Google Search Console
Google Search Console is Google's free reporting tool for site owners. It shows how Google crawls, indexes and ranks your pages, and reports impressions, clicks, indexing status and technical errors. It is the only first-party source for any of this data.
Why it matters for your rankings
Every other SEO tool estimates. Search Console reports what Google actually recorded, which makes it the reference point when tools disagree, and they disagree constantly.
It is also the only place certain information exists at all. Manual actions, indexing decisions, the canonical Google selected as opposed to the one you declared, and real Core Web Vitals field data appear nowhere else. The main limitation is the 16-month data window, which means historical comparison beyond that is impossible unless you export regularly. Sites that have never configured it are usually flying blind about problems Google has been reporting for months, most commonly indexing failures that quietly suppress whole sections.
How to check it on your site
Verify every property variant
Add and verify the domain property so http, https, www and non-www data is consolidated in one view.
Check the Pages report first
Indexing then Pages shows exactly which URLs are excluded and why. This is the fastest diagnostic on any new site.
Export performance data monthly
The 16-month limit means anything older is gone. A monthly export preserves your history.
Set up email alerts
Ensure manual actions and coverage spikes reach a monitored inbox rather than an unused account.