The evidence-first search growth library

01

A first audit that leads to action

Begin with your most valuable public pages. Review blockers before polishing copy, then assign a small set of fixes and recheck the same pages.

• Confirm the page is intended to be public and searchable.
• Fix reachability and unintended blocking first.
• Review links, titles, canonicals, and answer clarity next.

02

Verify ownership in Search Console

Sign in to Google Search Console with an account your business controls. Add a Domain property for broad domain coverage, or a URL-prefix property for an exact scheme and host. Follow Google’s verification instructions for that property.

• Domain properties need DNS verification.
• A verified HTTPS URL-prefix covers its pages and supports reports and sitemaps.
• Grant the connecting Google account access and select the returned property in the app.

03

Submit your sitemap and inspect important pages

After your production site is published and ownership is verified, open the matching property in Google Search Console. Submit the production sitemap, review its reported status, and inspect your important URLs. These owner-controlled actions have not been completed by generating this workspace.

• Submit the live /sitemap.xml under Sitemaps, then check reported errors.
• Use URL Inspection to read the indexed version; Test Live URL checks current accessibility in Google’s interface.
• Request indexing in Google’s interface if appropriate, then monitor Page indexing. Requests do not guarantee indexing.
• Current status: Awaiting owner verification.

04

Avoid false certainty

A local crawl cannot establish Google indexing. Search Console may omit low-volume queries and has reporting delays. AI answers vary by prompt and context. Treat each source according to what it actually measures.

• Keep observation dates and source labels with every finding.
• Use equal-duration comparisons, not mismatched windows.
• Do not equate an AI mention, an impression, a visit, and a lead.