Google Search Console Technical SEO Training Course
| Course code | SD-DM-021 |
|---|---|
| Duration | 5 days |
| Level | Intermediate to Advanced |
| Category | Digital Marketing |
| Delivery | Classroom or live online |
| Language | English |
| Certificate | Certificate of completion |
Course overview
Google Search Console is often underused as a reporting dashboard when it should be a technical SEO diagnostic tool. Marketing and web teams need to distinguish between normal indexing behaviour and problems that reduce search visibility: excluded URLs that should rank, duplicate or canonical conflicts, slow page experience signals, crawl waste, structured data errors, and declining query performance. This course helps participants turn Search Console data into evidence-based technical SEO decisions, with clear prioritisation for developers, content teams and senior stakeholders.
Participants learn how Google discovers, crawls, renders, indexes and ranks pages, then apply those concepts through Google Search Console's Performance, URL Inspection, Page Indexing, Sitemaps, Core Web Vitals, HTTPS, Links and Enhancements reports. They investigate indexing exclusions, validate canonical implementation, assess XML sitemap coverage, diagnose mobile usability and rich-result eligibility issues, analyse query and page trends, and connect Search Console findings with Google Analytics 4 and crawl data. The course also covers regex filtering, bulk data exports, API-led reporting options and practical issue prioritisation.
Delivery combines instructor demonstrations with guided analysis of realistic websites and participant-led investigations in a Google Search Console property. Each participant builds a technical SEO action plan containing an indexation audit, priority issue register, evidence pack, recommended fixes, ownership assignments and measurement criteria. The final workshop prepares participants to present findings in terms that developers can implement and managers can fund.
The course is designed for experienced digital marketing, SEO, web and analytics professionals who already work with websites and need stronger diagnostic capability in Google Search Console.
Course objectives
By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
- Audit page indexation using the Page Indexing report, URL Inspection and XML sitemap evidence
- Diagnose canonical, duplicate-content and noindex conflicts that prevent priority URLs from appearing in Google
- Analyse Search Console Performance data with query, page, country, device and regex filters
- Validate XML sitemaps against indexed URL coverage, crawl priorities and status-code findings
- Investigate Core Web Vitals, HTTPS and mobile usability signals and translate them into technical remediation tickets
- Identify structured data and rich-result eligibility issues through the Enhancements reports and validation workflow
- Prioritise technical SEO fixes using impact, effort, affected-page volume and commercial-page criteria
- Produce a Search Console technical SEO action plan with evidence, owners, deadlines and success measures
Benefits of attending
For you
- Build confidence interpreting Search Console reports beyond clicks, impressions and average position
- Create technically credible SEO tickets that developers can estimate and implement
- Demonstrate a repeatable method for investigating indexing losses and organic traffic declines
- Add Search Console audit and prioritisation capability to an SEO, analytics or web-management portfolio
- Present search visibility recommendations with evidence rather than assumptions or generic SEO checklists
For your organisation
- Reduce lost organic visibility by finding indexation, canonical and sitemap faults before they affect priority pages
- Improve developer backlog decisions through evidence-based technical SEO requirements and acceptance criteria
- Create a consistent process for monitoring Search Console warnings, validation outcomes and search-performance changes
- Reduce agency dependency by enabling internal teams to investigate and triage common technical SEO issues
- Link SEO remediation work to measurable changes in indexed coverage, rich-result eligibility and organic landing-page performance
Target competencies
Who should attend
- SEO Managers — who need to diagnose organic visibility problems and direct technical SEO roadmaps
- Technical SEO Specialists — who need deeper Search Console investigation and validation methods
- Digital Marketing Managers — who must prioritise website investment using search-performance evidence
- Web Managers — who coordinate developers, content teams and agencies on site quality improvements
- Web Analysts — who need to connect search data, site behaviour and technical implementation issues
- Content Strategists — who need to identify indexing and search-demand barriers affecting priority content
Requirements and prerequisites
Participants should be comfortable navigating websites, interpreting basic web metrics and working with spreadsheets. They should understand the purpose of keywords, organic search, landing pages, title tags, redirects, XML sitemaps and canonical tags, even if they have not configured them personally. Experience accessing Google Search Console or Google Analytics is useful, and participants should ideally have access to a verified Search Console property for practice after the course. Coding is not required; the course explains HTML signals, HTTP status codes and JavaScript rendering from an SEO diagnostic perspective. No prior API, database or developer-tool experience is required.
Training methodology
The instructor uses a live Google Search Console property to demonstrate each report, then participants repeat the investigation in guided exercises using realistic site data and issue scenarios. Short technical briefings explain how Google's crawling and indexing systems interpret site signals; workshops then require participants to isolate evidence, test URLs, compare reports and draft remediation tickets. Small-group case work focuses on resolving conflicting signals across Search Console, GA4 and crawl exports. On day five, participants assemble and peer-review a practical technical SEO action plan for workplace application.
Course outline
Day 1: Search Console foundations and Google indexing systems
- Google crawling, rendering, indexing and serving workflow
- Search Console property types, verification methods and user permissions
- Performance report dimensions, metrics and data limitations
- URL Inspection live test versus indexed URL evidence
- Page Indexing report statuses and exclusion categories
- Google-selected canonical versus user-declared canonical
- XML sitemap submission, processing and coverage reporting
Workshop: Participants investigate a set of priority URLs and produce an initial indexation evidence table showing status, canonical, sitemap presence and recommended next step.
Day 2: Indexation, crawlability and canonical diagnostics
- Diagnosing Crawled - currently not indexed and Discovered - currently not indexed
- Interpreting noindex, robots.txt and authentication barriers
- Redirect chains, soft 404s and HTTP status-code implications
- Duplicate URL patterns from parameters, faceted navigation and pagination
- Canonical tag implementation and conflicting canonical signals
- JavaScript rendering checks using URL Inspection
- Sitemap segmentation for products, content, images and international pages
Workshop: Participants complete an indexation triage workshop and produce a prioritised issue register for a site with duplicate, redirect and excluded-page problems.
Day 3: Search performance analysis and opportunity discovery
- Query, page, country, device and search appearance filters
- Date comparisons and period-over-period performance analysis
- Regex filters for query pattern and URL directory analysis
- CTR diagnosis using impressions, position and search-result context
- Landing-page opportunity analysis for high-impression pages
- Branded versus non-branded search segmentation
- Exporting Search Console data for spreadsheet analysis and reporting
Workshop: Participants analyse a performance-data export and produce a search opportunity brief identifying declining pages, CTR opportunities and priority query themes.
Day 4: Experience signals, structured data and technical validation
- Core Web Vitals field data and assessment status
- Largest Contentful Paint, Interaction to Next Paint and Cumulative Layout Shift
- HTTPS report findings and mixed-content remediation
- Mobile usability and responsive rendering checks
- Enhancements reports for breadcrumbs, products, reviews and FAQs
- Rich Results Test validation and structured-data deployment workflow
- Search Console validation requests and post-release monitoring
Workshop: Participants assess a technical release scenario and produce developer-ready tickets for performance, mobile and structured-data issues with validation steps.
Day 5: Reporting, prioritisation and technical SEO action planning
- Connecting Search Console trends with Google Analytics 4 landing-page data
- Crawling a site with Screaming Frog for URL-level corroboration
- Using the Search Console API and bulk exports for repeatable reporting
- Building Looker Studio dashboards for indexation and performance monitoring
- Impact-effort-risk scoring for technical SEO backlog prioritisation
- Writing remediation requirements, owners and acceptance criteria
- Measuring post-fix outcomes through validation, coverage and performance trends
Workshop: Participants produce and present a 90-day Google Search Console technical SEO action plan containing prioritised fixes, owners, evidence, milestones and KPIs.
Tools & standards covered
Google Search Console, Google Analytics 4, Screaming Frog SEO Spider, Looker Studio
A typical training day
| 08:30 – 10:30 | First session |
| 10:30 – 10:45 | Refreshment break |
| 10:45 – 12:30 | Second session |
| 12:30 – 13:30 | Lunch and networking |
| 13:30 – 15:00 | Third session |
| 15:00 – 15:15 | Refreshment break |
| 15:15 – 16:30 | Workshop and daily review |
Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.
What the fee includes
- Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
- Full course workbook and materials
- Exercise files, templates and case studies
- Certificate of completion
- Refreshments and lunch (classroom deliveries)
- Post-course application plan
- Facilitator follow-up on request
- Group rates from five participants
How you can take this course
Classroom
Scheduled sessions in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kigali, Dar es Salaam, Dubai and Cape Town.
Live online
The same facilitator and materials, delivered live for distributed teams and individuals.
In-house
Delivered privately for your team, at your offices or a venue of your choice, tailored to your context. Request a proposal.
Certification
Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.
Frequently asked questions
Upcoming sessions
New dates are being scheduled. Ask us about the next session or an in-house delivery for your team.
Ask about datesGroup of 5+?
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