AI Overview
Google Search Console is a free tool that helps businesses understand how their websites perform in Google Search. By reviewing search queries, clicks, impressions, indexing issues and website performance, businesses can identify opportunities to improve their SEO. Particularly useful is spotting pages that continue to appear in search results but receive fewer clicks, alongside keywords ranking between positions 8 and 30 that have the potential to attract more traffic. Regularly reviewing these reports helps businesses prioritise improvements based on actual search data.
Google Search Console is one of the most useful tools available for understanding how people find your website. It shows which searches bring visitors to your pages, where your content appears in Google’s results and whether technical problems are preventing important pages from being found.
However, simply checking whether traffic has increased or decreased only tells part of the story.
Some of the most valuable SEO opportunities involve pages that are already performing reasonably well. They might be appearing regularly in search results but attracting fewer clicks than before, or ranking just outside the positions where most people choose to visit a website.
Understanding how to find these opportunities can help businesses make more informed decisions about their SEO activity.
What can Google Search Console tell you about your website?
Google Search Console provides several reports that help businesses understand different aspects of their website’s performance.
The five most useful areas to review are:
- Performance: Which searches generate impressions and clicks, and how rankings change over time.
- Pages and indexing: Whether Google can discover and include your important pages in its search results.
- Sitemaps: Whether Google can access the list of pages you want it to discover.
- URL Inspection: How Google sees individual pages and whether they can be indexed.
- Core Web Vitals: How real visitors experience your website’s loading speed, responsiveness and visual stability.
Each report answers a different question. Used together, they help explain why a website might be gaining or losing organic traffic.
Before analysing the data, check that your website is correctly verified. A Domain property is often useful because it combines information from HTTP, HTTPS, www, non-www and subdomain versions of your website.
How can the Performance report help you find SEO opportunities?
The Performance report shows how your website appears in Google Search and how people interact with those results.
Four measurements are particularly useful:
- Impressions: How often your website appears in search results.
- Clicks: How often someone clicks through to your website.
- Click-through rate (CTR): The percentage of impressions that result in clicks.
- Average position: Your website’s average ranking position for a search query or group of results.
You can examine these figures by individual search query, page, country or device.
A practical starting point is to compare the most recent three months with the previous three months. For seasonal businesses, comparing the same period year on year may provide a more meaningful picture.
Look for pages where clicks have fallen, rankings have changed or impressions have increased without a corresponding improvement in traffic.
The important next step is understanding why those changes are happening.
How can you identify pages losing clicks despite maintaining visibility?
One of the more easily overlooked SEO problems occurs when a page continues appearing in Google but receives fewer clicks.
For example, imagine a business has a service page with the following Performance data:
Previous three months:
- Impressions: 12,000
- Clicks: 480
- CTR: 4%
Most recent three months:
- Impressions: 12,500
- Clicks: 275
- CTR: 2.2%
The page is appearing slightly more often, yet the number of people visiting it has dropped considerably.
This is an example of declining click-through performance, and it deserves investigation.
Start by filtering the Performance report to the affected page. Open the Queries section and compare the searches generating impressions and clicks.
Several explanations are possible.
The page may have slipped a few positions for an important keyword. A competitor may now have a more relevant title or description. Google’s results may also contain more prominent features, such as AI Overviews, featured snippets or advertisements, which can change how people interact with organic listings.
Changes in the mix of searches generating impressions can also lower CTR, even when overall visibility appears stable.
For example, if a page originally attracted people searching for a specific treatment but now appears more frequently for general research queries, those additional impressions may be less likely to generate visits.
What should you do when you find declining clicks?
First, check whether rankings have changed for the main search terms. Then review the live search results to understand what Google is showing users.
If rankings are relatively stable, inspect the page’s title, meta description and opening content.
Does the title accurately describe what the page offers? Does it answer the likely searcher’s question? Has the information become outdated or less useful than competing pages?
Sometimes improving a title or strengthening the opening section can help. Other situations require a more substantial content update.
Make one or two meaningful changes, record the date and review the results over the following weeks. This makes it easier to understand which adjustments may have contributed to any improvement.
How can you find keywords that are close to generating more traffic?
Another valuable use of Search Console is identifying keywords that already have some visibility but have yet to generate meaningful traffic.
At In Front Digital, one approach used when reviewing SEO opportunities is to examine near-miss keywords.
These are search terms where a website typically has:
- An average ranking position between 8 and 30.
- A meaningful number of impressions.
- Very few clicks, or none at all.
- Clear relevance to a service, product or subject covered by the website.
For example, a company offering commercial ventilation equipment might rank at position 14 for “fabric air ducting installation”.
If that keyword generates 700 impressions each month but only two clicks, the existing page may offer an opportunity for improvement.
To identify these searches, open Performance, select Queries and enable impressions, clicks and average position.
Export the data and filter it to show keywords ranking between positions 8 and 30. Sort the results by impressions, then examine those with few or no clicks.
Review the associated pages to establish whether they properly address the search.
In some cases, a service page needs clearer information about applications, installation or specifications. In others, a supporting article might help answer questions that potential customers search for before enquiring.
Keywords with commercially relevant searches and existing visibility can be useful priorities because Google is already associating the website with those subjects.
However, average position is only an estimate across different searches and circumstances. It is worth checking the actual search results before deciding what to change.
How can the Pages report identify indexing problems?
The Pages report, found under Indexing, shows which URLs Google has indexed and which are currently excluded.
An excluded page is not automatically a problem. Websites frequently contain redirects, duplicate URLs and administrative pages that should not appear in search results.
The concern arises when important service pages, product categories or useful articles are missing.
Common statuses include:
- Crawled, currently not indexed: Google has visited the page but has not included it in its index.
- Discovered, currently not indexed: Google knows the URL exists but has not yet crawled it.
- Excluded by ‘noindex’ tag: The page contains an instruction telling Google not to index it.
- Duplicate, Google chose different canonical: Google has selected another URL as the preferred version.
- Not found (404): The requested page could not be found.
If an important page is excluded, investigate the specific reason before making changes.
For example, a recently published service page might have limited internal links, making it harder for Google to discover its relationship with the rest of the website.
Adding relevant links from existing service pages and supporting articles may help Google find and understand it.
If several important pages disappear from the index following a website redesign, check redirects, indexing instructions and changes to the site’s URL structure.
What should you check in the Sitemaps report?
An XML sitemap provides Google with a list of URLs that your website considers important for discovery.
The Sitemaps report shows whether Google can access your submitted sitemap and whether it has encountered errors while processing it.
For most businesses, the main checks are straightforward:
- Confirm that the sitemap has been submitted successfully.
- Check that it includes important, indexable pages.
- Remove outdated, redirected or deliberately excluded URLs where appropriate.
- Review any errors preventing Google from reading the sitemap.
Submitting a sitemap does not guarantee that every listed page will be indexed.
It is also worth reviewing your sitemap after launching a new website, reorganising service pages or making substantial changes to your URL structure.
If you move your website to a different domain, Google Search Console also provides a Change of Address tool for supported domain moves. This should be used alongside correctly implemented permanent redirects and other migration checks.
How can URL Inspection help you troubleshoot individual pages?
The URL Inspection tool lets you investigate a specific page rather than reviewing the website as a whole.
Paste the complete URL into the inspection bar at the top of Search Console.
The tool can show whether Google has indexed the page, when it was last crawled, whether crawling and indexing are permitted and which canonical URL Google has selected.
This is particularly useful when a newly published page does not appear in search results.
For example, a business might publish a new service page and find that it has generated no impressions after several weeks.
URL Inspection can help establish whether Google has discovered the page and whether there are technical barriers to indexing.
You can also run a live URL test and request indexing after correcting an issue or publishing significant updates.
Remember that requesting indexing does not guarantee inclusion, and repeatedly submitting the same URL will not necessarily speed up the process.
What can Core Web Vitals tell you about website performance?
Core Web Vitals assess aspects of the experience that real visitors have when using your website.
Search Console groups pages according to three measurements:
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): How quickly the main content becomes visible.
- Interaction to Next Paint (INP): How responsive the page feels when someone interacts with it.
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): How much visible content unexpectedly moves while the page loads.
For example, a page containing large, unoptimised images might take longer to display its main content.
Alternatively, a contact form might feel unresponsive because excessive JavaScript is slowing down interactions.
The report groups similar pages together, which can help identify problems affecting entire sections of a website.
Use PageSpeed Insights to investigate individual examples and identify practical improvements.
Although Core Web Vitals contribute to Google’s wider assessment of page experience, improving these measurements alone does not guarantee higher rankings. They should be considered alongside content quality, relevance and usability.
How can you make your content easier for Google and AI search features to understand?
Search Console can help identify which questions and search terms your website already appears for. You can use these findings to improve how relevant information is presented.
Different question types lend themselves to different formats.
Paragraph answers: For a question such as “What is fabric ducting?”, provide a short, direct definition beneath a relevant heading before expanding on the details.
Numbered lists: For a process such as “How do you install fabric ducting?”, use clearly ordered steps covering preparation, installation and testing.
Comparison content: If visitors search for differences between two products, explain the key distinctions using consistent headings covering cost, suitability, maintenance and performance. A comparison table may also be appropriate on the published page where it genuinely helps readers.
Video explanations: For processes that benefit from demonstration, include a relevant video alongside supporting written instructions, a descriptive title and an accurate transcript.
These approaches can make content easier for readers to navigate and help search engines understand the information.
Well-structured, useful content may also be suitable for traditional featured snippets or citation within AI-powered search features. However, Google does not require special formatting or markup for AI Overviews, and no particular structure guarantees inclusion.
How often should you review Google Search Console?
For many businesses, a monthly review provides a sensible starting point, with more frequent checks following major website changes.
An effective review should consider whether important pages remain indexed, which keywords are gaining impressions, where clicks are declining and whether technical issues need attention.
It is also useful to record which pages have been updated so you can assess changes over time.
Search Console becomes particularly valuable when its findings inform practical decisions. Reviewing declining clicks, identifying near-miss keywords and resolving indexing issues can help businesses focus their SEO efforts on opportunities supported by real search data.
FAQs
Is Google Search Console free to use?
Yes. Google Search Console is a free service provided by Google. Website owners can verify their properties and access information about search visibility, indexing and technical performance without paying a subscription.
Why are my impressions increasing but clicks decreasing?
This can happen when rankings change, your website appears for a broader range of searches or Google displays additional search features. Compare individual queries, average positions and click-through rates to understand what has changed.
How can I find quick SEO opportunities in Google Search Console?
Look for pages with declining clicks and keywords ranking between positions 8 and 30 that receive impressions but few visits. Review the associated content and search results to identify improvements that could increase relevance or visibility.
Does submitting a sitemap guarantee Google will index my pages?
No. A sitemap helps Google discover URLs, but indexing depends on several factors, including accessibility, content quality, duplication and Google’s assessment of the page. Important pages should also be supported by appropriate internal links.
Can Google Search Console help improve visibility in AI Overviews?
Indirectly, yes. Search Console can identify queries, pages and technical issues worth investigating. Improving relevant content and ensuring important pages can be indexed supports general search visibility, including eligibility to appear as supporting links in AI Overviews. Google does not currently provide a separate AI Overview performance report within the standard Search Console interface.