Google Search Console is the only tool that gives you direct data from Google about how your site appears in search. It's free, essential, and takes 10 minutes to set up. Here's the developer walkthrough.
Setup (10 minutes)
- Go to search.google.com/search-console and sign in with your Google account.
- Add a property. Choose "Domain" for full coverage (covers apex, www, subdomains, http, https). Requires DNS TXT record verification.
- Verify via DNS. Add the TXT record Google provides to your domain's DNS settings. Vercel domains: go to your registrar (Namecheap, Cloudflare, GoDaddy) and add the record. Propagation takes 5–60 minutes.
- Submit your sitemap. In GSC sidebar → Sitemaps → enter your sitemap URL (e.g.,
https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml) → Submit.
What to check in the first week
- Pages report: How many pages are indexed vs submitted. Target: 95%+ indexation rate.
- Sitemaps report: Status should show "Success" with the correct URL count.
- URL Inspection: Paste any URL to see if Google has indexed it, what the rendered HTML looks like, and any issues.
Ongoing monitoring
- Performance report: Which queries bring impressions and clicks. Sort by impressions to find ranking opportunities (high impressions, low CTR = improve the title/description).
- Coverage errors: 404s, redirect loops, noindex'd pages that should be indexed. Fix these monthly.
- Core Web Vitals: GSC reports CWV per URL group. Red URLs need performance work.
- Enhancements: Shows the status of your structured data — FAQ, Breadcrumb, Product schemas. Fix validation errors here.
Pro tips
- Request indexing on new high-priority pages (homepage, pricing, key blog posts) for faster crawling.
- Use URL parameters settings to tell Google which parameters create duplicate content (e.g.,
?utm_sourceshould be ignored). - Compare date ranges in the Performance report to spot trends — are impressions growing month-over-month?
- Export to spreadsheet for deeper analysis. GSC's UI limits to 1,000 rows; the export gives you everything.