremely important but also the internal link structure should be considered. Here is a brief explanation of how internal and external links work.
Internal links and best practice: SPIEGEL ONLINE
The internal link structure helps users to stay longer on the own page (dwell time) through clicks on further information. The internal structure also helps search engines to recognize linked articles. A good best practice example for internal linking is a site like SPIEGEL ONLINE. Here, every new article is linked to other, more detailed information. Users who inform themselves about a current news item can thus quickly access further information. This creates topic complexes and you can build up relevance for certain areas.
External Links: Backlink building
It would be even better if your website or your online shop gets a backlink from SPIEGEL ONLINE. The more renowned the linking portal operator is, such as the renowned magazine SPIEGEL, the better the link. On the one hand because the portal itself has many visitors who will click on this link to find more information on your page, on the other hand because the search engines also pay attention to which pages are linked from the renowned pages.
Compare the situation in the search engine with a large bar. Suddenly a prominent person comes into the room and this prominent person goes to an acquaintance. She talks to her and suddenly everyone wants to know who this other person is and why you don’t know her yourself yet, although she is here every day. So suddenly more and more people are interested in the “acquaintance”, by the reputation of the prominent person. In the same way, the more people read this platform, the more prestigious the platform, the higher quality the link. The more quality links you collect, the better the rankings in the search engine.
Importantly, the more quality links a project collects, the better the search engine rankings. It is important to pay attention to quality, not quantity. Links should always come from high-quality sites, many links from unimportant sites, do not help your site at all! Concentrate only on links from high quality portfolios or reputable portals.
DSVGO: Data protection requires clear notice
The new data protection law of the European Union, DSVGO for short, has changed a lot for website operators and online shops that operate in the European market. Therefore, you must also point out to users in the privacy pages that you use services from Google or Google Search Console. The notice must, as you may already know, be wrapped in a cookie bar. This cookie bar must be displayed to all users, whether desktop, tablet, smartphone or 4K TV. The user must be actively notified here about the use of cookies and programs, he or she must have access to the privacy pages and must be able to confirm or decline. Practical tools are available free of charge online, such as the EU Cookie Bar for WordPress.
International alignment with Google Search Console
If you want to align your website or online shop internationally, you should ideally use different domains or a more comprehensive analysis tool. If you are not mainly concerned with search engine optimization, the easiest way is to use different country domains. For the USA (.com), Great Britain (.co.uk), Italy (.it), Spain (.es), China (.cn) or France (.fr). The different URLs are registered individually in Google Webmaster Tools and so you have the individual languages cleanly separated in individual accounts.
However, if you want to make your search engine optimization even more precise, you need tools that are subject to a fee. Free online tools for search engine analysis are no longer sufficient. Therefore, you need more annoying programs with more extensive data packages to analyze and optimize your own website. Such programs are e.g. Xovi.
These were the most important innovations of the Google Search Console and the most important tips for beginners and newcomers in search engine optimization for websites and online shops. Anyone can teach themselves the skills, e.g. through good YouTube tutorials like this one!
YouTube tutorial on search engine optimization: SEO for beginners
https://socialmediaagency.one/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/werbeagentur-blog-experte-stephan-czaja-seo-google-search-console-einrichten-wordpress-suchmaschinenoptimierung.jpg5271200Stephan Czaja/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/social-media-one-logo-tiktok-instagram-youtube-facebook-marketing.svgStephan Czaja2019-08-15 15:09:562021-04-08 13:33:07New Google Search Console: Setup for websites, shops and WordPress
4.9 / 5.0