What is Google Search Console and why is it mandatory?
Google Search Console (GSC) is a free tool from Google that shows how your website is performing in Google search. It is the only source of data directly from Google - which keywords your site appears for, how many people click, which pages are indexed and if Google has technical problems with your site.
All other SEO data – from Semrush, Ahrefs, Moz – are estimates. GSC is the result. There is no excuse for not having it configured.
What can you do with Search Console?
The results report shows which keywords generate views and clicks to your site. It's golden for finding "near miss" keywords - words where you get a lot of impressions but few clicks, which signals that you rank around position 10-15 and with a little optimization can climb up to the top 3.
The indexing report shows which pages Google has crawled and indexed, and why some pages were not indexed. Common reasons for non-indexed pages are robots.txt blocking, noindex tags and duplicate content.
The Core Web Vitals report shows your site's performance metrics aggregated across real users—not just lab tests. It is the most reliable way to understand your real performance.
How to configure Search Console in 10 minutes
Go to search.google.com/search-console. Add your domit. Verify ownership either via DNS record (recommended), HTML tag or Google Analytics. Submit your sitemap (oftendindomin.se/sitemap.xml). Clear. Data will begin to be collected within 48 hours.
Search Console and AI Mode – the new connection
Google has started integrating AI Mode data into Search Console, making it possible to see when your site is cited in AI responses. It's a new and growing body of data that's becoming increasingly important to understanding how GEO optimization actually affects your visibility.
