Google begins roll out of new version of Search Console

Webmasters will receive a notification from Google when their site is ready in the new Search Console.

Google has announced that the new beta version of it's Search Console tool (previously known as Webmaster Tools) is now rolling out to everyone. The roll-out will be gradual over the coming weeks, and webmasters will receive a notification from Google when the new version is available.

The new Search Console will remain in beta for now and run side-by-side with the old version, so users can switch between the two.

Perhaps the biggest new feature for webmasters is the full 16 months of Search Analytics data, which is a huge improvement on the current 3 months which was a big drawback to the old Search Console. Now renamed as the Search Performance report, users will be able to view impressions, clicks, CTR and ranking position for keywords and pages for the past 16 months.

As well as this new addition, the Search Console has been completely rebuilt and designed with more of a focus on helping webmasters identify and fix issues with their websites.

The new tool features a new Index Coverage report, AMP status and Job postings reports in additions to the other features currently in use.

Index Coverage report

The new Index Coverage report provides an insight into Google's indexing of your URLs, showing those that have been correctly indexed, warnings about any potential indexing issues and advising why Google hasn't indexed some URLs. It will also alert users when new issues are found and will help to monitor the fixing of any indexing issues.

As fixing indexing issues often involves a team, Google has also added share buttons to the Index Coverage report so that you can send a direct link to a specific issue to whoever is responsible for fixing it.

Search Enhancements - Amp and Job Postings

Another new feature in Search Console is called Search Enhancements, which deals with AMP pages and Job Postings markup (something Google has begun to focus much more on recently). Search Console will now identify issues related to both of these kinds of 'search enhancement' - with more planned to be added in the future.

Information will be provided on how to fix any issues with your AMP pages or Job Posting markup, and the tool will give users immediate feedback on changes they have made.

With all the new changes to Search Console, Google has included a Feedback feature and is actively seeking the comments and feedback from users as the tool rolls out - so if there's anything you find confusing or wrong, get in touch with them to tell them.