Web service from Google for webmasters
Google Search Console (formerly Google Webmaster Tools) is a web service by Google which allows webmasters to check indexing status, search queries, crawling errors and optimize visibility of their websites.[1]
Until 20 May 2015, the service was called Google Webmaster Tools.[2] In January 2018, Google introduced a new version of the search console, with changes to the user interface. In September 2019, old Search Console reports, including the home and dashboard pages, were removed.[3]
Features
The service includes tools that let webmasters
- Submit and check a sitemap.[4]
- Check the crawl rate, and view statistics about when Googlebot accesses a particular site.[5]
- Receive alerts when Google encounters indexing, spam, or other issues on your site.[6]
- Show you which sites link to your website.
- Write and check a robots.txt file to help discover pages that are blocked in robots.txt accidentally.[7]
- List internal and external pages that link to the website.
- Get a list of links which Googlebot had difficulty in crawling, including the error that Googlebot received when accessing the URLs in question.
- Set a preferred domain (e.g. prefer example.com over www.example.com or vice versa), which determines how the site URL is displayed in SERPs.
- Highlight to Google Search elements of structured data which are used to enrich search hit entries (released in December 2012 as Google Data Highlighter).[8]
- View site speed reports from the Chrome User Experience Report.
- Page Experience Report including - Core Web Vitals, and HTTPS.[9]
- Receive notifications from Google for manual penalties.[10][11]
- Provide access to an API to add, change and delete listings and list crawl errors.[12]
- Check the security issues if there are any with the website. (Hacked Site or Malware Attacks)
- Add or remove the property owners and associates of the web property.
- Check Merchant Listings Report and Product Snippet Report
