Before you start
- Verified property with at least a few days of data (queries may lag).
Performance: filter queries before you panic
Segment by page, query, country, and device. Look for high impressions + low clicks — often a title or snippet mismatch.
Branded vs non-branded filters tell you whether SEO or PR drove a spike.
Pages / Page indexing: translate statuses into tickets
“Crawled — currently not indexed” usually means quality or duplication signals; improve content and canonicals instead of re-requesting blindly.
“Discovered — currently not indexed” hints at crawl budget or weak internal links — add prominent links and reduce thin sections.
Export examples weekly so developers see exact URLs, not screenshots.
Core Web Vitals: tie field data to templates
Use the report to find URL groups with LCP or CLS regressions, then reproduce with Lighthouse on the same template.
Fix fonts, hero images, and ad/embed injection before micro-optimizing CSS.
Links: who cites you and how you spend internal PageRank
Top linked pages show where authority pools — ensure those pages link forward to newer hubs.
External links listed are samples, not exhaustive, but still useful for outreach ideas.
Removals tool: temporary, not a ranking cheat
Use temporary removals for urgent SERP cleanup (PII leaks, outdated promo). It hides the URL for a short window while you fix the source page.
It does not erase legal obligations or guarantee permanent disappearance — fix the content and canonicals.
Manual actions and Security Issues: drop everything
If either section shows a warning, read the exact policy name, fix root cause, then submit a reconsideration or review request as Google describes.
These block or throttle indexing until resolved.