How do I add my domain?
You published a page three weeks ago. Is anyone finding it? Without Search Console you are guessing. With it you can see the exact words people typed before they landed on you, and the ones where you almost showed up.
In Search Console choose a domain property and type your domain without www. Google gives you a value to add as a TXT record where your domain is managed, often with the host “@”. A domain property covers every subdomain and both http and https, and can only be verified with a DNS record.
It can take a few minutes for the record to show up. If verification fails at once, wait ten to fifteen minutes and try again. Verifying does not change how your site is read or ranked. It only gives you the reports.
How do I submit my sitemap and ask Google to read a new page?
What do I see in the Performance report?
- Clicks: how many pressed your page in the results.
- Impressions: how many times your page was shown.
- CTR: clicks divided by impressions.
- Position: your average placement.
Look at Queries and Pages, compare the last 28 days with the 28 before, and ask one question at a time: what shows up that I have not written for, and what is shown often but rarely clicked?
Click-through checker
Take a row from the Pages or Queries report. Enter the three numbers.
Seen but not clicked
Rule of thumb: on page one, a click rate below about two percent means the title or description is not doing its job. Rewrite them.
What is a fifteen-minute routine that works?
- Export Queries and Pages from the report as a file.
- Give the file to the agent with the instruction below.
- Choose at most three changes. Make them. Write down the date.
- Look again in two to four weeks. Not sooner.
Here is an export from Search Console [file]. List pages with many impressions but a low click rate, and queries where I sit at positions 11 to 20. For three of them: suggest a new title (60 characters at most) and description (160 at most) in my voice following BRAND.md, and say what you think the searcher wants. Change nothing until I say yes.
What if I move pages?
Use permanent redirects from the old addresses to the new, keep them for at least a year, and add the new domain as its own property in Search Console. The Change of address tool is only for when a whole domain moves to another. Expect your positions to move around for a few weeks. I moved my AI agent pages to their own domain on 23 October, and that is exactly what I am watching now.
What becomes possible?
The numbers show what people try to find and cannot. That is where the next page, guide or service lives.
- Questions you show up for but do not answer: that is your next page.
- Words clients use that you never use yourself: put them in.
- A monthly one-page report from your numbers, written by the agent.
Here is my Search Console export: [file]. Take the queries where I show up but have no page that answers. Suggest three new pages or guides with a heading, a two-sentence direct answer and what I can add that nobody else has. Rank by what is most likely to lead to a client.
Questions people ask
Does Search Console cost anything?
No, it is free.
Why is my new page not on Google?
It can take time. Check in URL inspection whether it is indexed, request indexing, and make sure it is in your sitemap and that other pages link to it.
Sources
Who is writing this
I am Nathaniel, a commercial operator. For twenty years, across four continents and more than fifteen ventures, I have taken research and young companies from idea to customer. Two KTH spin-offs reached joint development agreements with Fortune 500 partners. An indoor farm sold its full production within about ninety days and ended in a joint venture exit. This year I am a commercial expert for the European Innovation Council's Tech to Market programme. Now I build agents, because the hard part of new technology is rarely the technology. It is getting people to want it and use it.
Want to do this together?
In two hours I can build this with you: Search Console.