How to use Google Search Console to improve your online store SEO?

The success of an online store often depends on how easily potential customers find it in search engines. Customers usually start their buying process on Google, and if your online store is not well optimized for search, you are losing traffic and sales. In this article, we'll break down what Google Search Console is and how to use it to boost your online store's SEO.

What is Google Search Console?

Google Search Console is a free service from Google that provides website operators with insight into how their website is performing within Google search results. It provides webmasters to monitor and optimize their content and structure to meet Google's criteria and perform better in search. This tool offers insight into keywords, indexing, backlinks, loading speed and many other factors that play an important role in effective SEO optimization.

1. Google Search Console settings

The first step is to create an account on Google Search Console (GSC) and add your online store as a web property.Google will then offer several verification options (e.g. using an HTML file, Google Analytics or Google Tag Manager. Once verified, you'll have access to data about your online store and can start analyzing how your online store is performing.

2. Keyword performance monitoring

In GSC, you can find a Performance tab that provides an overview of how your online store is performing in search.Here you will see:

• Clicks: How many people clicked on your online store from the search results.
• Number of impressions: How many times your online store has appeared in the search results.
• Click-through rate (CTR): The ratio between the number of clicks and the number of impressions.

Our tip: Target keywords that have a lot of impressions but a lower rank or CTR.

3. Identify errors and indexing problems

Under the Coverage tab, you'll find an overview of how Google is indexing your site. Here you can identify:

• Indexing errors: Pages that Google can't index, which has a negative impact on SEO.
• Warning: Pages that Google does index but have minor issues that you should consider fixing.
• Excluded pages: Pages that are excluded from indexing. This can be useful if you don't want certain pages in your search results, but if a page you want to index is excluded, you need to find out why.

Indexing problems are a vital indicator that something on the site is not working properly. For example, if a page is generating a 404 (not found) error or if it's blocked in the robots.txt file, you'll need to fix the problem so Google can index the page properly.

4. Optimizing loading speed with Web Vitals

GSC offers a Web Vitals section that evaluates the speed and usability of your pages. Page load speed is crucial for e-commerce SEO because it affects both user experience and search rankings. Web Vitals includes three main metrics:

• LCP (Largest Contentful Paint): Measures how long it takes to display the main content of a page. The ideal value is under 2.5 seconds.
• FID (First Input Delay): Measures how quickly the page responds to the first user interaction. The goal is to achieve a value under 100 ms.
• CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift): Measures the stability of the page layout when loading, the ideal value is below 0.1.

Fast loading pages have significantly higher conversions, which is important for any online store. Use Web Vitals to identify pages that need optimization and direct developers to specific issues.

5. Leveraging the backlink report

Backlinks are a major factor that influences page rank. The Links section of GSC allows you to check:

• External links: Sites that link to your online store..
• Internal links: Links between pages within your online store.

Analyze the quality and number of backlinks. High-quality links from relevant sites fundamentally improve your SEO. If you find links from junk or low-trust sources, you may consider using the Disavow tool in GSC to ignore these links.

6. Mobile friendliness testing

Google puts a lot of emphasis on mobile-friendliness. Check the Mobile Friendliness section to see if your site is optimized for mobile devices. Here, Google Search Console detects issues such as:

• Text too small: Text that is difficult for users to read on a mobile device.
• Elements too close together: Buttons and links that are too close together, making navigation difficult.
• Content that doesn't fit the screen: Pages that are not properly responsive and don't fit different screen sizes.

Make sure your online store is fully optimized for mobile users, as Google uses "mobile-first indexing", which means it prioritizes the mobile version of a site when ranking for search.

7. Using a sitemap file

GSC offers you to upload and manage a sitemap.xml file, which is essential for Google to index all your online store pages effectively. Make sure your sitemap only contains relevant pages, such as products and categories, and don't insert pages that it doesn't need in the index.

Conclusion

Google Search Console offers a wide range of options to effectively manage your online store's SEO. From monitoring keyword performance to identifying technical issues to improving speed and mobile-friendliness, this tool helps you keep up with your competitors and improve your visibility in search results. Regularly working with GSC data and information will bring you more traffic, better conversions, and a more successful online business.

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