Image 1. A snippet of the Recommendations Section as it appears on the Google Search Console dashboard. Image courtesy of Google at Google Search Central
Google Search Console (GSC) is an indispensable tool for search engine optimization efforts. With the latest Recommendations Section update, GSC further strengthens its value to businesses by giving clear insights to improve search performance straight from Google.
If you’re on board to do exactly that, then let us walk you through how you can use this newest feature to bolster your SEO performance.
What are Google Search Console Recommendations?
The Recommendations Section in GSC is a relatively recent update launched to provide users with targeted, actionable suggestions for improving website performance. Unlike commercial SEO tools that have limited access to data from Google Search, this feature delivers insights straight from it.
With this unique capability, it becomes the most valuable resource for identifying and resolving key issues affecting your site search performance. These include suggestions for:
- improving user experience;
- aligning website functions with Google’s expectations, and;
- technical SEO implementations you can leverage.
Those are but some of the recommendations you’ll find on GSC’s new Recommendations Section. But while ticking off all the items on GSC’s recommendations are surely helpful, it might not be sustainable — and even counterproductive — to do so.
Common Types of Recommendations in GSC
That’s because not all recommendations carry the same weight and are thus prioritized accordingly. In doing so, you maximize potential returns and allow your team to work more efficiently.
Depending on how technical the implementation can get, some recommendations may take too long to correct while offering little returns. Meanwhile and thankfully, the opposite is also true: some simpler implementations can be accomplished faster and yield high-impact results.
Understanding the nature of each recommendation on the GSC is important for determining high-value implementations.
Performance Enhancements
Performance recommendations website speed, responsiveness, and usability. Insights in these areas suggest that your site may not be performing as well as it can. Google regards user experience as a critical component of their guidelines—if your website is not serving users well, it gets ranked down.
Thus, implementing fixes in these areas tend to have a great impact on search performance, and attention must be put on improving speed and mobile usability. On the one hand, website loading speed keeps users engaged and reduces bounce rates, directly contributing to improved conversions and search engine rankings.
Image 2. A sample snippet of the Core Web Vitals report on the GSC dashboard. Through this section, you can check for aspects of your website that need technical improvements that help it perform better on mobile devices or desktops. Image courtesy of Google.
On the other hand, mobile usability is critical as mobile devices dominate internet usage. Hence, optimizing for mobile accessibility is essential for meeting user expectations and staying competitive.
Security and Manual Action Alerts
Security and manual action alerts highlight critical issues that significantly impact your website’s performance and reputation. These alerts point to vulnerabilities or violations requiring immediate action to prevent potential harm to your site’s visibility and user trust.
Security warnings typically flag issues like hacked content, malware, or outdated HTTPS protocols. These vulnerabilities can compromise user data and damage your website’s credibility. Resolving them quickly ensures a secure browsing experience for your audience and helps maintain your site’s reputation as a trusted online destination.
Manual actions, on the other hand, indicate penalties from Google for practices that violate their guidelines. These may include unnatural backlinks or spammy content, which can dramatically drop search rankings. Addressing these alerts promptly is essential to restoring your site’s compliance and regaining lost visibility.
Structured Data Improvements
Structured data recommendations focus on errors or improvements in schema markup that may limit your website’s ability to appear in rich search results. These insights ensure your content is structured correctly and optimized for better visibility in search engine results pages.
These errors can prevent search engines from accurately interpreting your content. This results in lower chances of qualifying for enhanced search features like featured snippets and others. GSC may also provide suggestions for enhancing schema types, such as product, FAQ, or review schema.
Implementing these recommendations can make your content more engaging and relevant to searchers by providing additional context directly within the search results.
How to Act on and Leverage GSC Recommendations
It’s important to note that GSC currently doesn’t all the time. The absence of alerts often means your site is meeting Google’s standards and functioning well. Conversely, when recommendations appear, they clearly signal that something requires immediate attention.
Addressing each of the recommendations is crucial, but not all of them are urgent. At The Ad Firm, we strive to prioritize high-value recommendations that can be easily fixed then work our way down to less urgent or more technical ones.
Through this workflow, we earn impactful results while building on those results by doubling down on the rest. Here’s how you can also follow this pattern of workflow.
1. Identify high-impact recommendations.
To prioritize effectively, focus on the recommendations with the highest potential impact to use your resources best. Start by categorizing issues based on urgency and potential returns, so your team’s efforts translate into measurable gains in visibility and traffic.
A structured approach to evaluating urgency and importance might differ between organizations and agencies, but generally, these frameworks all involve:
- Assessing the urgency of the issue. Is the issue critical enough to require immediate action, such as security warnings or functionality breakdowns like broken pages? These high-priority items demand attention to prevent harm to your site’s reputation or performance.
- Evaluating the potential impact of the implementation. Will fixing this issue significantly boost key metrics like rankings, traffic, or user engagement? Will neglecting to fix the issue lead to significant performance or revenue losses? For example, addressing slow load times can improve user experience and search visibility, delivering immediate benefits.
- Adopt a rating system to quantify the value of each recommendation. For example, issues that are easy to implement but promise high returns—such as optimizing metadata or fixing duplicate analytics tags—should rank higher than changes requiring extensive effort with less immediate payoff.
By combining urgency and potential impact with a clear scoring system, you create a roadmap for actionable priorities. This structured method, inspired by approaches like the “bucket categorization” and issue rating system, keeps your team focused on tasks that drive meaningful results while deferring less critical actions for later.
Image 3. Sample prioritization canvas from Jeff Gothelf.
This analytical process helps identify low-hanging fruit and ensures resources are allocated efficiently for maximum impact.
2. Implement specific changes for search performance goals.
If issues with structured data are highlighted, it points to an opportunity to enhance how search engines interpret and display your content, potentially earning you a spot in rich results. Addressing these earn you search features like product carousels, FAQ snippets, or knowledge panels, which help drive higher click-through rates and traffic.
Fixing this starts by adding or correcting schema markup on critical pages, such as product pages, to provide search engines with accurate and detailed information. For example, implementing structured data for product availability, pricing, and reviews can help your listings stand out in search results.
Tools like Schema.org Validator or Google’s Rich Results Test can be invaluable in verifying the accuracy of your markup, ensuring it adheres to Google’s guidelines and functions as intended.
Image 4. Sample schema markup for MedicalWebPages we usually implement for our medical clients. Image courtesy of Schema.org
Beyond structured data, maintaining overall site health is essential for maximizing the effectiveness of these optimizations. Tools like PageSpeed Insights can help you identify and fix performance issues that may affect how your structured data is processed. Screaming Frog is another powerful tool for diagnosing crawling issues, while GTmetrix provides insights into page speed and performance bottlenecks, ensuring your site operates smoothly for both users and search engines.
By combining structured data fixes with performance optimization, you create a well-rounded strategy that boosts both technical SEO and user experience. This holistic approach ensures your efforts lead to measurable improvements in search visibility, engagement, and ultimately, conversions.
3. Track progress after implementation.
After implementing changes based on GSC’s recommendations, it’s essential to track their impact to ensure your efforts are delivering results.
The Performance Report in GSC provides valuable insights into how these updates affect your site’s visibility and user engagement. Regular monitoring allows you to measure success and refine your strategy as needed.
Start by reviewing Clicks and Impressions to gauge growth in organic traffic. Increased impressions indicate your pages are appearing in search results more frequently, while a rise in clicks shows users are engaging with your content. Together, these metrics provide an early indicator of whether your optimizations are helping attract more visitors to your site.
Next, focus on Average Position, which reflects your keyword rankings in search results. Improvements here suggest that your changes, such as fixing structured data or optimizing page speed, are aligning with Google’s ranking criteria. Pay close attention to trends over time to understand which optimizations are most effective in boosting your rankings.
Finally, analyze your Click-Through Rate (CTR) to evaluate the effectiveness of metadata updates like revised page titles or meta descriptions. A higher CTR means more users are clicking on your search listing after seeing it in the results, signaling that your content is both relevant and engaging. If CTR remains low despite good impressions, consider refining your metadata further to better align with user intent.
By consistently monitoring these metrics, you can validate the success of your changes and identify areas for further improvement. This iterative process ensures that your site continues to evolve and stay competitive in search results, ultimately driving more meaningful traffic and conversions.
4. Staying proactive with regular monitoring.
Regularly reviewing the Recommendations Section in GSC is essential for staying proactive about your site’s performance and SEO health. This habit allows you to catch and address potential issues before they escalate, ensuring your site remains optimized for both users and search engines. Google frequently updates its algorithms and guidelines, so keeping a close eye on new recommendations helps you stay aligned with best practices and ahead of competitors.
Set a schedule to check the Recommendations Section weekly. This ensures you’re promptly alerted to any new issues, such as structured data errors, performance concerns, or security vulnerabilities. Addressing these problems quickly can prevent disruptions to your site’s rankings and maintain a positive user experience. Regular checks also help you verify that previous fixes are holding steady and no new complications have arisen.
In addition to monitoring for updates, take time to evaluate the overall trend of your site’s health. Are the same issues reappearing? Are new recommendations pointing to broader underlying problems? By reviewing the Recommendations Section consistently, you can gain deeper insights into your site’s performance, enabling you to prioritize fixes and optimizations more effectively. This ongoing vigilance is a simple yet powerful way to maintain your site’s long-term success.
5. Integrating GSC Insights into Your Broader SEO Strategy
Aligning GSC recommendations with broader SEO goals, such as keyword optimization and link building, is a strategic way to amplify the impact of your efforts. By integrating GSC insights into your overall strategy, you can create a cohesive approach that enhances your site’s visibility, engagement, and authority.
Start by using the Performance Report to identify low-CTR keywords. These keywords often represent untapped opportunities where your pages are appearing in search results but not attracting clicks. Revise your metadata—titles and meta descriptions—to better align with user intent, making them more compelling and relevant. A well-crafted meta description that directly addresses searchers’ needs can significantly boost click-through rates, driving more traffic to your site without additional content creation.
Additionally, leverage structured data improvements to enhance your presence in niche search results. For example, implementing schema markup for products, FAQs, or reviews can help your content stand out with rich snippets, such as star ratings or quick answers. These enhancements not only improve visibility but also position your site as an authoritative resource within your industry. By combining these efforts with link-building strategies, such as earning backlinks from high-authority sites, you can further solidify your site’s reputation and drive sustained traffic growth.
Integrating GSC recommendations into your keyword and link-building initiatives ensures that your SEO efforts are data-driven and focused on areas with the highest potential for impact. This approach not only improves your rankings but also strengthens the foundation for long-term success in search results.
Final Thoughts
GSC’s Recommendations Section is a game-changer for businesses aiming to improve their SEO performance. By understanding the types of recommendations, prioritizing high-impact issues, and implementing changes effectively, you can achieve measurable improvements in search rankings, user engagement, and overall site performance.
If you’re ready to take your SEO strategy to the next level, contact The Ad Firm today. Let our team of experts help you unlock the full potential of GSC and achieve outstanding results.
