Free Checklist · Updated 2026-10

The 10-Minute Search Console Weekly Checklist (12 Checks)

12 checks, one page, every Monday. Google's own data on what is working, what is broken and which searches almost bring you customers.

Twelve checks you can run in Google Search Console in about ten minutes a week, in the order that finds problems fastest. Do it every Monday and you catch dropped pages, broken sitemaps and easy ranking wins before they cost you customers.

For: Business owners and small teams who set up Search Console once and never really opened it again.

1. Performance: is search sending people? (4 minutes) · 4
2. Problems: did anything break? (4 minutes) · 6
3. One action before you close the tab (2 minutes) · 2
Weekly log template · 1
Once a month: three bigger views · 3

How to use it

Block 10 minutes on the same day each week. Monday morning works well.
Go top to bottom. Group 1 is about money, group 2 is about problems, group 3 is your one action.
Write the three numbers from check 1 in the log template at the end so you can see the trend.

1. Performance: is search sending people? (4 minutes)

Open Performance > Search results. Set the date to the last 7 days and click Compare to the previous 7 days.

Write down total clicks, impressions and average position for the week
Clicks are visits from Google. Impressions are how often you showed up. One number alone lies; the three together tell you what changed.
Open the Pages tab and sort by the Clicks difference column
A page that lost most of its clicks in a week usually has a reason: it was edited, it broke, it got deindexed or a competitor moved above it.
Open the Queries tab, sort by Impressions, and find searches with high impressions but low CTR
These are the searches that almost bring you customers. Google already shows you; people just aren't clicking. A better title and description is often the fix.
Filter Position to show queries averaging between 8 and 20
Practical advice: page 1 bottom and page 2 are where a small content improvement or a few internal links can move you up. Position 50 needs a new page, not a tweak.

2. Problems: did anything break? (4 minutes)

Pages report (Indexing > Pages): did the number of indexed pages drop?
A sudden drop often means a noindex tag, a robots.txt block or a redirect went live by accident.
Pages report: check 'Why pages aren't indexed' for any reason that grew this week
'Crawled - currently not indexed' means Google saw the page and chose not to index it yet. 'Excluded by noindex tag' on a money page is an emergency.
Sitemaps report: status says Success and the last read date is recent
If Google couldn't fetch your sitemap, new pages are found more slowly. A sitemap full of redirected or 404 URLs wastes Google's time.
Core Web Vitals report: any URLs moved to Poor on mobile?
Google's thresholds for good are LCP under 2.5s, INP under 200ms and CLS under 0.1. The report groups similar URLs, so one template fix can clear many pages.
Security & Manual actions: both say No issues detected
A manual action or hacked-site warning can wipe out traffic. Google also emails verified owners, but email gets missed.
Links report (once a month is enough): check Top linking sites for anything odd
You can't control who links to you, and Google says it ignores most spammy links. This check is just so you know who links to you.

3. One action before you close the tab (2 minutes)

Pick ONE near-win query from check 3 or 4 and write down the page you will improve this week
A weekly check with no action is just reading. One improved page a week is 52 a year.
After you fix or publish a page, paste its URL into URL Inspection and click Request indexing
Google says requesting a crawl doesn't guarantee indexing or a faster ranking, but it is the right way to tell Google a page changed. There is a daily quota, so use it for important pages only.

Weekly log template

Copy into a sheet or notes app

Week of: ____
Clicks: ____ (vs last week: +/- ____)
Impressions: ____ (vs last week: +/- ____)
Avg position: ____
Biggest drop (page): ____  Reason: ____
Near-win query: ____  Page to improve: ____
Indexed pages: ____  New not-indexed reason: ____
Sitemap OK? Y/N   CWV Poor URLs: ____   Manual actions: none / ____
This week's one action: ____

Twelve weeks of this log tells you more than any dashboard, because you wrote down why things changed.

Once a month: three bigger views

Look at the last 3 and 16 months
Search Console keeps up to 16 months of Performance data. Compare this month to the same month last year to see past seasonal dips.
Filter by Device: Mobile vs Desktop
If mobile CTR or position is much worse than desktop, look at the page on a phone. Google mainly uses the mobile version of your site for indexing.
Check Search appearance
If you use structured data, the Enhancements and Search appearance reports show whether rich results are valid and getting clicks.

Unlock the full checklist

Everything above, plus the branded PDF to keep.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

How often should I check Google Search Console?

Once a week for about ten minutes is enough for most small sites. Check daily only during a launch, a redesign or a migration.

What does 'Crawled - currently not indexed' mean?

Google crawled the page but decided not to index it, at least for now. You don't need to resubmit it. Improve the page so it's clearly useful and link to it from your important pages.

Why are my impressions up but clicks down?

You are showing for more searches but people aren't clicking. Common reasons: you rank low for new queries, an AI Overview or other feature answers the question, or your title doesn't match what people want.

How long does Search Console keep data?

The Performance report keeps up to 16 months of data. Export it if you want a longer history.