Google Search Console Glossary
This glossary explains common Search Console, crawling, indexing and search-performance terms in plain English. Definitions are written for website owners who need to interpret reports and troubleshoot pages without unnecessary technical language.
A
Average position
The average topmost position where a property or page appeared for its recorded Google Search impressions.
It is not one fixed ranking. The value may combine different queries, pages, countries, devices and search-result formats.
Anonymized query
A search query omitted from Search Console tables to protect user privacy.
Anonymized queries can still contribute to chart totals even though their individual text is not displayed.
B
Backlinks
Links from pages on other websites to pages on your website.
Search Console's Links report provides examples of external links and linking sites, but it should not be assumed to contain every link on the web.
Blocked by robots.txt
A status indicating that rules in the website's
robots.txt file prevent Googlebot from crawling a URL.
Blocking crawling is not the same as guaranteeing that a URL will never appear in search results.
C
Canonical URL
The URL treated as the primary version of a group of duplicate or substantially similar pages.
Google generally attributes Search Console Performance data to the canonical URL rather than to duplicate versions.
Click
A recorded user interaction with a Google result that leads to your website or eligible content.
Exact click-counting behavior can vary by search-result type.
Click-through rate — CTR
The percentage of impressions that resulted in clicks.
CTR = clicks ÷ impressions × 100A page with 10 clicks from 200 impressions has a CTR of 5%.
Crawl
The process by which Googlebot requests and examines a webpage or other resource.
Crawling does not guarantee that the content will be indexed.
Crawl request
A request made by Googlebot to a website's server for a page, image, script or another resource.
Crawled — currently not indexed
A Page Indexing status indicating that Google crawled the URL but did not add it to the index at that time.
The URL may be reconsidered later. Repeatedly requesting indexing does not guarantee a different decision.
D
Discover
A personalized Google content feed that can show eligible pages without a traditional typed search query.
A separate Discover Performance report appears only when a property has sufficient Discover activity.
Discovered — currently not indexed
A status indicating that Google knows about a URL but has not yet crawled it, or has postponed crawling it.
DNS verification
A method of proving ownership by adding a verification record to the domain's DNS configuration.
Domain Properties require DNS verification.
Domain Property
A Search Console website property that covers a domain across supported protocols and subdomains.
For example, a property for example.com can include HTTP,
HTTPS, www and other subdomains.
Duplicate page
A URL containing the same or substantially similar content as another URL.
Google may choose one version as canonical and exclude the duplicate from the index.
E
Enhancement report
A Search Console report describing supported structured-data or page features detected on a website.
Reports appear only when Google detects eligible items associated with the property.
Excluded page
A page that is not included in Google's index.
Exclusion is not automatically an error. Redirects, duplicates and intentionally non-indexable pages may be correctly excluded.
F
Filter
A report control used to limit displayed data to a particular query, page, country, device, date range or other dimension.
Full user
A Search Console permission level that provides broad access to property data and certain actions, but does not provide the same control as verified ownership.
G
Google-selected canonical
The URL Google chooses as the canonical representative of a group of similar pages.
It may differ from the canonical URL declared by the website owner.
Googlebot
Google's web-crawling software used to discover and retrieve webpages and other resources.
H
HTML verification file
A Search Console ownership-verification file uploaded to a precise location on a website.
The file should remain accessible after verification to preserve ownership.
HTML verification tag
A verification meta tag placed in the
<head> section of a website's homepage.
I
Impression
A recorded appearance of a link to your site or eligible content on a supported Google surface.
The exact visibility requirement depends on the search-result or report type.
Index
Google's stored collection of information about pages and content that may be eligible to appear in search results.
Indexed page
A page included in Google's index and potentially eligible to appear in search results.
Indexed does not mean guaranteed to appear for a particular query.
Indexing allowed
A URL Inspection field indicating whether Google detected a directive that prevents the page from being indexed.
Internal link
A link from one page on a website to another page on the same website.
Internal links help users and search engines discover and understand site content.
L
Last crawl
The most recent recorded time Google crawled the inspected URL.
A recent live-page change may not appear in indexed information until Google crawls and processes the page again.
Links report
A Search Console report showing examples of external and internal links associated with a website.
Live test
A URL Inspection test of the page currently available to Google at the time of testing.
A successful live test does not mean the live version has already replaced Google's indexed version.
M
Manual action
An action applied when a human reviewer at Google determines that pages or a site violate Google's spam policies.
A manual action can reduce visibility or remove affected content from search results.
Metric
A measured value in a report, such as clicks, impressions, CTR or average position.
N
noindex
A directive telling supported search engines not to include a page in their search index.
Google must generally be able to crawl the page to see the directive.
Not found — 404
A server response indicating that the requested resource could not be found.
A genuine 404 is appropriate for a page that no longer exists and has no suitable replacement.
O
Owner
A Search Console user with owner-level control over a property.
Verified owners prove control using a verification method. Delegated owners receive ownership access from another owner.
P
Page Indexing report
A Search Console report summarizing which known pages are indexed and why other pages are not indexed.
Page fetch
A URL Inspection field showing whether Google was able to retrieve the page successfully.
Performance report
A Search Console report showing how content performed on supported Google surfaces using metrics such as clicks, impressions, CTR and average position.
Platform Property
A Search Console property representing an eligible account or channel on a supported third-party creator platform.
It is separate from Domain and URL-prefix Properties used for websites.
Preliminary data
Recent Performance data that is still being collected and may change as Google completes processing.
Property
The website, website section or eligible platform account whose data and settings are managed in Search Console.
Property selector
The Search Console menu used to switch between properties or add a new property.
Q
Query
A search term that caused a page or property to appear in Google Search.
Search Console may omit some query rows for privacy or data-volume reasons.
R
Redirect
A server or browser instruction that sends visitors and search engines from one URL to another.
Redirecting URLs are normally not indexed as separate final pages.
Request indexing
A URL Inspection action that tells Google an individual URL is ready to be considered for crawling or recrawling.
It does not guarantee crawling, indexing or ranking.
robots.txt
A text file at the root of a website that provides crawling instructions to supported search-engine bots.
It controls crawling behavior, not guaranteed removal from an index.
S
Search appearance
A Performance-report dimension used to group results by certain search features or presentation types.
Security issue
A problem such as hacked content, harmful downloads or deceptive pages detected in association with a website.
Sitemap
A file that lists pages or other content a website owner wants search engines to know about.
A sitemap supports discovery but does not guarantee indexing.
Soft 404
A page that returns a successful response code but appears to Google to contain no meaningful content or to function like a missing page.
Structured data
Machine-readable information added to a webpage to describe its content and entities in a standardized form.
Valid structured data can make a page eligible for certain search features but does not guarantee their appearance.
U
URL Inspection
A Search Console tool for reviewing Google's indexed information about one URL and testing the current live page.
URL-prefix Property
A website property covering URLs that begin with one exact protocol, hostname and optional path.
For example, https://www.example.com/blog/ does not
include HTTP, non-www or URLs outside the blog directory.
User-declared canonical
The canonical URL specified by the website owner, commonly through a canonical link element.
Google may choose a different canonical when other signals conflict.
V
Validation
A Search Console process for asking Google to confirm whether a reported issue has been corrected across affected URLs.
Starting validation does not itself fix the underlying issue.
Verification
The process of proving sufficient control over a Search Console property.
Verification methods can include DNS records, HTML files, meta tags and eligible Google service integrations.
Video pages report
A Search Console report showing information about video indexing on pages where Google detected video content.
Definitions were reviewed against Google's clicks, impressions and position documentation, Search Console's report overview, URL Inspection guidance, Performance dimensions documentation and Google's Search Console overview. Definitions are simplified for general website owners. Features and terminology may change. Last reviewed: July 30, 2026.