Most companies know they have a website. They know how many followers they have on social media. They know what they spent on advertising last month.
But if you ask what leads people to the site organically, through searches, the most common answer is: I have no idea.
This information exists. It is available, free of charge, in a tool that Google provides to any website owner.
It's called Google Search Console, and it's probably the most underutilized digital marketing tool on the market.
Discover Search Console
What is Google Search Console?
Google Search Console is a free platform from Google that shows exactly how the search engine sees a company's website.
It's not an advertising tool, it doesn't involve any cost, and it has nothing to do with paid campaigns.
What it does, in simple terms, is clearly answer questions that we all ask about our websites:
- What words and phrases do users use to find the site on Google?
- How many times does the website appear in search results?
- How many of these views convert into actual visits?
- Which pages are performing best in search results?
- Are there technical errors preventing Google from indexing parts of the site?
The answer to all these questions is in Search Console, updated daily and free of charge.
How to install Search Console: simpler than it seems
Installing Google Search Console doesn't require any technical knowledge. The process has four steps:
- Go to search.google.com/search-console and sign in with a Google account.
- Add the website domain (e.g., marca.pt) as a new property.
- Verify ownership, proving to Google that you own the website. The simplest method is through Google Tag Manager or by adding a small file to the server. For WordPress users, the Google Site Kit plugin automates this process.
- Please allow 48 to 72 hours. Search Console begins collecting data immediately, but the first reports with useful information will appear after a few days.
From this point on, the control panel is available and updated daily with real-time information about the site's visibility in Google searches.
What can you discover with Search Console?
The most valuable section for most companies is the Performance report.
This is where the essentials lie: the queries (the actual searches users performed before arriving at the site), the pages that appear most frequently in the results, and the numbers that allow you to see if visibility is growing or decreasing.
Here are some examples of the type of information this report can reveal:
Queries with many impressions, but few clicks.
The website frequently appears in Google for a given search, but users don't click on it. This could be a sign that the page title or description isn't attractive enough, or that the ranking isn't high enough to generate clicks.
Queries ranked between 8 and 20 in search results.
These are direct opportunities: the site already appears for those keywords, but on the second or third page of Google. An article or a page optimized on that topic may be enough to move it to the first page, where the visibility is radically different.
Pages with increasing traffic.
Recognizing which content is gaining organic relevance allows for further investment in that direction, with related articles or updates to existing content.
Unexpected research.
Often, the website shows up for queries that the company had never considered. These discoveries can reveal business opportunities that weren't on their radar.
A practical example
Imagine an accounting firm in Lisbon.
Upon analyzing the Performance report in Search Console, it is discovered that the website appears in position 14 on Google for the search term "accountant for freelancer Lisbon".
The page appeared 800 times in searches that month, but generated only 12 clicks, because almost no one goes to the second page of results.
With this information, the company knows exactly what to do: create a page or article dedicated to that topic, optimized for that specific query.
If that page rises to the top five positions, those 800 monthly impressions could turn into 120 or 150 real visits, without any investment in advertising.
This is the logic behind Search Console as a decision-making tool: it's not for admiring numbers, it's for identifying concrete actions with the potential for real impact.
Other reports worth knowing about
In addition to the Performance report, Search Console has other sections with useful information for any business:
Index coverage.
This shows if there are any pages on your website that Google cannot index, and why. Errors in this section mean that part of your website is invisible to search engines.
Compatibility with mobile devices.
This indicates whether there are display issues on smartphones, which directly affects ranking in search results.
Core Web Vitals.
A set of performance metrics that Google uses as a ranking factor: loading speed, visual stability, and responsiveness. Problems in this area have a direct impact on SEO. We've already discussed this in the article " Fast Websites: Optimization that Transforms Every Business!"
Links.
It shows which external websites link to the company's website, and which internal pages receive the most traffic. Useful for understanding the authority being built.
Having the data is the first step. Knowing how to use it is the second
Search Console solves half the problem: it provides the information. The other half is knowing what to do with it.
Regular data analysis, for example weekly or bi-weekly, allows you to identify content opportunities, detect technical problems before they worsen, and track the evolution of organic visibility over time.
Companies that do this consistently make much more informed content and SEO decisions than those that operate solely on intuition.
How we work with Search Console at ActiveMedia
At ActiveMedia, analyzing Search Console is a mandatory starting point for any SEO or content strategy project.
The data provided by the tool informs the information architecture, the choice of themes for the blog, the optimization of existing pages, and the technical priorities.
For companies that don't yet have Search Console installed, the activation and setup process is part of the initial work.
For those who already have the tool active but don't know how to leverage the data, we conduct a diagnostic analysis that transforms the numbers into a list of actions with real impact.
If you want to understand what your website data is already telling you, and what to do with that information, talk to us. The initial consultation is free.
Any other ideas? Check the usual places. 🙂
