Google Search Console is the only tool that shows you exactly how Google sees your website. Unlike third-party SEO tools that estimate your performance, GSC provides first-party data straight from Google – the actual queries driving impressions, the pages Google has indexed, the technical errors affecting your visibility, and the Core Web Vitals scores that factor into your rankings.
For healthcare practices, GSC is essential for monitoring how patients find you through search. This resource covers every report and feature that matters, what the data actually tells you, and how to use it to improve your organic performance.
Performance Report: Your Most Valuable Data Source
The Performance report shows how your site appears in Google Search results. It’s the single most actionable report in GSC because it connects specific search queries to specific pages, with exact click and impression data.
How many times users clicked through to your site from search results. This is your actual organic traffic from Google – not estimated, not sampled. Filter by query, page, country, device, or date range.
How many times your pages appeared in search results, whether clicked or not. High impressions with low clicks means your title tags and meta descriptions aren’t compelling enough – or you’re ranking too low on the page to get clicked.
Clicks divided by impressions. Average CTR for position 1 is roughly 27%. Position 3 drops to about 11%. If your CTR is significantly below the expected rate for your position, your SERP listing needs work – better title, better description, or
schema markup for rich results.
Your average ranking position for each query. Remember this is an average across all impressions – if you rank #3 on desktop and #8 on mobile, GSC might show position 5.5. Always filter by device for accurate position data.
Pro tip: Filter Performance by “Search Appearance” to see data for rich results, FAQ snippets, and video results separately.
How to Use Performance Data for Healthcare SEO
Find Quick Wins
Filter queries by position 8-20 (bottom of page 1 and top of page 2). These are keywords where a small improvement pushes you onto page 1 or higher. Sort by impressions to prioritize highest-volume opportunities.
Discover Patient Language
The Queries tab shows the exact words patients use when searching. You might target “rhinoplasty” on your service page, but patients search “nose job cost” or “how long is nose surgery recovery.” Use their language in your content, not just clinical terminology.
Detect Cannibalization
Click on a query, then switch to the Pages tab. If multiple pages rank for the same query, they’re competing against each other. Consolidate them or differentiate with distinct search intent targeting.
Track Seasonal Trends
Compare date ranges to spot seasonality. Allergists see impression spikes in spring. Dermatologists see “skin cancer check” queries peak in summer. Use these patterns to time content publication and ad spend.
Indexing Reports: Making Sure Google Can See Your Pages
If a page isn’t indexed, it doesn’t exist in Google’s search results. The indexing reports show you which pages Google has successfully indexed and which ones are being excluded – and why.
Pages Report
Shows all indexed and excluded pages with specific reasons for exclusion. Common reasons: “Crawled – currently not indexed” (Google found the page but chose not to index it, often a quality signal), “Discovered – currently not indexed” (Google knows about the page but hasn’t crawled it yet), and “Excluded by noindex tag” (you’re telling Google not to index it).
URL Inspection Tool
Check the index status of any specific URL. Shows the last crawl date, how Google rendered the page, any detected schema, mobile usability, and whether the page is in the index. Use “Request Indexing” to push new or updated pages into Google’s crawl queue – they typically appear within hours to days.
Sitemaps
Submit and monitor your XML sitemap. Shows how many URLs were submitted vs. how many were indexed. If there’s a large gap (e.g., 500 submitted, 200 indexed), you have a content quality or technical issue affecting large portions of your site. For healthcare sites with location pages, verify each location page is in the sitemap and indexed.
Removals
Temporarily hide URLs from search results (lasts about 6 months). Use this for pages you’ve taken down but that still appear in search, or for outdated content that’s being replaced. Not a permanent solution – combine with noindex or 301 redirects for permanent removal.
Page Experience and Core Web Vitals
GSC is the definitive source for your Core Web Vitals data because it uses real user metrics (field data) from Chrome users, not lab simulations. This is the data Google actually uses for ranking.
Core Web Vitals Report
Groups your URLs into Good, Needs Improvement, or Poor based on LCP, INP, and CLS scores from real users. Separate reports for mobile and desktop. Click into any issue to see which specific URLs are affected and what threshold they’re failing.
HTTPS Report
Verifies that your site serves all pages over HTTPS. Flags mixed content issues where secure pages load insecure resources (http images, scripts). Critical for healthcare sites handling appointment forms or patient portals.
Enhancements: Structured Data and Rich Results
The Enhancements section monitors the structured data across your site. Each schema type you’ve implemented gets its own report showing valid items, warnings, and errors.
FAQ, HowTo, Article
Each schema type shows how many valid items you have, any errors preventing rich results, and which URLs are affected. Fix errors here to regain rich result eligibility – a missing required field is often all that’s preventing a rich snippet.
Breadcrumbs
Shows whether your breadcrumb schema is valid across the site. Breadcrumbs replace raw URLs in search results with readable navigation paths – worth monitoring because broken breadcrumb schema is a common issue after site redesigns or URL structure changes.
Local Business
Validates your
LocalBusiness schema – critical for healthcare practices. Errors here can prevent your Knowledge Panel from displaying correctly. Check after any change to your practice’s address, hours, or phone number.
Links Report: Understanding Your Backlink Profile
GSC’s Links report shows the backlinks Google actually knows about and considers when ranking your site. Unlike Ahrefs or SEMrush (which crawl the web independently), this data comes directly from Google’s index.
External Links
Shows your top linked pages, top linking sites, and top linking text (anchor text). Use this to understand which content earns the most backlinks organically and which domains reference your practice. Cross-reference with Ahrefs for a complete picture – GSC only shows a sample.
Internal Links
Shows how your own pages link to each other. Pages with very few internal links are harder for Google to find and rank. If your most important service page has fewer internal links than a blog post from 2019, your internal linking strategy needs work.
Manual Actions and Security Issues
These two reports should ideally show “No issues detected.” But if they don’t, they’re the most urgent items on your to-do list.
Manual Actions
Penalties applied by a human reviewer at Google for violating search guidelines. Common causes: unnatural links (built or bought), thin content, cloaking, or spammy structured data. Each manual action includes the specific violation and which pages are affected. Fix the issue, then submit a reconsideration request. See our
disavow guide if the manual action involves link spam.
Security Issues
Alerts for hacked content, malware, deceptive pages, or harmful downloads detected on your site. Healthcare sites are high-value hacking targets because of their domain authority and trust. A compromised site can lose all search visibility overnight. Address security issues immediately and request a review once resolved.
GSC Setup Checklist for Healthcare Practices
If you’re setting up GSC for the first time or auditing an existing setup, work through these items in order.
SETUP
Verify the domain property (domain-level, not URL prefix) for comprehensive data across all subdomains and protocols
SETUP
Submit your XML sitemap (typically at /sitemap_index.xml for Rank Math or /sitemap.xml for Yoast)
SETUP
Grant access to your SEO team or agency (Settings > Users and Permissions > Full or Restricted access)
AUDIT
Check Pages report for indexing errors – fix any “Crawled – currently not indexed” on important service pages
AUDIT
Review Core Web Vitals report for mobile – fix any pages in “Poor” status first
AUDIT
Confirm Manual Actions and Security Issues both show “No issues detected”
AUDIT
Check Enhancements for schema errors – especially LocalBusiness, FAQ, and Breadcrumb
ONGOING
Review Performance report weekly for ranking changes and new keyword opportunities
ONGOING
Monitor indexing status monthly – ensure new pages are getting indexed and old pages aren’t dropping out
ONGOING
Use URL Inspection to push new service pages and blog posts into Google’s index immediately after publishing
For a deeper dive on the technical issues GSC helps you identify, see our technical SEO tools resource. For how to interpret Core Web Vitals data from GSC, see the UX and SEO resource. For healthcare-specific SEO strategy that uses GSC data as a foundation, see our healthcare SEO guide.
