Google Webmaster Tools dashboard: where it went, how to get in, and how to read the first screen

Google Webmaster Tools is now Google Search Console. Google renamed it in May 2015 and the tool itself has been rebuilt since, so there is no separate Webmaster Tools dashboard to find. You sign in at search.google.com/search-console with the Google account that has access to the site, pick the property from the selector at the top left, and land on the Overview screen, which is the dashboard everyone means. This page covers getting in, choosing the right property type, and reading the first screen and the left hand menu item by item.

The name change, in one paragraph

Google announced the rename in its own post, announcing Google Search Console, on the grounds that the people using it were no longer only webmasters. The related documentation and blog were later renamed Google Search Central. Old bookmarks and help links that point at the webmasters addresses still redirect, which is why you will see both names in search results and in older guides. It is one product with one URL: the Search Console about page is the official starting point.

Getting in

1. Sign in with the Google account that owns or has been granted access to the site. If a previous agency verified the site, access may sit with their account, which is worth checking before you create a duplicate property.
2. Open the property selector at the top left. Every property you have access to is listed there.
3. If the list is empty, add a property and verify it. Verification proves you control the site.

Verification methods, in the order of how durable they are: a DNS record at your registrar, an HTML file uploaded to the server, a meta tag in the home page head, or a link to an existing Google Analytics or Tag Manager container. The DNS method is the one to use if you can, because it survives site rebuilds and theme changes.

Which property type to pick

Type	What it covers	Verified by	Pick it when
Domain property	Every subdomain and both http and https	A DNS record	Almost always. It is the complete picture of the site
URL prefix property	One exact prefix, so https with www is separate from without	Any of the methods, including the file and meta tag	You need data for one section or subdomain on its own, or you cannot edit DNS

Many sites benefit from both: a domain property for the whole picture, plus prefix properties for a blog or a shop section so the reports can be read separately.

The Overview screen, card by card

• Performance. A chart of total clicks from search over the recent period. Clicks here are clicks from a Google results page to your site. This card is a summary; the full report sits behind it.
• Indexing. A count of pages Google has indexed and pages it has not. The not indexed figure is normal and expected on most sites, because it includes redirects, canonicalised duplicates and pages you deliberately excluded. Read the reasons rather than the total.
• Experience. A summary of page experience signals where Google has enough field data for your site.
• Enhancements. One card per structured data type Google has found on your site, such as product, article or breadcrumb, with valid items and any errors. These cards appear only when the relevant markup exists, which is why two sites show different dashboards.

The Overview is a summary screen, so treat it as a daily glance and not as the report. Anything worth acting on has a full report behind it, reached by the Open report link on each card.

The left hand menu, item by item

Menu item	What it is for
URL Inspection	The search bar at the top. Paste any URL on your site for Google's live view of it: indexed or not, which canonical it chose, when it was last crawled, and the structured data it found. The single most useful screen in the tool
Performance	Clicks, impressions, average click through rate and average position, broken down by query, page, country, device and search appearance. Compare periods here rather than reading single numbers
Indexing, Pages	Which pages are indexed and the reason each excluded page was excluded. Work through the reasons in order of page count
Indexing, Sitemaps	Submit a sitemap and see when it was last read and how many URLs were discovered
Indexing, Removals	Temporarily hide a URL from results while you fix or delete it properly
Experience	Core Web Vitals from real users, and HTTPS coverage
Enhancements	One report per structured data type found, listing valid and invalid items with the specific error
Security and Manual Actions	Security issues and any manual action taken against the site. Check this first if traffic has fallen sharply
Links	Your top linked pages, top linking sites and the anchor text used. A sample rather than a full index
Settings	Ownership and users, crawl statistics, and the association with other Google products

The first five minutes on a new property

• Check Security and Manual Actions. It should say no issues.
• Submit the sitemap, then come back the next day to confirm it was read.
• Run URL Inspection on your home page and two important pages to confirm each is indexed and the canonical Google chose is the one you intended.
• Open Performance, set the range to the last twelve months, and export the query and page tables as your baseline.
• In Settings, add the people who need access and remove anybody who no longer does.

Access levels, and handing access to an agency

There are three levels. An owner can add and remove users and change settings. A full user sees all data and can take most actions. A restricted user sees most reports and cannot change settings. Give an agency full user access rather than making them an owner, and keep an owner account in a company inbox rather than a personal one, so access survives a staff change. Verify through DNS yourself, so that ownership stays with you whoever manages the site.

If the dashboard looks empty

• Data begins accumulating from verification, so a brand new property shows little for the first few days. Performance data typically appears with a short delay of a day or two.
• Check the property type. A URL prefix property for the www version shows nothing if your site serves the non www version.
• Confirm the site is reachable and not blocked in robots.txt, using URL Inspection on the home page.
• Confirm you are looking at the right account. Access granted to one email address is invisible from another.

This page covers getting into the dashboard and reading the first screen. For each report in depth, and what every number in it measures, see our Search Console guide to the reports that matter.

Questions buyers ask about Google Webmaster Tools dashboard

Is Google Webmaster Tools still available?

It continues as Google Search Console at search.google.com/search-console. The rename happened in May 2015 and the old addresses redirect.

Is Search Console free?

Yes, for any site you can verify, with no paid tier. It is your own data, which makes it more reliable than any third party estimate of your rankings or traffic.

How far back does the data go?

The Performance report holds sixteen months of history. Export at least once a quarter if you want a longer record, because older data drops off the back of that window.

Why do Search Console clicks differ from my analytics sessions?

They measure different events. Search Console counts clicks on a Google results page; analytics counts sessions that loaded your tracking code. Clicks that bounce before the script runs appear in one and not the other, so compare trends rather than absolute figures.

Do I need Search Console if I already have analytics?

Yes, because they answer different questions. Analytics tells you what visitors did after arriving. Search Console tells you which queries showed your pages, which pages Google indexed, and what it could not index, which is information available nowhere else.

Where to go from here

• The Search Console reports that matter
• Technical SEO checklist in order
• The SEO metrics worth reporting
• How to increase traffic, starting with what nearly works

Queries this dashboard has no tab for

The first screen shows clicks, impressions and coverage for Google Search. Questions put to an assistant do not appear there, whatever the left hand menu offers.

To fill that gap, take the queries that bring you impressions and ask the same things in ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity. Notice where you are named in Search but absent in the reply. It is a quick way to find pages that rank but do not persuade. AI Knows Us does the same across the main assistants and shows the sources.