Google Search Console
Google Search Console (previously known as Google Webmaster Tools) enables you to monitor your site performance in Google Search results and to see how Google Search views your site.
You can:
- Check that Google can access all your content
- See a list of crawl errors and stats
- Link to a sitemap
- Ask Google to re-index your site after site changes
- Ask Google to remove content and demote site links that you don’t want to appear in the search results
- See what search terms people are using to reach your site
- Find out what sites link to what pages on your site
- Find out if there are any potential usability issues with the mobile view of your site
Setting up an account
You will need a Google account to sign up to the Search Console. If you already have a Google email address you can sign in using this. Alternatively you can create an account using a University email address.
You should use a generic email address so that the account isn’t tied to an individual’s email address. This makes is easy to share the account or to transfer ownership.
When you first sign into Google Search Console it will take you through a process to verify ownership of your site.