The only place Google tells you what it actually did

Every third-party SEO tool is guessing about your site from the outside. This one is Google reporting on its own behaviour, it is free, and most builders have never opened it.

Run the free check

Google Search Console reports what Google actually did with your site: which pages it indexed, which it declined and why, what searches showed your pages, and what the rendered HTML looked like when it fetched them. Verify the domain, submit the sitemap, and then use four screens: URL Inspection, Page Indexing, Performance, and Sitemaps.

Why this beats every other tool

Third-party tools fetch your pages from outside and infer what Google probably thinks. Some of them are good, and all of them are guessing.

Search Console is Google telling you what Google did. Which pages it has indexed, which it looked at and declined, why it declined them, what your page looked like when it rendered it, and which searches your pages appeared for.

This distinction matters enormously on a vibe-coded app, because the platforms behave in ways that confuse external tools. A scanner reporting your Lovable app as empty is reporting accurately about what it received, which is not what Google received. Search Console removes that ambiguity entirely.

Getting verified

You need to prove you control the domain. There are several methods and the choice matters a little.

The domain property, verified through a DNS record at your registrar, covers every subdomain and both the http and https versions in one property. This is the better option and it is worth the extra few minutes.

The URL prefix property, verified by uploading a file or adding a meta tag, covers only that exact prefix. If you verify the version without www and your site serves the version with www, you will be looking at an empty property and concluding your site is invisible.

Do this after connecting your custom domain rather than before. Verification is tied to the address, so verifying a platform subdomain and then moving means starting again.

Submit the sitemap, then wait properly

Under Sitemaps, enter the address of your sitemap and submit it. This is the single most useful action available to a new site, because it tells Google which pages exist without waiting for it to find them by following links that may not exist.

Then leave it alone. A new domain takes time, and refreshing the screen daily produces anxiety rather than information.

Come back after a week and check two numbers: how many URLs were discovered, and how many are indexed. Discovered should match what you submitted. Indexed will be lower, and that is normal rather than a problem, because indexing is a separate decision from discovery.

URL Inspection, the screen that settles arguments

This is the most valuable screen in the tool and the one that answers the question every vibe coder has.

Enter one of your addresses, choose to test the live URL, and then look at the rendered HTML. That is Google showing you exactly what it received and what it made of it, which no other tool can do.

If your content is there, your rendering is fine and any scanner telling you otherwise is wrong about your situation. If your content is missing, you have confirmed a real problem rather than suspecting one.

The same screen tells you whether the page is indexed, when it was last crawled, and if it is not indexed, the reason. That reason is specific and actionable, which is rare in this field.

Page Indexing, and reading the reasons calmly

This screen groups your pages by what Google decided, and for a new site the not-indexed list will be longer than the indexed one. That is expected and not a crisis.

The reasons are worth learning because they are precise. Discovered but not indexed generally means Google knows the page exists and has not prioritised crawling it, which for a new domain mostly means wait. Crawled but not indexed means it looked and decided not to include it, which is more often a content signal.

Excluded by noindex means you are telling it not to index, which is either correct or an accident worth checking. Blocked by robots.txt means exactly what it says and is the one to act on immediately.

Read these as a to-do list rather than a verdict. Each reason points at a different action, and several of them point at no action at all.

Performance, and what to look at first

The Performance screen shows searches where your pages appeared. For a new site the numbers will be small, and the shape is still informative.

Look at impressions before clicks. Impressions mean your pages are being considered for searches, which is the first sign the mechanism is working, and it appears well before anybody clicks anything.

Then look at the queries themselves, which is the genuinely useful part. These are the actual words people typed when your page appeared, and they are almost never the words you expected. That gap between your vocabulary and theirs is the most valuable thing this screen gives you, and it should feed directly into what you write next.

Note that this data lags by a couple of days, so today's screen does not describe today.

Part of a larger guide

This page is one part of The fixes. The other parts:

Questions people ask

Why use Search Console instead of an SEO tool?
Third-party tools fetch your pages from outside and infer what Google probably thinks. Search Console is Google reporting what it actually did: which pages it indexed, which it declined and why, and what your page looked like when it rendered it. On a vibe-coded app that removes ambiguity external scanners cannot.
Should I verify a domain property or a URL prefix?
A domain property, verified through a DNS record, because it covers every subdomain and both protocols at once. A URL prefix property covers only that exact prefix, so verifying the version without www while your site serves the www version leaves you staring at an empty property.
How do I check what Google actually sees on my page?
Use URL Inspection, choose to test the live URL, and read the rendered HTML. That is Google showing you exactly what it received, which no other tool can do. If your content is there, your rendering is fine regardless of what a scanner says.
Most of my pages are not indexed. Is that bad?
For a new site, no. The not-indexed list being longer than the indexed one is expected. Read the reasons: discovered but not indexed mostly means wait, crawled but not indexed is more often a content signal, and blocked by robots.txt is the one to act on immediately.
What should I look at first in Performance?
Impressions rather than clicks, because impressions mean your pages are being considered for searches and appear well before anyone clicks. Then read the actual queries, which are almost never the words you expected, and let that gap guide what you write next.
When should I set Search Console up?
After connecting your custom domain, not before. Verification is tied to the address, so verifying a platform subdomain and then moving to your own domain means starting the whole process again.

Get a second opinion alongside Google's

The free Get Found Check reads your site the way an AI crawler does, which is the half Search Console does not cover.

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