Search Console is one of the most powerful free local SEO tools, and most businesses barely use it. Here's which reports matter and why.
Google Search Console is free. It is directly connected to Google's index. It shows you exactly which search queries bring customers to your website, which pages Google has indexed (and which it has not), and which technical issues might be limiting your visibility.
Despite all of this, most local businesses have never opened Google Search Console, or open it once every few months to glance at a traffic chart and immediately close it again. This is a significant missed opportunity.
This guide covers the specific GSC reports that matter most for local SEO and exactly how to translate GSC data into ranking improvements.
If you have not already set up Google Search Console for your website, that is the first step.
Go to search.google.com/search-console and add your website as a property. Google offers two verification methods:
Domain property (recommended): Covers all subdomains and protocols (www, non-www, https, http). Requires adding a DNS TXT record to your domain registrar.
URL prefix property: Covers only the exact URL you specify. Easier to set up (can use an HTML file upload or Google Analytics connection), but more limited in scope.
For local businesses, a URL prefix property (https://www.yoursite.com/) is fine if you are just getting started.
After setup, it takes 48-72 hours for GSC to begin collecting data and up to a week before you have enough for meaningful analysis.
The Performance report shows you every search query that resulted in a click to your website over your chosen date range. For local SEO, this report is pure gold.
What to look for:
Open the Performance report. Set the date range to "Last 3 months" for enough data to find patterns.
Sort by Impressions descending. Impressions show you queries where your site appeared in search results but may not have been clicked. High impressions with low clicks identify ranking opportunities.
Look for local keywords with position 4-15. These are queries where you are getting Google to show your site but you are not in the top 3 — the threshold for most clicks. A query with 400 monthly impressions at position 8 is an actionable opportunity: optimize the page it leads to, and you can potentially move it to position 3-5 and capture hundreds of additional clicks per month.
Identify which pages rank for which queries. Click on a query to see which page(s) are ranking for it. If you have a "plumbing services" page ranking for "water heater installation [city]" at position 12, creating a dedicated water heater installation page may push that query to position 5 or higher.
Filter for local queries. Add a filter: Queries containing your city name, or queries containing "near me." This isolates your local search performance specifically.
A "quick win" in local SEO is a search query where your page ranks in position 4-10 — close enough to the top that a targeted optimization can push it into positions 1-3 and generate significantly more clicks.
How to find quick wins in GSC:
The queries at the top of this filtered list are your quick wins. They already have your site ranking on page 1 — they just need a push into the top 3.
What to do with quick wins:
For each quick win query:
📊 Flento Data: Local businesses that systematically address their GSC quick wins see an average 31% increase in organic website traffic from local keywords within 90 days.
The Coverage report shows you the indexing status of every page Google has attempted to crawl on your site. For local SEO, indexing issues on your most important pages (your homepage, service pages, city pages) directly limit your rankings.
Key statuses to check:
Error: Pages that Google tried to crawl but could not index. The most common errors for local businesses are 404 Not Found (a page that was deleted but is still linked elsewhere), 503 Service Unavailable (server errors), and redirect loops.
Excluded: Pages that are either intentionally blocked (by robots.txt or noindex tags) or that Google chose not to index (usually because it determined the page is too thin or is a duplicate of another page).
Valid with warning: Pages that are indexed but have issues that may limit their effectiveness.
What to do: Fix every Error status. For Excluded pages, determine whether they were intentionally excluded (if so, verify the exclusion is correct) or unintentionally excluded (if so, investigate why Google chose not to index them).
Page experience is a Google ranking factor. Core Web Vitals — a set of performance metrics measuring loading speed, interactivity, and visual stability — directly influence where your pages rank.
The Core Web Vitals report in GSC shows you which pages on your site are passing, failing, or borderline on these metrics. For local businesses, slow-loading mobile pages are the most common issue.
What to prioritize:
For pages flagged as "Poor" in the Core Web Vitals report, common fixes include optimizing image sizes, enabling caching, compressing JavaScript and CSS, and eliminating render-blocking resources.
The URL Inspection tool lets you check the indexing status of any specific URL on your site. This is useful after making changes to a page — you can request that Google recrawl it immediately rather than waiting for the next natural crawl.
When to use it:
Type the URL into the inspection tool, see its current index status, and click "Request Indexing" to prompt Google to recrawl it.
Google Search Console shows impressions and clicks from search. Google Analytics shows what users do after they arrive. Together, they tell the complete story: which local searches bring users to your site, and which of those visitors convert into inquiries, calls, or customers.
Connect GSC to your GA4 property through the Integration settings in GSC. Once connected, you can see search query data alongside on-site behavior data in GA4's Search Console reports.
🔥 Quick Win: Use Flento alongside GSC to get a complete local visibility picture. GSC shows your organic search performance. Flento shows your Google Maps ranking across your service area. Together, they give you the full data set your local SEO strategy needs.
Most of your local competitors have never opened the Performance report in Google Search Console. They are guessing which keywords to target and which pages need optimization. With GSC, you are not guessing — you have the data to know exactly what Google is showing your site for, what needs optimization, and where the highest-ROI opportunities are.
Open it this week. Find your quick wins. Fix your coverage errors. Optimize your top-ranking pages. That is a data-driven local SEO practice.
