Key Takeaways
- Google Search Console is free, authoritative, and underused by most Shopify merchants
- The Pages report shows exactly which of your pages Google can (and can’t) index — and why
- The Search Results report reveals which queries you’re ranking for and which you’re close to ranking for
- 404 errors in GSC represent broken links that Google has already discovered — and are harming your store
Google Search Console (GSC) is one of the most valuable SEO tools available to Shopify merchants — and it’s completely free. Yet most merchants either haven’t set it up, or check it once and don’t know what they’re looking at.
This guide is the practical reference you need to get real value from GSC: what each section tells you, how to interpret it, and what to actually do with the information.
Setting Up Google Search Console for Shopify
If you haven’t set it up yet, start here.
Step 1: Go to search.google.com/search-console and sign in with your Google account.
Step 2: Click Add property and enter your Shopify store URL. Choose the “URL prefix” option (e.g., https://yourstore.com).
Step 3: Verify ownership. The easiest method for Shopify: copy the HTML tag verification code and paste it in your Shopify admin under Online Store → Preferences → Google Analytics in the “Google Analytics account” field, or use your theme’s <head> section.
Alternatively, link GSC to your Google Analytics account if you have one — this verifies ownership automatically.
Step 4: Submit your sitemap. In GSC, go to Sitemaps and submit https://yourstore.com/sitemap.xml. Shopify generates this automatically.
GSC takes a few days to start populating data. Historical data only goes back to when you verified the property.
The Reports That Matter Most
Search Results (Performance)
Where: Search results in the left navigation
This is the most important report for ongoing SEO. It shows:
- Clicks: How many times searchers clicked through to your store from Google search
- Impressions: How many times your store appeared in search results (even if not clicked)
- Average CTR: Clicks divided by impressions — how often people who see your result click it
- Average Position: Your average ranking position across all queries
How to use it:
Tab: Queries Sort by impressions descending. This shows the queries your store appears for most often. Look for:
- High impressions + low position (8–20): You’re appearing but not prominently. These are your best optimization opportunities — a meaningful improvement in ranking will significantly increase clicks.
- High impressions + low CTR: You’re ranking but not being clicked. Usually means your title tag or meta description isn’t compelling enough for the query.
- Queries you expected to rank for but don’t see: These are content gaps — pages you should have that don’t exist.
Tab: Pages Shows which pages on your store are getting the most impressions and clicks. Identify your top-performing pages (protect and improve them) and pages that get impressions but few clicks (improve titles/meta descriptions).
Date comparison: Use the date range selector to compare the last 28 days to the previous period. Any significant drops in specific queries or pages warrant investigation.
Pages (Indexing)
Where: Pages in the left navigation (under Indexing)
This report is your diagnostic tool for understanding which pages Google can and cannot index. Every page listed here has a status:
Indexed — In Google’s index, eligible to appear in search results. This is where you want all your important pages.
Not indexed — Google has seen the page but chosen not to include it in the index. Click into the specific reason:
- Crawled — currently not indexed: Google crawled the page but decided not to index it. Often indicates thin content, duplicate content, or quality below Google’s threshold.
- Discovered — currently not indexed: Google knows the URL exists but hasn’t crawled it yet. Common on large catalogs — indicates potential crawl budget constraints.
- Excluded by “noindex” tag: Your page has a noindex directive. Check if this is intentional.
- Duplicate, submitted URL not selected as canonical: Google has determined another URL is the preferred version of this page.
Not found (404) — URLs that returned 404 errors when Googlebot crawled them. These are your broken link and deleted page issues. Each 404 is a crawl slot wasted and potential link equity lost.
Action for 404s: Click on “Not found (404)” and then click the “Exported” button to get the full list. For each URL:
- Was this page deleted intentionally? → Set up a 301 redirect to the most relevant live page.
- Was this URL never supposed to exist? → Verify the source of the link and remove or update it.
The 404 list in GSC is particularly valuable because it shows URLs that external sources link to or that Google has previously crawled — broken links that carry the most SEO weight to fix.
Sitemaps
Where: Sitemaps in left navigation (under Indexing)
Shows the status of your submitted sitemap. Verify:
- Your sitemap shows as “Success” (not an error)
- The number of URLs submitted vs. discovered is reasonable
If the “Discovered” number is significantly higher than “Submitted,” Google is finding pages not in your sitemap — possibly through external links, internal links, or old indexed URLs.
Experience
Where: Experience → Core Web Vitals / Page Experience
Core Web Vitals are Google’s measurements of user experience quality:
- LCP (Largest Contentful Paint): Loading speed of the main content
- INP (Interaction to Next Paint): Responsiveness to user interactions
- CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift): Visual stability — does content jump around?
Pages are rated Good, Needs Improvement, or Poor. If you have pages in “Poor” status, they’re eligible for ranking penalties relative to competitors with better scores. Click into the report to see specific URLs and the issues affecting them.
Links
Where: Links in left navigation
Shows:
- External links: Which external sites link to your store and which pages they link to. Your top-linked pages are your most valuable pages for link equity preservation.
- Internal links: Which pages on your store receive the most internal links. If important product or collection pages have very few internal links, this is a signal to improve your internal linking.
The external links report is particularly useful before major changes: if you’re planning to delete a product or page, check whether it has significant external inbound links first. If it does, set up a redirect to preserve that authority.
Manual Actions
Where: Security & Manual Actions → Manual Actions
If Google has manually penalized your store for policy violations (spam, thin content, unnatural links), it appears here. Manual actions are rare for legitimate stores but devastating when they occur. If this report shows any actions, addressing them is the highest priority in your SEO work.
Most merchants will see “No issues detected” here — which is good news.
Building a Monthly GSC Review Routine
A 20-minute monthly GSC review catches most issues before they compound:
Week 1 of each month:
- Open Search Results → compare last 28 days to previous period. Note any significant drops in clicks or impressions for key pages/queries.
- Open Pages → Not found (404). Export and compare to last month. Any new 404s? Address them.
- Open Core Web Vitals. Any pages moved into “Poor” status? Investigate.
Quarterly:
- Export all 404s and fix any outstanding ones.
- Review your top queries — are there new opportunities (high impressions, poor CTR) you should be optimizing for?
- Check the Links report — which pages have the most external links? Are they well-maintained?
Connecting GSC to Your Broader SEO Work
GSC data is most valuable when it informs action:
- 404s in GSC → run a broken link scan to find where those broken links originate, set up redirects
- High impressions, low position queries → optimize the relevant pages for those queries (better title tags, richer content, more internal links)
- Discovered but not indexed pages → investigate crawl budget, check for noindex tags, improve page quality
- Core Web Vitals issues → audit page speed, remove unused apps, optimize images
GSC doesn’t fix SEO problems — it identifies them. The value comes from connecting what you see in the report to specific actions on your store.
The 404 errors in your GSC are caused by broken links. Relink finds their sources and fixes them. Install free on Shopify.