Short answer: Google Search Console is a free tool that shows how your site is performing in Google Search. The first steps for a new site are: add the property and verify it, submit your sitemap, request indexing for important pages with URL Inspection, and keep an eye on the Pages (indexing) report during the first few weeks.
Which property type should I choose?
| Property type | Scope | Verification |
|---|---|---|
| Domain property | All subdomains, http and https | DNS record (TXT) |
| URL-prefix property | Only the entered address and the paths beneath it | HTML file, meta tag, Analytics, etc. |
Choose a Domain property whenever possible; it brings the www, non-www, http and https versions together in a single report. If you do not have access to DNS management, a URL-prefix property will also do the job; in that case, make sure you add the address format your site actually uses (such as https://yoursite.com).
How do I submit a sitemap?
Enter the sitemap URL (sitemap.xml) in the Sitemaps section of the left-hand menu and submit it. It is also recommended to reference the sitemap in your robots.txt file.
What does the "Couldn't fetch" warning mean?
For newly submitted sitemaps, the status column may show "Couldn't fetch" for a while. If the "Last read" date is empty, Google simply has not processed the sitemap yet; this is not an error but a waiting-in-the-queue state. To confirm this:
- Enter the sitemap URL in the URL Inspection tool and click Test live URL. A "URL is available to Google" result shows that Google can access the file.
- If your server keeps access logs, check whether Googlebot has requested the sitemap and what response it received.
We experienced exactly this when we moved dsabilisim.com to its new platform: for days the report showed "Couldn't fetch," while the server logs showed that Googlebot had read the sitemap with a 200 response and had started crawling the pages. If there is no access problem, the thing to do is wait, or remove the sitemap and submit it again.
What is the URL Inspection tool for?
When you enter any URL, you see two pieces of information:
- Google Index: The latest status Google knows about for that page (whether it is indexed, which canonical was selected, when it was crawled).
- Live Test: Whether Google can access the page right now and how it sees the page.
For new or updated important pages, the Request indexing button can speed up crawling. This feature has a daily quota; use it for priority pages rather than for every page.
What do the statuses in the Pages report mean?
| Status | Meaning | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Indexed | The page can appear in search results | — |
| Discovered – currently not indexed | Google knows the URL but has not crawled it yet | Normal for new sites; strengthen internal links |
| Crawled – currently not indexed | Crawled but not added to the index | Review the content's quality and uniqueness |
| Page with redirect | The URL redirects elsewhere | Normal after a migration |
| Not found (404) | The page does not exist | If it matters, redirect it to the new URL with a 301 |
| Excluded by 'noindex' tag | The page has been blocked, intentionally or by mistake | Remove the tag if this is unintended |
What should I monitor in the first few weeks?
- Pages report: Whether the number of indexed pages is growing
- Performance report: Which queries you appear for, plus impression and click counts
- Sitemaps: The number of discovered pages
- Experience: The Core Web Vitals and HTTPS reports
It can take days for a new site to enter the index and weeks for it to settle fully. During this period, making sure the technical foundation is right is more useful than making frequent changes; you can use our technical SEO checklist for that.
Struggling to interpret your Search Console data? As part of our SEO / GEO / AEO service, we review the reports regularly and resolve issues in order of priority.
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Frequently Asked Questions
No. Google Search Console is completely free; you only need to verify that you own the site.
There is no fixed timeframe. If there are no technical problems, the first pages usually get indexed within a few days to a few weeks. Submitting a sitemap and requesting indexing speeds up the process.
If the "Last read" date is empty, Google has most likely not processed the sitemap yet. If the live test in URL Inspection succeeds, there is no access problem; wait a few days, or remove the sitemap and submit it again.