2020 is ending in a couple of days. Even the biggest optimists and skeptics agree it’s been a strange year and one of those that’s going to leave a mark on the upcoming ones, as well.
Given the groundbreaking changes the pandemic caused, it is understandable if you still haven’t found the time to get to know all the benefits Google Search Central offers and improve your SEO potential.
No need to worry. It’s still not too late. All you need to do is carefully go through the lines that follow.
Terminology explained
Those of you browsing Google Search Central’s potentials might get confused with different terms that keep appearing. Don’t be alarmed. Things are pretty simple, and the potential mix up usually comes from different terminology used to describe the same features.
Google Search Central changed his name from Google Webmasters in November this year. The purpose of Google Search Central remains the same as Google Webmasters’: providing you with the SEO resources, such as Search Console tools and reports, all to make your website visible in Google Search results.
Having this covered, you are ready to familiarize yourself with the benefits Google Search Central brings to the table.
Multi-layered approach
SEO is a vast area that interests people of different professions, educational backgrounds, and expertise levels. Naturally, Google Search Central (GSC) recognized and has something on its plate for all profiles.
Regardless if you are a developer, a marketer, or a business owner, GSC has you covered. Are you an SEO expert or an SEO novice? Doesn’t matter, GSC has you covered, too. Looking to monitor your performance or automate the task? Once again, you’re in the right place.
Google Search Central for beginners
You don’t have to be an SEO expert to improve the search potential of your website. However, you have to be willing to invest time and effort in understanding what needs to be done to make it happen.
The best place to start is to be at home with how your website is organized and be willing to make the necessary changes to improve it. Some of the steps you need to take that will lead you to the ultimate goal of increasing your search potential:
- Sign up for Search Console to be able to use its tools and reports, as well as alerts of any unusual activity on your website.
- Verify you’re the owner of the website. That is the only way to receive crucial information on what needs to be changed in your website structure to improve its search ranking.
- Learn Google Search basics. Getting a grip on the way Google Search operates will enable you to understand better all the steps that could potentially be needed for future problem-solving.
- Study the SEO Starter Guide. This guide gives you an overview of best practices to make it easier for a search engine to understand your website’s content.
Google Search Central for developers
The architecture of a website has an essential role in building its search potential. Visual appeal and content are crucial in grabbing and keeping visitors’ attention. However, the displayed data needs to be craftily organized to be recognized and understood by Googlebots to be featured in search results.
That’s why Google Search Central has a dedicated place for developers. Incorporating high-quality content in an understandable and preferred way by the Googlebots who crawl the net to index and feature websites is equally important as the content itself. GSC has a list of suggestions for developers to make their work more comfortable and more successful.
Some of the entries on this list are:
- How Google really sees your site. Being a developer, you are undoubtedly aware that Google sees websites through Googlebots. However, how they see the site can often be dramatically different from how you think they see it. That will give you a clearer picture.
- Proper use of JavaScript. The difference in how a website is shown in browsers and the way Googlebots see it primarily comes from unsupported JavaScript features. Making sure JavaScript is used properly ensures Googlebots interpret and index the content of the website properly.
- Update Google on content changes. Whenever you change content, you need to notify Google and ask for a quick update. Relevant sitemaps and indexing API are of great aid here.
Google Search Central for SEO experts
Even experts get better at what they do with added value knowledge. GSC has a ton of useful advice and features to improve the results SEO experts provide to websites. Among others, these features are meant for those who mastered the basics and wished to go deeper into advanced management and maintenance topics, such as:
- Manage how Google crawls and indexes your website. For example, make sure that the contents you want to be crawled are accessible to Google in the first place. On the other hand, block those unimportant features from being crawled and avoid server request overload.
- How to use sitemaps. Building and submitting sitemaps in a format supported by Google significantly impacts how fast and how often your website will be crawled and indexed. Having well-structured sitemaps is crucial for those websites that frequently update their content.
- Suggestions for Multilanguage sites. This section can be fundamental to all those whose websites feature different languages and localized content in their primary and blog areas. GSC has a bag full of useful advice on how to let Google know your website is multilingual and how to help Googlebots better crawl the content and understand what it features.
Additional materials
Apart from the main sections described above, GSC has a plethora of additional material related to practically anything related to SEO. From video materials and different events to blogs and podcasts dedicated to all kinds of related topics.
With all the features and additional materials mentioned, the transition from Google Webmasters should be smooth and user-friendly. Suppose some things remain puzzling for some users. There are help documentation and ask questions sections that will surely provide all the answers.
