Measuring with Search Console

You can write the best titles and copy in the world, but without measuring you don't know what works. Google Search Console is Google's own free tool that shows how your site performs in the search results. Together with your visitor analytics, it gives you the full picture: how people find you, and what they do on your site afterwards.

What does Search Console show?

• Search queries. Which terms you appear for, how often you're shown and how often people click.
• Average position per keyword and per page.
• Indexing. Which pages are in Google, and why others aren't.
• Page experience. Which pages are slow according to the Core Web Vitals.
• Links. Which other sites link to you.

Setting it up

Add your site to Search Console as a domain property. That covers all variants at once, with and without www and over http and https; see also one fixed domain variant. Verification works through a DNS record on your domain. If Ster Software manages your domain, we'll set that record up for you. Then submit your sitemap at /sitemap.xml, which Obelisk keeps up to date automatically. See sitemap and indexing.

Combining it with your analytics

Search Console tells you what happens before the click; your analytics tell you what happens after. In Obelisk you can easily connect Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Plausible, Microsoft Clarity or the Facebook pixel. The code then runs automatically on every page. If you choose a package that sets cookies, the cookie banner handles consent. More in analytics.

How to get concrete gains

• Lots of impressions, few clicks? You rank well, but your result doesn't tempt. Rewrite the title and meta description.
• Position 8 to 20? You're just below or on the edge of page one. Expand the content and add internal links; this is where the biggest gains are.
• Search terms you have no page for? That's a topic for a new article.
• 404 errors after a move? Add the missing redirects.

A concrete example

A landscaper saw in Search Console that the garden maintenance page was shown 4,000 times a month for "garden maintenance subscription", but clicked only 30 times. Its title was "Maintenance". After a new title, "Garden maintenance subscription from €35 a month", and a better description, clicks quadrupled without the position changing.

Common mistakes

Only looking at total visitor numbers, drawing conclusions after one week (SEO effects take a few weeks to months to show) and never acting on the insights. Schedule fifteen minutes a month to go through your Search Console; it pays off more than any single tip.