SEO is Crucial for Success…
SEO stands for search engine optimization. It is an essential and crucial element when it comes to providing your website or piece of content with organic traffic; be that through specific keywords that users and consumers use when searching for information via a search engine (such as Google). Tools like the Google Search Console makes is easier for digital marketing professionals to stay on top of this data and track what is working well or where they might need to make some adjustments in order to increase performance. What we’re most interested in looking at though, is the differences between the ‘current’ reporting tools located within the Google Search Console and the ‘legacy’ tools – why are they important, what can we learn from each, why hasn’t Google eliminated these older legacy reports, and finally – what are the benefits of each?
Current vs. Legacy Reporting Tools…
The current reporting tools in GSC offer many important and valuable tools including: performance reports, a URL inspection tool, coverage reports, sitemap reports, core web vital reports, mobile usability reports, AMP reports, rich result status reports, manual action reports, security issue reports, link reports, an AMP test tool, a mobile friendly testing tool, a change of address tool, removal tools, crawl stats, and also associations. Whereas the legacy tools include a shorter but just as important set of tools including: the robots.txt tester, URL parameters tool, international targeting, data highlighter tool, messages report, crawl rate settings, and finally – web tools. Now, each of these different tools and reports have specific functions as it relates to the overall benefits of using GSC – so that is where I believe that the ‘value’ and ‘importance’ of each of these come into play. As for why Google hasn’t eliminated these older legacy reports and tools – frankly it boils down to the fact that they have not yet found a replacement for these essential reporting tools. Both the current and legacy reporting tools offer digital marketing professionals different benefits for using either; but utilizing both in practice will certainly help to deliver the best results when it comes to improving anyone’s SEO strategy. Neil Patel sums up some of the key benefits of GSC in this excerpt from one of his blog posts, “Search Console makes sure that Google has access to your content, helps you monitor spam issues to keep your site clean, can help you submit new content to crawl, and allows you to remove old content” (Patel, 2020). These benefits are only a few of the reasons why every company or business should be applying some form of SEO to their website or content; it truly is beneficial!
Citation: Patel, N. (2020, January 23). An insider’s guide to using Google’s Search console to fix your site. Retrieved March 10, 2021, from https://neilpatel.com/blog/google-search-console-tips/