How to Use Google Search Console for an Affiliate Site: The 5 Reports That Matter
Search Console is the only tool that tells you what Google actually did with your site: which pages it indexed, which queries it shows them for, where they rank, and who clicked. It's free, and most affiliate site owners open it once, see a graph, and close it. The useful parts are a few reports deep.
This post covers the five reports that matter for an affiliate site, what each one tells you and the decision it leads to, the ones you can ignore, and a monthly routine that takes about thirty minutes. It's the tool guide; the content audit post applies it to one job in detail.
The short answer
Performance by page tells you what's earning and what's close. Performance by query tells you what Google thinks each page is about. Page indexing tells you which posts Google won't show at all and why. Links tells you which pages have authority to pass on. Core Web Vitals tells you if the site is slow enough to matter. Check them monthly, act on three things each time.
Setting it up
Verify the site as a Domain property (covers http, https, www and non-www together) rather than a URL-prefix property, so nothing is split across two views. Submit the sitemap under Sitemaps. Then wait: data accrues from verification onward, and a new site shows almost nothing for the first few weeks. That's normal, not a fault.
The five reports
| Report | What it shows | Decision it drives |
|---|---|---|
| Performance, by page | Impressions, clicks, CTR, position per URL | Which guides to push, refresh, or leave alone |
| Performance, by query | The searches each page appears for | Whether a page targets what Google thinks it's about |
| Page indexing | Indexed vs not, with reasons | Which posts need substance, merging, or a technical fix |
| Links | External links by page; internal link counts | Where authority sits; which pages are under-linked |
| Core Web Vitals | Real-user speed and layout stability | Whether the theme or images need attention |
1. Performance, by page
Open Performance, set the date range to the last three months, and switch the table to Pages. Sort by impressions. The pages with high impressions and low clicks are the ones to work on; the ones with clicks are earning; the ones with nothing after three months are the ones Google hasn't rated.
Turn on the Average position column, because it changes what "low clicks" means: a page at position 25 needs to rank, a page at position 6 needs a better title.
2. Performance, by query
Click a page, then switch to Queries. This is what Google thinks the page is about. The common surprise is a guide written for "best X for Y" showing mostly for "X vs Z" or for a single product name, which tells you either to retarget the page or to write the page those searches want. It's also where you find keywords you never planned for and already half-rank for.
3. Page indexing
Under Indexing, the Pages report splits URLs into indexed and not, with a reason for each exclusion. Three reasons matter for an affiliate site.
"Crawled, currently not indexed" is Google's judgement that the page isn't worth the space yet: thin, duplicate, or on a site without history. "Discovered, currently not indexed" means Google knows the URL and hasn't fetched it, usually a crawl-budget signal on a new site.
"Duplicate without user-selected canonical" means two of your pages look the same to Google, which is the guides-and-reviews-competing problem.
The rest (noindex, redirects, 404s for deleted posts) are housekeeping. Check the list for anything you didn't intend.
4. Links
The Links report lists external links by target page and internal links by count. On an affiliate site the external list tells you which pages have earned authority, and the answer is often a how-to post rather than a guide, which is a reason to link from that post into the guides.
The internal count shows orphans: a guide with two internal links when its neighbours have fifteen is the under-linked page the not-ranking post describes.
5. Core Web Vitals
Under Experience, Core Web Vitals shows whether real visitors experience the site as fast and stable. For most affiliate sites the failures come from oversized images, a heavy theme, or ad scripts. Fix it when it's red; don't chase green when it's amber, because the ranking effect is small compared with content and links.
Reports you can mostly ignore
- Performance by country and device, unless you're deciding whether to join a second Amazon store.
- Sitemaps, after the first submission; it only needs checking if indexing stalls.
- Removals, unless you've published something you need gone fast.
- Enhancements (FAQ, Product, Breadcrumb); useful for a quick check that structured data parses, not for ongoing attention.
The monthly routine
- Performance by page, last 3 months vs previous 3. Note pages that lost clicks. Those are refresh candidates.
- Same view, high impressions and low clicks. Position above 20: leave to age or add internal links. Position under 10 with low CTR: rewrite title and description.
- Queries for your three best pages. Look for a keyword each one ranks for that deserves its own post.
- Page indexing. Any new "crawled, not indexed" posts older than two months get more substance or a merge.
- Links. Find the page with the most external links and check it links into your guides.
- Core Web Vitals. Only act on red.
Pick three actions from the list and do them. Six months of that is most of what an affiliate site's SEO consists of. The refresh candidates from step 1 are handled the way the refresh post describes.
Doing it with AffSERP
Two of the routine's outputs feed straight into AffSERP. Keywords from step 3 (searches your pages already appear for) go into the Keyword Explorer and Keyword Grouping tools to be expanded and sorted, and the guide keywords come out with a Write button for the X Best Review tool.
Refresh candidates from step 1 are the Refresh option on a published guide, which re-checks the products against Amazon and replaces dead or superseded picks without changing the URL. Search Console stays the place you decide; AffSERP is where the decided work gets done.
FAQ
Which Search Console report is most useful for an affiliate site?
Performance, filtered to pages rather than queries. It shows which guides get impressions, which get clicks, and the average position of each, which is the whole picture of what's earning and what's close to earning. Most of the useful decisions on an affiliate site come from that one view.
What does 'Crawled, currently not indexed' mean for my posts?
Google fetched the page and chose not to put it in the index, usually because it judged the page too thin, too similar to another page, or the site not yet worth the space. For a new affiliate site it's common and mostly resolves as the site gains history. If it persists on a page for months, the page needs more substance or a merge.
How often should I check Search Console?
Once a month for the five reports, once a week for the Performance report if you're publishing regularly. Daily checking tells you nothing; the numbers move on a scale of weeks. Set a monthly slot and work through the routine at the end of this post.
Why does Search Console show impressions but no clicks for my guides?
The page is ranking, but low (position 11 to 30), or the title doesn't win the click. Check average position: if it's above 20, the page needs to rank higher before clicks follow; if it's 5 to 10 with a poor click rate, the title and description are the problem.
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