The Hidden Power of Google Search Console - A Billion Dollar Company's SEO Wake Up Call

Ever wondered why some SEO agencies charge astronomical fees for website audits? Here's a secret they don't want you to know, many of the critical insights they provide are readily available in Google Search Console (GSC) — completely free of charge. This is the story of how we transformed a struggling e-commerce giant's SEO performance using primarily GSC and a dash of ingenuity.

A Billion-Dollar Company's SEO Struggles

A near-billion-dollar valuation e-commerce company with millions of pages, yet struggling with basic SEO fundamentals. Despite their massive scale, they were hampered by a small, disconnected SEO team and a lack of decisive leadership. It's a reminder that size doesn't always equal sophistication.

Teams operating and tossing tasks over the wall — one more live example. One was building ui, another was coding the backend at scale. A few more working on generating programmatic sitemaps at scale everyday. A few other marketing teams looking at google analytics and google search console. Sadly, there was no one person who understood all of them.

The company was spending thousands of dollars each month on inorganic methods to gain traffic, as well as on tools that operated in silos. This included investments in user monitoring, web vitals and site speed performance, and hiring SEO analysts on temporary contracts. The contractors came from specific backgrounds and they were not able to provide a holistic view of the website and the SEO process. For example, one of them was a developer and another one was a content writer. Another was a back link builder and they really were operating in silos. End of the year, they did some progress on their specific expertise and claimed success. The ground reality however did not improve.

The JavaScript Myth: Breaking Down False Narratives

One of the most shocking discoveries was the misinformation the company had received from "SEO experts." They were told that Google couldn't properly understand JavaScript-based websites — a myth that had been outdated for years. Google has become increasingly sophisticated in processing JavaScript, and a live test via GSC with a screenshot of mobile- indexing test proved it conclusively. While they definitely need to improve and not offer a bad experience to users and bots, they also have a long way to go on other basics. A completely prepared website with millions of pages ready to render is also a major architectural challenge from their current state. They can solve other basics meanwhile was our suggestion to them to start with GSC and fix the issues that can be fixed with their current state.

Uncovering the Truth with Google Search Console

The Canonical Catastrophe

Using GSC's Coverage report, we discovered a major issue, their sitemap generation had a critical bug creating duplicate canonical URLs. This wasn't just a minor hiccup — it was causing massive indexing problems across their product pages.

Bugs in Sitemap Generation

Our analysis and also issues in Google Search Console pointed to a bug in their sitemap generation and formats. The worst part was one of their sitemap index urls in robots.txt was itself broken and not in the correct format.

Crawl Budget Hemorrhage

The GSC crawl stats revealed a shocking truth: despite having millions of pages, only a fraction were being crawled effectively. Their crawl budget was being wasted on:

• Duplicate pages from the canonical URL bug
• Dead-end 404 pages
• Infinite loop pagination issues
• With millions of pages, Google was not able to crawl more than a few thousand pages per day.

Lack of Sitemap Prioritization and best Practices

The company was not following best practices around sitemap generation and management. They were not adding priority and lastmod date to the sitemap. With millions of pages, Google was not able to crawl more than a few thousand pages per day. The lack of prioritization, last mod date and change frequency were only making it worse.

Delisted products and pages

The items which were delisted were not being removed from the sitemap. This was causing a lot of pain to the customers and also lack of relevant content in the page for crawlers. Most of these delisted item pages were displaying a generic items not found page with a success response code.

Understanding the current state

More than anything understanding their current traffic and details of what is working and not working itself was an eye opener to a few critical members in the team.

The Power of Free Tools

While specialized tools like https://digispot.ai helped identify a world of SEO issues performing a thorough audit, we wanted to be honest and create an awareness around how GSC provided invaluable insights into:

• Real-time indexing status
• Search performance metrics
• Core Web Vitals data
• Mobile usability issues
• Security problems
• Manual actions — remove pages

Actionable Insights That Drove Change

Our analysis led to several immediate improvements:

1. Fixed the sitemap generation bug — which was causing duplicate pages and indexing issues
2. Implemented proper canonical tag management
3. Optimized crawl budget allocation by pruning dead pages and adding priorirty and lastmod date to the sitemap
4. Enhanced mobile rendering (still work in progress from customer side)
5. Fixed the formating errors around lastmod date, priority etc.,

Practical GSC Insights That Drive Revenue

1. Search Query Analysis Success

A home goods retailer discovered through GSC's Search Performance report that customers were searching for "pet-friendly sofas" but their product descriptions didn't include this terminology. After optimization:

• Ranking improved from page 4 to page 1
• Click-through rate increased by 312%
• Generated $280K additional revenue in 3 months

2. Core Web Vitals Impact

A sports equipment retailer used GSC's Core Web Vitals report to identify:

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) issues on product images
• First Input Delay (FID) problems with filter menus
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) issues with dynamic ads

Post-optimization results:

• 22% increase in conversion rate
• 18% reduction in bounce rate
• 31% improvement in pages per session

Advanced GSC Techniques for E-commerce

URL Inspection Tool Success Story

A luxury fashion retailer used GSC's URL Inspection tool to discover:

• 404 errors on high-value product pages
• Redirect chains causing crawl budget waste
• Mobile rendering issues affecting product images

After fixes:

• Recovered $50K/month in lost revenue
• Improved crawl efficiency by 45%
• Reduced server load by 28%

Measuring Success Through GSC Metrics

Key Performance Indicators to Track:

1. Click-Through Rate (CTR) Improvements

   • Example: Fashion retailer improved product page CTR from 2.1% to 4.8%
   • Impact: 128% increase in organic traffic value

2. Average Position Changes

   • Case Study: Electronics store moved from avg. position 8.4 to 3.2
   • Result: 215% increase in organic conversions

3. Index Coverage Optimization

   • Example: Home decor site increased valid pages from 40K to 120K
   • Impact: 167% growth in organic revenue

E-commerce SEO Quick Wins from GSC

1. Rich Results Optimization

   • Implement product schema markup
   • Add price, availability, and review structured data
   • Real example: Beauty retailer saw 89% CTR increase after adding rich results

2. Search Query Mapping

   • Align product titles with actual search terms
   • Example: Sporting goods store increased revenue by $180K after keyword alignment

3. Mobile-First Optimization

   • Focus on mobile rendering issues
   • Case study: Fashion retailer's mobile conversions up 94% after GSC-guided fixes

The Big Picture: Why This Matters

This experience highlights a crucial truth in SEO: sometimes the most powerful insights don't come from expensive tools or consultants, but from properly utilizing the free tools Google provides. The challenge isn't access to information — it's knowing how to interpret and act on it.

Key Takeaways

1. Don't be dazzled by expensive SEO audits — start with GSC
2. Modern Google can handle JavaScript effectively, that said take care of core web vitals score. A slow loading website can impact your crawl budget and ranking.
3. Regular GSC monitoring can prevent major SEO issues
4. Size and valuation don't guarantee SEO success
5. Free tools often provide the most actionable insights

Moving Forward

For companies of any size, the lesson is clear: before investing in expensive SEO services, master the wealth of information available in Google Search Console. It's not about having the most expensive tools — it's about using the right tools effectively.

Remember, SEO success isn't about finding hidden secrets or paying for expensive audits. It's about understanding the fundamentals, regularly monitoring your site's health, and making data-driven decisions based on reliable information.

Start with the basics, trust but verify SEO advice, and remember that sometimes the best solutions are hiding in plain sight — like in your Google Search Console dashboard.

References and Additional Resources

1. Google Search Console
2. URL canonicalization
3. Mobile first indexing
4. Page metadata
5. Google's E-commerce SEO Guide
6. Rich Results Testing Tool
7. Mobile-Friendly Test
8. Digispot AI - FREE Chrome Extension
9. Digispot AI - FREE On Page SEO Audit Tool
10. Digispot AI - FREE Schema Markup Visualizer

note: If you are looking for something beyond the Free GSC insights and interested to get a 360 degree analysis with entire website audited across 100+ factors that google uses in their process for crawling, indexing and ranking, then you can try out https://digispot.ai