Over the years, Google Search Console (GSC) has undergone many changes. Previously known as the Google Webmasters Tool, it has always been a valuable asset for digital marketers, Shopify SEO experts, business owners, and even web developers.
If you have used GSC before, you will know why it is so highly regarded in the industry. And even if you are a beginner, don’t worry. We will run you through the basics. So, first, let’s answer the most basic question.
What is Google Search Console?
It is a free tool provided by Google that helps you track the overall performance of your website. It is one of the best tools to get a more profound knowledge of what’s going on with your website. For instance, Google Search Console answers the following –
- How many people visit my website daily?
- How do people find my website?
- Which are the most popular pages?
- Do people visit my website on mobile devices or desktops?
- Are there any site errors?
Why is it important? Because organic traffic is the most viable and valuable way to increase your sales. GSC highlights any issues hindering your organic growth and helps you prevent them from becoming Google’s favorite.
Steps to Setup Google Search Console on Shopify
Gather all the necessary information, including your login info and your domain name server (DNS).
- Log into your online store.
- Go to Domains → Manage domains → DNS Settings → Add a custom record → TXT record
- Copy and paste the record to the TXT value.
- Make the Name of your TXT record and click Save.
Google Analytics vs. GSC
Before we proceed further, let’s talk about the difference between the two. GA is a brilliant tool to learn about demographics and time spent on your website. However, GSC takes you one step further by assessing site errors or security problems, who is linking to your pages, keyword performance, and more. Therefore, it is best to integrate both into your website for better performance.
How To Use Google Search Console For Your Online Store?
1. Improve the rankings of underperforming keywords.
Using Google Search Console to improve Shopify SEO, you can find keywords that need some work to reach top positions. However, these keywords may hold numerous opportunities to bring more traffic to your page.
Click on the Search tab and turn on Average CTR and Average Position → Click the Filter icon. After that, choose Position from the dropdown. The report will give you a list of keywords that may need a little boost to work magically. Then, you can work on optimizing them, and voila!
2. Identify new keyword opportunities.
Uncover new keywords for your page using Google Search Console. You can study the Queries report to find out keywords performing brilliantly. You can then use similar keywords for optimization purposes.
3. Improve page optimization.
GSC gives you clear insights into the click-through rates of different web pages. Check for the pages with low CTR and high impressions. Such pages rank well on the search engine, but no one’s clicking on them! What’s the point of ranking high if no one’s clicking on your website? To prevent this from happening, you can improve meta titles, descriptions, and other SEO elements on this page. It will enhance your website’s CTR and ranking.
4. Track indexing.
It is important to keep an eye on the indexing status. Google Search Console will list the indexed pages and alert you to the errors that come up while indexing. It offers brief but valuable information to help you rank better on the search engines. Here are the top two tips to avoid red flags during indexing
- Try changing the canonical tags to prevent a spike in indexing.
- Check if no index pages or robots.txt are blocking crawlers from the search engines.
5. Audit your backlinks.
Backlinks play a significant role in improving your search engine rankings drastically. These are crucial to the success of your eCommerce store because they build trust and credibility with the search engines, improving your rankings and visibility.
6. Monitor and compare your changes.
If you make any tweaks to your website, you must compare them with the old techniques to understand whether the changes worked. GSC lets you monitor and compare your changes to see if the CTR improved and whether your organic traffic increased.
And that’s it! This is how you use Google Search Console to improve your Shopify SEO and your eCommerce website performance.
The Key Takeaway
It is necessary to pay attention to site errors and other problem areas to improve your eCommerce website performance. Google Search Console can be your valuable partner in fixing errors or security problems. Over time, GSC will improve your Shopify SEO and drive increased traffic to your product pages, increasing your sales and revenue.
We hope this blog helped you understand Google Search Console – what it is, how you can set up GSC, and the ways to use it to improve your website. For further queries, you can contact us. We are Nivara Commerce – a digital agency for eCommerce, helping you with eCommerce solutions. From Shopify store setup to marketing, we have got all eCommerce website services covered for you. Browse our website to explore our services. Let us know how we can help you today!