Google Search Console SEO Audit: The Ultimate Step-by-Step Guide

Last Updated on 10 October 2025 by Dorian Menard

Running a business in Australia means you’re constantly looking for an edge. You know the data is there, but turning it into a real, actionable strategy is the hard part. That’s where a proper Google Search Console SEO audit comes in.

In my experience running Search Scope here in Perth, I’ve seen countless businesses sitting on a goldmine of performance data without realising it. GSC isn’t just a tool for tech experts; it’s a direct line of communication from Google, telling you exactly what it thinks of your site and where the opportunities are.

Think of it less as a report card and more as a treasure map.

So, I’m going to break down exactly how to conduct a thorough audit of your site using only this free tool. We’ll cover setting it up correctly, analysing performance, fixing the technical issues that hold you back, and turning those insights into measurable growth for your business.

Key Takeaways:

Setup is Foundational: Properly creating your GSC account and verifying your site is the non-negotiable first step. I’ll show you the best way to do this to capture all relevant data across subdomains.
Performance Data Drives Strategy: Understanding clicks, impressions, click-through rate (CTR), and average position is about more than just numbers. It’s about identifying “striking distance” keywords that can deliver quick wins.
Index Coverage is Crucial: A 2025 study from IndexCheckr noted that even with improving indexing rates, a significant portion of pages struggle to get indexed. We’ll tackle common errors like “noindex” tags that might be making your key pages invisible to Google.
Technical Health Matters: Core Web Vitals are direct measures of user experience. Fixing issues with loading speed (LCP), interactivity (INP), and visual stability (CLS) can directly impact user engagement and, consequently, your rankings.
Regular Audits are Key: An SEO audit isn’t a one-off task. Regular check-ins, which we’ll discuss, are essential for sustained growth. For many local businesses, a bi-annual deep dive is a great starting point, while e-commerce sites may need monthly reviews. You can also explore options like a professional SEO audit service for a more comprehensive analysis.

18-Point Google Search Console SEO Audit Checklist

Setup Guide: Google Search Console

Getting started with Google Search Console is the essential first step for any business owner serious about monitoring their website’s health and performance in search results.

Create Your Account

First, head over to search.google.com/search-console and log in with your Google account. My advice for business owners is to use your professional Google Workspace account. This keeps access tied to your business operations, which simplifies things if team members change down the track.

You’ll immediately face a choice between two property types. Here’s how to decide.

Property Type	Best For	Why It Matters
Domain	Most businesses	This option is almost always the right choice. It covers all versions of your site in one go: http, https, www, and non-www, plus any subdomains. It gives you a complete picture without missing any data.
URL-prefix	Specific, isolated sections	Only use this if you need to monitor a single protocol or subdomain, like a blog hosted on a separate platform. It’s much more limited.

Verify Your Website

Verification proves you own the website, giving you access to all of its private performance data. Google needs to know it’s really you before showing you this information.

For Domain Properties (Recommended): You’ll need to log into your domain name provider (like GoDaddy, Crazy Domains, or Cloudflare) and add a specific TXT record to your DNS settings. It sounds technical, but it’s usually just a copy-and-paste job.
For URL-prefix Properties: You have a few other options, such as uploading an HTML file to your site’s root directory or adding an HTML tag to your homepage’s <head> section. If you already use Google Analytics or Google Tag Manager, you can often verify instantly with a few clicks.

“You’ll need to prove that you are the owner of your website, because Search Console shows information about your site that only site owners should see, and allows you to make changes that can affect how your site appears on Google”.

Once you’re verified, your GSC dashboard will begin to populate with data, which can take a few days.

Manage Multiple Websites

If you run more than one website, GSC makes it easy to switch between them. You can add up to 1,000 properties under a single Google account.

A pro-tip I always share with clients is to set up multiple verification methods. For example, use the primary DNS method but also add the Google Analytics verification. If your primary method ever fails for some reason, you won’t lose access to your data.

Many popular platforms have simplified this process. If you’re on WordPress, plugins like Google Site Kit or Yoast SEO can handle verification for you. Similarly, Shopify has built-in fields where you can paste the verification tag directly.

Website Performance Reports

The Performance Report is where you’ll spend most of your time in your Google Search Console SEO audit. This is where you get direct feedback on how your site appears to potential customers in Google’s search results.

Key Search Metrics Explained

Four main metrics tell the story of your search performance. Understanding them is key to making smart decisions.

Metric	Description	What It Really Tells You
Clicks	The number of times someone clicked on your site’s link from a search result.	This is your actual organic traffic from Google.
Impressions	How many times your site appeared in search results for a given query.	This represents the market demand for your products or services. High impressions show people are searching for what you offer.
CTR (Click-Through Rate)	The percentage of impressions that resulted in a click (Clicks ÷ Impressions).	This measures how compelling your listing is. A low CTR suggests your title or description isn’t grabbing attention.
Average Position	Your website’s typical ranking position for a query or set of queries.	This shows your general visibility, but it’s an average. You need to dig into specific queries to get the full story.

“CTR measures whether users think that your page answers their question best, based on the search result.” – Search Console Help

Best-Performing Content

To find your star performers, go to the Performance report and sort your “Pages” by clicks. This shows you which pages are currently driving the most traffic to your business.

The real opportunity, however, often lies with pages that have high impressions but a low CTR. These are pages Google already sees as relevant, but they aren’t converting that visibility into clicks. This is your low-hanging fruit.

To find these opportunities:

In the Performance report, click the filter icon.
Select “Position” and filter for rankings greater than 5.
Sort the results by “Impressions” in descending order.

This will show you keywords where you are on the verge of ranking highly but have a low CTR. Improving your title tags and meta descriptions for these pages can lead to a quick traffic boost. You can also identify content cannibalisation here, where two of your pages are competing for the same query, confusing both Google and users.

Desktop vs Mobile Results

It’s no secret that mobile traffic dominates, and Google has been using mobile-first indexing for all websites for some time now. This means Google primarily uses the mobile version of your content for indexing and ranking. Because of this, you must pay close attention to your mobile performance.

In GSC, you can compare performance across devices. Click “+ New” > “Device” and compare mobile, desktop, and tablet traffic. You’ll often find that rankings and CTR differ significantly.

Aspect	Mobile	Desktop
User Intent	Often for quick, on-the-go answers and local searches (“near me”).	Typically for more in-depth research, comparisons, and completing complex tasks.
Keyword Style	More conversational and voice-search oriented (e.g., “what is the best cafe near me?”).	Often shorter and more direct (e.g., “best cafes Perth”).
CTR on Position #1	The top position gets a significant share of clicks, but the smaller screen can impact overall CTR compared to desktop.	Generally has a higher CTR for the top positions as users can see more of the search results at once.

“If you’re searching on your phone, then maybe you want more local information because you’re on the go. However, if you’re searching on a desktop, you may want more images or videos shown in the search results. So, we tend to show a different mix of search results types. And because of that, individual pages’ ranking or visibility may differ between mobile and desktop.” – John Mueller, Google Search Central

Use these insights to tailor your strategy. For mobile, ensure your site is fast, easy to navigate on a small screen, and that contact information is prominent for local searchers.

Fix Index Coverage Problems

For your pages to get traffic, Google first needs to find, crawl, and index them. The Index Coverage report in GSC is your diagnostic tool to ensure this process is happening smoothly. A recent analysis in early 2025 confirmed that while Google’s indexing rates are improving, a large number of pages still fail to get indexed.

Read Coverage Reports

The report organises your site’s URLs into four main buckets. Understanding what they mean is the first step to diagnosing any problems.

Status	Description	Action You Should Take
Error	These pages are not indexed due to a clear problem.	Fix immediately. These are your highest priority issues.
Valid with warnings	The page is indexed, but there’s an issue you should be aware of.	Review and address. These aren’t critical but can impact performance.
Valid	The page has been successfully indexed.	Monitor these pages to ensure they remain indexed, especially after site changes.
Excluded	The page was intentionally not indexed by Google.	Verify this is correct. Sometimes important pages end up here by mistake.

It’s normal for a website to have many “Excluded” pages. This category includes things like pages you’ve blocked in your robots.txt file, pages with “noindex” tags, and duplicate pages where you’ve set a canonical. The key is to make sure no *important* pages are in this list.

“When it comes to indexing, we don’t guarantee that we will index all pages of the website. And especially for larger websites, it’s really normal that we don’t index everything.”

Solve Common Index Errors

Here are some of the most frequent errors business owners encounter and what to do about them:

Excluded by ‘noindex’ tag: This means there’s a piece of code on the page explicitly telling Google not to index it. This is the correct action for thank-you pages or internal admin pages, but it’s a critical error if it’s on a key service or product page. You’ll need to remove the tag from the page’s HTML.
Crawled – currently not indexed: This is a common and often frustrating status. It means Google has seen the page but decided not to add it to the index. John Mueller of Google confirmed this is a normal adjustment, but it often points to content quality or value issues. To fix this, focus on improving the page’s content, adding internal links from important pages, and ensuring it offers unique value to users.
Server errors (5xx): These indicate a problem with your website’s hosting. If Google can’t access your page, it can’t index it. Contact your hosting provider to resolve these issues as quickly as possible.
Duplicate content issues: If you have multiple pages with very similar content, Google may choose to index only one. Use canonical tags to clearly signal to Google which version is the primary one you want to appear in search results.

Submit Pages for Indexing

After you’ve fixed an error, you need to let Google know. You have two main options:

URL Inspection Tool: This is the fastest method for a single page. Paste the URL into the search bar at the top of GSC. Once it retrieves the data, click “Request Indexing.” This puts the page into a priority crawl queue.
Sitemap Submission: For multiple changes, the best approach is to submit an updated sitemap. In the “Sitemaps” section of GSC, you can submit your sitemap URL (usually `yourdomain.com.au/sitemap.xml`). Ensure the pages you’ve updated are included in the sitemap with a recent <lastmod> date.

“The ‘Excluded’ section of the Coverage report has quickly become a key data source when doing SEO audits to identify and prioritise pages with technical and content configuration issues”.

Fixing indexing issues can have a massive impact. One e-commerce case study showed that after fixing over 100 pages blocked by an incorrect robots.txt file, their traffic was restored within weeks.

Content and Technical SEO Fixes

With data from your Google Search Console audit, you can now make targeted improvements to both your content and the technical aspects of your site. These are the changes that directly influence how you rank.

Title and Meta Description Updates

Your title tag and meta description are your sales pitch in the search results. If they’re not compelling, users will scroll right past you. Data from early 2025 shows that Google rewrites a staggering 76% of page titles, a significant increase from previous years. This happens when Google believes it can create a better title than the one you provided.

To prevent this and improve your CTR, follow these best practices:

Element	Optimal Length	Best Practice
Title Tag	Around 60 characters	Include your primary keyword naturally, and make it compelling. Think about what would make a user click.
Meta Description	Around 150 characters	This is your chance to expand on the title. Address the user’s search intent directly and include a call to action if appropriate.

“Google’s generation of title links on the Google Search results page is completely automated and takes into account both the content of a page and references to it that appear on the web.” – Manjit Lotey, Gold Product Expert

Use the Performance report in GSC to find pages with high impressions but low CTR. These are your prime candidates for a title and meta description refresh.

Internal Link Structure

Internal links are the pathways you create within your own website. They help Google understand your site’s structure, which pages are most important, and what they are about. A strong internal linking strategy can significantly improve your rankings.

“Google likes to have a sense of what role a page plays in the bigger picture of the site.” – Google SEO Starter Guide

A great example of this in practice comes from the well-known SEO blog Backlinko. They strategically add internal links from their older, high-authority articles to their new posts using relevant anchor text. This passes authority to the new content and helps it rank faster.

You can use the “Links” report in GSC to see your most linked-to pages internally. If you have a new service page you want to rank, make sure you’re linking to it from your homepage and other relevant, high-authority pages. After optimising your internal links, it’s a good time to review your site’s broader technical SEO performance.

Core Web Vitals and Mobile Issues

Core Web Vitals are a set of specific metrics that Google uses to measure the real-world user experience of a webpage. As of 2025, these metrics are an established part of Google’s ranking algorithm, focusing on loading speed, interactivity, and visual stability.

Metric	Good Score	Common Cause of a Poor Score	How to Fix It
LCP (Largest Contentful Paint)	≤ 2.5 seconds	Large, unoptimised images or slow server response times.	Compress images using a tool like TinyPNG and consider a better hosting plan or a Content Delivery Network (CDN).
INP (Interaction to Next Paint)	≤ 200 milliseconds	Heavy JavaScript files that block the browser from responding to user input.	Minify your CSS and JavaScript files, and defer the loading of non-critical scripts.
CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift)	≤ 0.1	Ads, images, or embeds that load without defined dimensions, causing the page layout to jump around.	Always specify width and height attributes for your images and video elements.

Passing Core Web Vitals is directly linked to better business outcomes. Research shows that websites meeting these standards can see a 24% reduction in visitor abandonment.

Identify Problem URLs: Use the “Core Web Vitals” report under the “Experience” tab in GSC to find pages marked as ‘Poor’ or ‘Needs Improvement.’
Implement Fixes: Address the specific issues flagged by the report, such as compressing images or setting dimensions.
Validate Your Fixes: Once you’ve deployed the changes, use the “Validate Fix” button in the GSC report to tell Google to re-evaluate the pages.

“In SEO, Google sometimes ignores title tags and meta descriptions for various reasons, such as length, readability, and symbols. Ensuring these elements are optimised is crucial for enhancing your website’s visibility in search results.” – Sarah Berry, Lead SEO Consultant, WebFX

Next Steps

Audit Summary

A Google Search Console SEO audit provides the foundational data you need to monitor and improve your site’s performance. Once you’ve completed this initial deep dive, or worked with an SEO audit service, the key is to establish a consistent routine for maintenance. The right frequency depends on your business type.

Website Type	Recommended Audit Frequency	Key Focus Areas
Small Local Business	Every 6 months	Local keyword performance, mobile usability, and Core Web Vitals.
E-commerce Sites	Monthly	Product page indexing, technical errors, and performance of category pages.
Content Publishers/Blogs	Quarterly	Performance of new articles, CTR optimisation, and identifying content decay.

“GSC provides crucial data for monitoring and improving your site’s SEO performance.” – Bob Cristello, Digital Architect, PKWARE

Regular Maintenance Tips

Consistency is what drives long-term results. Breaking down your SEO tasks into a manageable schedule prevents overwhelm and keeps you on track.

Timeframe	Tasks	Purpose
Weekly	Check the Performance report for any sudden drops in traffic or rankings.	Catch major issues early before they can cause significant damage.
Monthly	Review Index Coverage for new errors. Look for pages with high impressions but low CTR.	Address technical problems promptly and identify quick content wins.
Quarterly	Perform a deeper check of your sitemap and Core Web Vitals report.	Ensure Google can efficiently crawl your site and that user experience remains high.
Yearly	Conduct a full, in-depth Google Search Console SEO audit, following all the steps in this guide.	Review your overall strategy and set new goals for the coming year.

A great place to focus your monthly efforts is on keywords ranking between positions 5 and 15. A small improvement on these pages can often push them onto the first page, resulting in a significant traffic increase.

Professional SEO Help

While GSC is an incredibly powerful tool, some situations require a more experienced hand. As a business owner, your time is valuable, and sometimes it’s more effective to bring in an expert.

Consider seeking professional help if you’re facing:

A sudden and unexplained drop in organic traffic.
Persistent Core Web Vitals errors that you can’t resolve.
A manual action (penalty) from Google listed in your GSC report.
The need for advanced data analysis, such as exporting GSC data to a platform like Looker Studio for custom dashboards.

Ultimately, the frequency and depth of your audits should align with your business goals. If organic search is a critical channel for your growth, consistent monitoring is non-negotiable. If you need assistance, an experienced SEO Company based in Perth like Search Scope can help you translate these insights into tangible results.

Google Search Console SEO Audit: The Ultimate Step-by-Step Guide

18-Point Google Search Console SEO Audit Checklist