# Google Search Console for SaaS Founders: The Reports That Matter > The Google Search Console reports SaaS founders should check regularly, including Performance, Pages, Sitemaps, Core Web Vitals and Links, and how to act on them. Source: https://comppound.com/blog/google-search-console-for-saas-founders-the-reports-that-matter (published 2026-08-19) Google Search Console shows how Google sees your website. It tells you which searches your pages appear for, how often people click, which pages are indexed and whether there are technical problems getting in the way. For a SaaS founder, it is one of the most useful free tools available for understanding organic search, and one of the most underused. Many founders set it up once, glance at the overview chart and never return. You do not need to check every report every day. A handful of reports, reviewed regularly, answer most of the questions that matter: whether organic search is growing, which topics are gaining traction, which pages are close to ranking well, and whether anything is broken. This article walks through those reports and how to use each one to make decisions. We will follow the founder of a company that sells a contract management tool to small legal teams and in-house counsel. The company has a marketing site, a blog with around eighty articles and a help center. ## Set it up properly first Before relying on Search Console, make sure it is set up correctly. Verify your site as a domain property, which covers every subdomain and protocol, rather than a single URL prefix. That way your marketing site, blog, help center and any other subdomains are all included. Submit your [XML sitemap](/blog/xml-sitemap-for-saas-sites-what-to-include-how-to-submit) so Google knows which pages you want indexed. Give access to anyone on your team or any partners who need it, with appropriate permission levels. If your help center or docs live on a subdomain, you may also want separate URL-prefix properties for them, so you can filter their data easily. ## The Performance report The Performance report is where you will spend most of your time. It shows four core metrics. Clicks are visits to your site from Google search results. Impressions count how often your pages appeared in search results, whether or not anyone clicked. Click-through rate is clicks divided by impressions. Average position is the average ranking of your pages for the queries where they appeared. You can view these metrics by query, by page, by country, by device and over different time periods. Comparing periods, such as the last three months against the previous three, shows trends far more clearly than looking at a single period. ### Find growing queries Sort queries by impressions and look for topics related to your product, particularly ones whose impressions are rising. Rising impressions mean Google increasingly sees your site as relevant to those searches. For the contract management company, the founder might notice growing impressions for searches about contract approval workflows and clause libraries, suggesting the site is gaining authority on those topics and that more content there could pay off. ### Find near-miss opportunities Filter for queries or pages with an average position somewhere between about eight and thirty. These are pages that Google considers relevant but that sit on the second or third page of results, or at the bottom of the first. Small improvements to these pages, such as better content, clearer structure, stronger internal links or a more specific title, can move them onto the first page, where most clicks happen. Near-miss pages are often the fastest wins in organic search. ### Improve click-through rates Look for pages with many impressions but a low click-through rate compared with others at similar positions. These pages are being shown but not chosen. The title and meta description are usually the cause. A title that clearly matches what searchers want, and a description that tells them what they will find, can increase clicks without any change in ranking. For the contract management company, a guide titled simply "Contract Management" might get more clicks as "Contract Management for Small Legal Teams: A Practical Guide." ### Track brand searches Filter queries that include your company or product name to see branded search. Growth in branded searches is a useful indicator of brand awareness, often reflecting the effects of word of mouth, content, events and other marketing that is hard to measure directly. A sudden drop can signal a problem worth investigating. ## The Pages report The Pages report, part of the indexing section, shows which of your pages are indexed and which are not, along with the reasons. Pages that are not indexed cannot appear in search results at all, so this report is essential for catching problems. Several statuses come up often. "Crawled, currently not indexed" means Google visited the page but chose not to include it in the index, often because it judged the content thin, duplicative or low value. "Discovered, currently not indexed" means Google knows the URL exists but has not yet crawled it, which can happen with new pages or sites with limited crawl priority. "Excluded by noindex tag" means the page carries an instruction telling Google not to index it, which may be intentional or a mistake. "Duplicate without user-selected canonical" means Google found several similar pages and chose one to index without guidance from you. The right response depends on the status. Fix accidental noindex tags immediately, especially on important pages; a common cause is a staging setting carried over to the live site. Improve thin content on pages you want indexed, or consolidate several thin pages into one stronger one. Add internal links to important pages that Google has discovered but not crawled, so they look more important. Set canonical tags to tell Google which version of similar pages to index. Not every unindexed page is a problem. Login pages, thank-you pages and filtered variations of the same content often should not be indexed. Focus on pages you want people to find. ## The Sitemaps report The Sitemaps report shows whether Google has successfully read your sitemap and how many URLs it found. Check that the sitemap was processed without errors and that the number of discovered URLs roughly matches the number of pages you expect. A big mismatch can indicate a sitemap that is out of date, includes pages it should not or misses important ones. When you add new sections to the site, make sure they appear in the sitemap. ## URL Inspection The URL Inspection tool lets you check a single page in detail. It shows whether the page is indexed, when Google last crawled it, which [canonical URL](/blog/canonical-urls-on-saas-sites-common-issues-and-fixes) Google selected, whether the page is mobile-friendly and whether there were problems loading it. You can also request indexing for a new or updated page, which can speed up how quickly Google picks up changes. Use it when you publish an important new page, when you make significant updates to an existing page, or when a page you expect to rank is not appearing. For the contract management company, the founder inspects each new comparison page after publishing and requests indexing. ## Core Web Vitals and page experience The [Core Web Vitals](/blog/core-web-vitals-for-saas-sites) report shows how real users experience your pages in terms of loading speed, responsiveness and visual stability, grouped into pages rated good, needing improvement or poor. These factors affect user experience and are one of many signals Google considers. Check the report periodically, especially after site redesigns or major changes, and prioritize fixing issues on important pages. Your developers can use the details in the report, along with tools like PageSpeed Insights, to diagnose specific problems. ## Links The Links report shows which external sites link to yours, which of your pages receive the most links and how your pages link to each other internally. It is useful for understanding which content attracts links and for spotting important pages that receive few internal links. If a key product page has only a couple of internal links pointing to it, adding links from relevant blog posts and guides can help both users and search engines find it. ## Manual actions and security issues Two reports you hope never to need are Manual Actions and Security Issues. Manual actions are penalties applied by Google's reviewers for violations of its spam policies. Security issues flag problems such as hacked content or malware. Both are rare for legitimate SaaS sites, but both can have serious effects on visibility. Check them occasionally, and pay attention to any email notification from Search Console. ## Build a simple routine A practical routine for a founder might look like this. Every week, glance at the Performance report to check clicks and impressions against the previous period, and look for anything unusual. Every month, review growing queries, near-miss pages and low click-through pages, and create a short list of improvements. Check the Pages report for new indexing problems. Every quarter, review Core Web Vitals, links and the sitemap, and take a broader look at which topics are growing. This takes very little time and keeps you informed about the health of your organic search. If you would rather have someone else run this routine and act on what it finds, it is part of what our [SEO growth service](/services/seo-growth) does each month. ## Understand the data's limits Search Console data has limitations worth knowing. It shows only Google search, not other search engines or AI assistants. Some queries are hidden for privacy reasons, so totals by query will not add up to total clicks. Average position is an average across many searches and can be misleading for pages that rank for many different queries. And data is usually delayed by a couple of days. Use Search Console to understand trends and find opportunities, and combine it with your analytics tool to understand what visitors do after they arrive. ## Avoid the common mistakes The mistakes founders make with Search Console are predictable. They set it up and never look at it. They verify only part of the site. They focus on total clicks and miss the opportunities in near-miss pages and low click-through rates. They ignore indexing problems until important pages disappear. They panic over small daily fluctuations. And they treat Search Console as a reporting tool rather than a source of specific improvements. ## Bringing it together For a SaaS founder, a few Search Console reports matter most. The Performance report shows growing queries, near-miss pages, click-through opportunities and brand search. The Pages report reveals indexing problems. The Sitemaps report and URL Inspection help ensure Google can find and understand your pages. Core Web Vitals, links, manual actions and security issues round out the picture. Reviewed on a simple routine, these reports turn Search Console from a chart you rarely open into a steady source of practical improvements. For the contract management company, a monthly hour with Search Console uncovers a handful of near-miss guides each time, and improving them becomes one of the most reliable ways the company grows its organic traffic. ## Frequently asked questions ### Which Search Console report is most important? The Performance report is usually the most useful for understanding queries, pages, clicks and impressions. ### What does average position mean in Search Console? The average ranking of your pages across all searches where they appeared. ### How often should founders check Search Console? A monthly review is enough for most founders, with quick checks after major site changes. ## About Comppound Comppound runs SEO and AI search for B2B SaaS companies: a person sets the plan and reviews samples and every high-risk page, and AI speeds up production. - [Check a page free](https://comppound.com/tools/seo-checker): Check one of your pages before you change anything else - [See pricing](https://comppound.com/pricing): Want the content written, reviewed and published for you?