Connect Google Search Console

Connecting Google Search Console lets Revnu see how your site does in Google search: the queries you show up for, your clicks and impressions, and which pages are indexed. It uses that to choose topics people already search for and to report real search numbers to you.

It matters for AI search too. Google AI Overviews and Google AI Mode build their answers from Google's index, and ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini lean on pages that rank well. Strong SEO is the foundation of AEO and GEO. See What are AEO and GEO?.

Before you start

Your site needs to be added and verified in Search Console under a Google account you can sign in with. If you've never set it up, do that at search.google.com/search-console first.

That account needs Owner or Full permission on the property. Revnu ignores properties where the account is only a Restricted user, because it can't submit your sitemap with them.

Domain property or URL-prefix property?

Search Console has two kinds of property:

• Domain property (shown as yourcompany.com): covers every subdomain and both http and https. It's verified with a DNS record. Use this one if you can: it covers your main site, www. and a blog on blog.yourcompany.com in one go.

• URL-prefix property (shown as https://www.yourcompany.com/): covers only that exact address. A blog on blog.yourcompany.com needs its own property.

Revnu picks a matching domain property first, then a URL-prefix property that matches the address your posts live on.

Connect it

1. 1

   Find Search Console in Connections

   Open Connections and find Google Search Console under Learn Your Business.

   Enlarge

2. 2

   Press Connect

   Press Connect on the Google Search Console row.

3. 3

   Pick the right Google account

   Pick the Google account that has access to your site's property. Google always shows the account chooser here, because picking the wrong account is the most common mistake.

4. 4

   Approve with every box ticked

   Approve the access Google asks for, and leave every box ticked. If you untick one, nothing connects.

What you'll see

The row reads connected. If the account you picked has no Search Console properties, the row says so and offers Reconnect with another account. Revnu then submits your blog's sitemap, so Google knows about your posts without waiting for the next one.

What Revnu reads and what it changes

Revnu reads search data: queries, clicks, impressions, positions, sitemap status and whether a page is indexed. The one thing it writes is your blog's sitemap, which it submits to Google every time a post is published or edited. It doesn't change your property's settings, users or other sitemaps.

Google's consent screen asks for more than read access because submitting a sitemap needs it.

Which property Revnu reads

Revnu reads the verified property that matches your main website. If your Revnu blog runs on your own subdomain, it reads the property that covers the blog. If nothing matches, Revnu tells you which domain to verify, or that the account you connected has the property but not Owner or Full permission.

Who handles indexing

Revnu does most of it:

• It submits your blog's sitemap on every publish and edit.

• It asks Google's URL Inspection whether each new post is indexed: first 3 days after publishing, then every 3 days until Google says yes, for up to 45 days.

• When a post still isn't indexed after 14 days, it checks the live page. If the page is healthy, Revnu handles it itself, for example by linking to it from a newer post or refreshing it. It tells you when several recent posts are stuck or your site has a real problem, and what it's changing. Before 14 days, not indexed yet is normal.

• It checks that its recent posts are indexed before writing more, and holds off when they aren't.

• When something blocks indexing, it fetches the live page to find out why and tells you.

Your part depends on your setup. On the hosted blog, there's nothing to do. If your site renders posts through the Content API, your site has to serve a sitemap and a robots.txt that allows crawling. The setup prompt your developer got covers both, and a site audit checks them.

Do I need to click Request Indexing myself?

It's optional. Revnu doesn't need you to request indexing for every post. Google decides when to crawl and index a page. A new post typically takes days to weeks, and a new site takes longer than an established one. No one can promise a date.

Are my blog posts working?

Open Visibility > Posts. With Search Console connected, each post shows its Google clicks and impressions, and Revnu reports them when you ask "are my posts working?" or "how are my posts doing in Google?". For how often AI assistants name you, see AI visibility.

Where the numbers are

Once connected, you can see search numbers in three places:

• Home, in the This Week strip, as Search Clicks from Google to the posts Revnu wrote.

• Visibility > Posts, with clicks and impressions for each post.

• Visibility > Google Search, with queries, clicks, impressions and pages close to page one.

Ask Revnu "how are my posts doing in Google?" for the current numbers. If your posts live on your own site through the Content API, Search Console is the only way Revnu can see their clicks and impressions.

Branded and non-branded queries

Visibility > Google Search lists every query Google showed you for, including ones with your company name in them. A branded query like "acme pricing" means the searcher already knows you. It says little about whether new buyers find you. The non-branded queries, the ones without your name, are where posts win new customers.

The page doesn't filter branded queries out for you. Ask Revnu instead: "show my Google queries without our brand name in them, and which posts they land on."

If it doesn't work