Google Search Console is a free service from Google that reports on how a site appears in Google Search. It shows the queries and pages that earn impressions and clicks, which pages are indexed and why others are not, and issues with things like structured data and page experience. For a SaaS company it is the most direct view of search demand before a visitor ever reaches the site and shows up in analytics.
What it measures
The Performance report is where most teams spend their time. It shows four metrics for Google Search results, which you can filter by query, page, country, device, search appearance and date.
- Clicks: how often someone clicked through to your site.
- Impressions: how often a link to your site appeared in results a user saw.
- Click-through rate: clicks divided by impressions.
- Average position: the average topmost position your site held in results.
Other reports that matter
The Page indexing report lists which URLs Google has indexed and gives a reason for each one it has not. The URL Inspection tool shows how Google sees one URL, including whether it is indexed and which canonical it chose. Sitemaps, Core Web Vitals, enhancement reports for structured data, manual actions and security issues each have their own sections.
Using it to find customers, not just traffic
Filter the Performance report to queries that show buying intent, such as those containing “vs”, “alternative”, “pricing”, “integration” or your competitors’ names, and look at which pages earn them. Queries with many impressions and a weak position are often the fastest wins, because demand is proven and you already rank somewhere.
Search Console data stops at the click. To see whether those visits became sign-ups and pipeline, join it to your analytics and CRM data by landing page.
Query filter (regex) for buying-intent searches:
(vs|versus|alternative|pricing|cost|integration|review)Limits to keep in mind
Search Console keeps about 16 months of performance data, so export it if you need a longer history. Some queries are hidden for privacy, so query totals will not add up to page totals. Google’s AI features, such as AI Overviews and AI Mode, are included within Web search data, and at the time of writing the report does not let you separate them out. Treat that as something that may change, and check the current help documentation.
Example
Spotting an underused comparison query
Hypothetical company Quotient filters its Performance report with a regex for “vs” and finds a query comparing itself with a rival that earns steady impressions at an average position around the second page. The ranking page is a three-year-old blog post.
The team writes a proper comparison page, redirects the old post to it, and links it from the pricing page. They monitor clicks and position in Search Console and demo requests from that landing page in their CRM.
Common mistakes
Reading only the totals
Site-wide clicks hide what matters. Segment by page type and intent to see whether decision-stage pages are growing.
Not verifying the domain property
A URL-prefix property misses other protocols and subdomains. A domain property covers them all.
Expecting it to match analytics
Search Console clicks and analytics sessions are counted differently and will not match. Compare trends, not exact numbers.
Questions
Yes. You need to verify that you own or manage the site, for example through a DNS record.
Search Console reports on what happens in Google Search before the click. Google Analytics reports on what visitors do on your site after they arrive, from every channel.
No. It covers Google Search only. Bing has its own Webmaster Tools, and traffic from AI assistants shows up, when it is identifiable at all, in your analytics referral data.
