Google Search Console
Monitor · Test
Verify a site you own, inspect why a URL is or is not indexed, and track impressions, clicks and structured data issues from Google Search.
All capabilities · Search & AI visibility
Run technical and on-page SEO for a website
Audit a site the way search engines and AI crawlers read it: crawlability, indexing, Core Web Vitals, internal links and on-page signals, using Search Console and an SEO suite, then fix what blocks it from being found.
Explore 5 tools for this projectMarket relevance
Which roles ask for this — and how often
Share of job postings in India, per role, that name this capability.
What employers mean
You should be able to…
- Crawl a site and turn the output into a prioritised fix list: broken links, redirect chains, duplicate titles, missing meta descriptions, orphan pages
- Read Search Console's Page indexing report and URL Inspection to explain why a page is not indexed, then fix the cause
- Write and test robots.txt rules and an XML sitemap, and know which bots each rule affects
- Measure Core Web Vitals (LCP, INP, CLS) from field data and name the change that would move each one
- Fix on-page signals: one descriptive title and H1 per page, meta descriptions, canonical tags, image alt text and internal links to important pages
- Check that JavaScript-rendered content is visible to crawlers on Shopify, WordPress or React sites
- Report organic impressions, clicks and average position from Search Console alongside sessions in GA4
- Set up and verify the same site in Bing Webmaster Tools, not only Google
Learn — free, link-checked
The few resources that matter
Read · beginner · 20 min · developers.google.com
Introduction to robots.txt
What robots.txt can and cannot do (it controls crawling, not indexing) — the distinction behind most 'why is this page missing' tickets and every AI crawler policy. — Google Search Central
Read · beginner · 30 min · developers.google.com
Get started with Search Console
Verify a site, read the Page indexing and Performance reports and submit a sitemap — the first four things every SEO job posting expects you to have done. — Google Search Central
Read · beginner · 30 min · web.dev
Web Vitals
The definitions and thresholds for LCP, INP and CLS and which field and lab tools measure each — the vocabulary for explaining a speed fix to developers. — web.dev (Google Chrome team)
Read · beginner · 40 min · developers.google.com
SEO Starter Guide: The Basics
Google's own account of how crawling, URLs, titles, snippets and duplicate content work — and which SEO myths to ignore — so your audit starts from the source, not agency folklore. — Google Search Central
Read · beginner · 45 min · screamingfrog.co.uk
SEO Spider Getting Started Guide
Set up the crawler, run a crawl, read the Issues tab and export results — enough to run the audit in the practice project on the free 500-URL version. — Screaming Frog
Tools for practice
Choose a tool for the job
Start with one tool for each part of your project. You don’t need to learn them all.
5 tools to explore
Screaming Frog SEO Spider
Test · Data
Crawl a website like a search engine and export broken links, redirects, titles, canonicals and structured data issues for an audit.
Free version
The free download crawls up to 500 URLs per crawl; a paid licence removes the limit.
PageSpeed Insights
Test
Measure a page's Core Web Vitals from real-user field data and a Lighthouse lab run, with suggested fixes.
Bing Webmaster Tools
Monitor
Verify a site for Bing, submit sitemaps, and read the AI Performance report of how often its pages are cited in Copilot and Bing AI answers.
Ahrefs Webmaster Tools
Monitor · Test
Run a site audit of technical and on-page issues and see ranking keywords and backlinks for a site you have verified.
Free for verified sites
Works only on websites you verify; Site Audit includes 5,000 crawl credits per verified project per month and Site Explorer shows up to 1,000 backlinks and keywords at once.
Practices & references
Practice
Technical SEO audit of a small business website, with a verified fix log
Pick a public website of an Indian small business or D2C brand with under 500 pages and crawl it with Screaming Frog's free version, test its key templates in PageSpeed Insights, and read its robots.txt and sitemap. Turn the findings into a prioritised audit: issue, evidence, affected URLs, business impact and the fix. Because Search Console needs site ownership, publish your own small site on GitHub Pages with a deliberate mix of problems (a broken link, a missing title, a blocked page, a slow hero image), verify it in Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, fix each problem and record how the reports change.
Start from
Milestones
- Publish your own GitHub Pages site with deliberate issues, verify it in Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools and submit a sitemap · ~3h
- Crawl the chosen business site with Screaming Frog and export issues: status codes, redirects, titles, meta descriptions, H1s, canonicals, orphan pages · ~5h
- Test the home, category and product (or service) templates in PageSpeed Insights and note LCP, INP and CLS with the likely cause of each failure · ~5h
- Write the prioritised audit: issue, evidence, affected URLs, impact and fix, with a robots.txt and sitemap review · ~5h
- Fix the issues on your own site, request reindexing with URL Inspection and log before/after report states · ~4h
Done when
- The audit lists at least 10 distinct issues, each with crawl or PageSpeed evidence, affected URL count and a specific fix, ordered by impact
- Core Web Vitals are reported per template with the measured value and the threshold it misses
- Your own site is verified in both Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools with a sitemap submitted
- Each deliberate issue on your own site has a before and after screenshot from Search Console or the crawler showing it resolved
Prove it
Evidence a recruiter can check
- The prioritised audit document for a real public site, with the crawl export attached and every issue tied to affected URLs
- PageSpeed Insights results per template, annotated with the cause of each failing Core Web Vital
- Before/after Search Console screenshots (URL Inspection and Page indexing) for each issue you planted and fixed on your own site
- Your robots.txt and sitemap.xml with a note on what each rule allows or blocks
Signal it
Audited a live small-business website end to end (crawl, indexing, Core Web Vitals, on-page) and shipped a prioritised fix plan — then proved each fix on my own Search Console-verified site with before/after reports.
Interview
Questions you'll get asked
- A key page is not showing in Google. Walk me through how you find out why, in order.
- What is the difference between blocking a page in robots.txt and adding noindex? When would each go wrong?
- Search Console shows 'Crawled — currently not indexed' for 300 product pages. What do you check?
- Explain LCP, INP and CLS to a developer, and give one fix for each on an e-commerce product page.
- How do you handle duplicate content from URL parameters and filters on a large catalogue site?
- You crawl a site with Screaming Frog and get 2,000 issues. How do you decide what to fix first?
- How do you check whether a JavaScript-heavy page is being rendered properly by Google?
- Organic clicks dropped 30% month on month. Which reports do you open and what do you rule out first?