Google Search Console

Free tool from Google showing how your site performs in search. Essential for SEO.

Core Functions

Get indexed. Submit new pages and sitemaps. Request reindexing when you update content. See which pages Google knows about.

Track performance. Which queries bring traffic. Which pages rank. Click-through rates, impressions, average position. Real data, not guesses.

Find problems. Crawl errors, mobile usability issues, Core Web Vitals failures, security problems. Google tells you what's broken so you can fix it. For a deep dive on any single URL's performance, use PageSpeed Insights.

Fixing Indexing Issues

When Search Console flags problems like "Duplicate without user-selected canonical," the fix usually involves adding canonical tags, creating a sitemap, and setting up robots.txt. Claude Code can diagnose and fix these issues in minutes — including submitting your sitemap programmatically through the Search Console API.

Adding Multiple Domains

If you manage multiple domains on Cloudflare, you can add and verify all of them in one shot using Claude Code and the Cloudflare API. DNS verification, TXT records, and the Site Verification API — all handled programmatically instead of clicking through the UI one domain at a time.

For New Sites

Set up Search Console before anything else. Submit your sitemap. Monitor indexing progress. New sites can take weeks to get crawled—Search Console shows what's happening.

Pair with Analytics

Search Console shows search performance. An analytics tool shows what happens after the click. Together they tell the full story. Google Analytics is the obvious choice, but if you want something lighter that skips cookies and consent banners, Rybbit tracks the same after-the-click data — pageviews, sessions, conversions — with a cleaner interface.

For local businesses, Google Business Profiles matters alongside Search Console. For checking index status quickly, use the site: operator in Google.