DANIEL WAISBERG: Hi, I'm Daniel Waisberg,
Search Advocate at Google.
And today, I'll talk about how to use
Search Console if you work for a nonprofit organization.
Search Console is a free tool from Google
that helps you understand how you're performing on Google
Search and what you can do to improve
your appearance on Search to bring more relevant traffic
to your website.
You probably have limited time to dive in,
so one step at a time.
Here's how to get started.
Make sure Google can find and read your pages.
Monitor your site's performance to find new opportunities
on Google Search.
And learn about optimizing your site for search.
I'll try to explain each of those
as simply as possible, so stay with me.
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If you've never used Search Console,
you'll first need to verify ownership of your site.
There's several ways to do this, so don't worry.
Check out my previous video to find out more
about verification methods and best practices.
It will help you choose the one that's right for you.
Google is constantly crawling the web
to discover new and updated pages
and compile a massive index of all the words it
sees and their location on each page.
When a user enters a query, Google machines
search the index for matching pages
and return the results we believe are the most relevant
to the user.
The Search Console Index Coverage Report
will give you an overview of all the pages Google indexed
or tried to index in your site.
Log in to Search Console and find the report in the sidebar.
The default view shows a summary of errors on your site.
Click the tabs to show Valid with Warnings,
Valid, and Excluded Pages, too.
Here's what each status means.
Errors prevent pages from being indexed.
An error means the page won't appear
in Google, which can mean the loss of traffic
to your website.
Ideally, you should fix most of the errors
on your site to improve your coverage in Search.
Valid with Warnings are pages that may or may not
be shown on Google, depending on the issue.
But we think there is a problem that you should look into.
Valid pages have been indexed and can be shown
on Google Search, so good job.
Excluded pages were not indexed and won't appear in Google.
But we think that is your intention.
An example might be a donation details
form that shouldn't appear in search results.
Clicking a row in the table will lead you
to a more detailed view, showing examples of pages
with that issue and more information
on the error or warning.
Here, you can also grab a link using the Share button
to share the details with a developer that
can help you fix your site.
After you or your developer have fixed the issue,
click Validate Fix, and Google will validate your changes.
You can watch my previous video on the Index Coverage Report
to understand more about the issues affecting your site
and learn how to validate the fix you have implemented.
Another very useful report is the Search Performance Report.
This report shows how much traffic
you're getting from Google Search, including breakdowns
by queries, pages, and countries.
For each of those breakdowns, you
can see transfer impressions, clicks, and other metrics.
Here are three things to look for when reviewing
your performance data.
If the number of impressions is significantly higher
than clicks for a query or a page,
you might need to create better page titles and descriptions
to make your site more attractive to users
in search results.
If search queries that you expect to see don't appear,
your site might not have enough useful content
relevant to those queries.
Check how many queries show your site
when the user does or does not include your nonprofit's name.
These might show interesting areas
where people are searching for content directly
related to your site.
Those are just a few examples of what information
you can learn from the default reports.
Check out my previous video on the performance report
for a more comprehensive overview of how
to use the report to analyze your Google Search performance.
Search Engine Optimization, or SEO,
is the process of increasing the visibility of website pages
on search engines in order to attract more relevant traffic.
It can involve changes to both the content and the structure
of your pages.
Here are some examples of SEO best practices.
You might need a developer to help implement those.
Create high-quality content that is factually accurate, clearly
written, and comprehensive.
Write unique page titles and description meta tags
for each of your pages.
These are HTML elements that tell users and search
engines what the topic of a particular page is.
Use headings to emphasize important text in your pages.
And make your website mobile friendly.
Most people are searching on Google using a mobile device.
To learn more about the suggestions above and others,
check the SEO Starter Guide linked in the description.
It's long but will be worth your while.
That was a short introduction.
Hopefully, you found some new ways
to improve your search appearance in Google Search.
Make sure to check our YouTube channel, where
you'll find many videos on Search Console
and Search in general.
Stay tuned.
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