Google Search Console has become an indispensable resource for website owners, SEO professionals, and developers.
In a recent episode of Search Console Training, Daniel Waisberg, a Search Advocate at Google, highlighted the Search Console API’s capabilities.
The API provides programmatic access to many of the features available in Google Search Console.
For example, it allows developers to perform tasks such as viewing, adding, or removing properties and sitemaps, running advanced queries, and testing individual pages.
Additionally, developers can use the API to build applications that pull search performance data and make it available via dashboards for their companies or external products.
Google’s recent video isn’t a technical guide. It’s a quick intro to the four different Search Console API methods, with examples of which data can be exported through each.
Four API Methods For Better Data Analysis
Waisberg discussed four different Search Console API methods in the training video. These methods are:
- Search Analytics API: This API provides data related to website performance on Google Search, such as clicks, impressions, and average position broken down by queries, pages, countries, and more. The API offers more data than the user interface or spreadsheet export, with up to 50,000 samples for larger websites. This can be helpful for companies looking to apply advanced models to analyze query performance or combine Google data with other sources.
- URL Inspection API: This API offers methods to debug and optimize specific pages on a website. It corresponds to the index data available in the URL Inspection tool, which includes analysis results containing index status, AMP, rich results, and mobile usability on a URL basis. Large websites, SEO tools, and content management systems can use this API to help users optimize websites, monitor changes, and diagnose issues.
- Sitemaps API: This API retrieves information about sitemaps submitted to Google Search, such as processing status, last download time, and existing warnings. It can also be used to submit and delete sitemaps for a site. This is particularly useful for large websites with multiple brands or content management systems that need to manage sitemaps programmatically.
- Sites API: This API allows users to add or remove a site to their set of sites in Search Console and retrieve information for specific sites. It can also list all the user’s Search Console sites and permission levels for each. This is helpful for content management systems, large websites, and SEO agencies looking to manage access more efficiently.
In Summary
While using the Search Console API requires technical skills, it offers valuable insights for optimizing websites and gaining a competitive edge.
By harnessing its power, you can build data-driven applications and identify trends to improve performance in search results.
Featured Image: Screenshot from YouTube.com/GoogleSearchCentral, April 2023.
Source: YouTube
