Google Search Console is a free Google service that reports how a site performs in Google Search. It publishes Google's own records about your site: the queries it served you for, the clicks and impressions those earned, which URLs it indexed and why it skipped the rest, and any manual action taken against you.
Why Google Search Console matters for SEO
It is the only source of Google's own data about your site. Every other tool either estimates that data or reads it from your verified property through the same free API, which is why no product can replace it and most connect to it instead. It is also where manual actions and security issues are announced first.
Pro tip on Google Search Console
Create a domain property and verify it with a single DNS TXT record, which covers every subdomain and both protocols at once. Do it the day a site launches, even one nobody is working on: data accrues from the verification date and Google backfills nothing.
Google Search Console vs Google Analytics
Search Console counts clicks on a Google result, before anyone reaches your site. Analytics counts sessions that started on it. The two answer different questions and their totals will never reconcile.
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Search Console tells you what Google decided and never why. CrawlRaven joins your property with GA4 and a 200-point crawl so the verdict arrives with a cause attached.
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