How do I connect Google Search Console to VeloCMS?
Link your Google Search Console account to see real clicks, impressions, and indexing status for every post — right in the editor and on a dedicated dashboard, not just an SEO score guess.
VeloCMS's editor already scores every post for SEO and for how likely AI answer engines are to cite it — but a score is still a prediction. The Search Console connector adds the actual outcome: real clicks, impressions, and average position from Google, plus whether Google has indexed the page at all. Connect it once and the numbers show up automatically, both next to the score in the editor and on a dedicated dashboard.
Connecting your Google account
Go to Admin → Plugins, install the Google Search Console plugin, then open its settings. Click Connect Search Console — you'll be sent to Google's own consent screen, which asks only for read-only access to your Search Console data (the webmasters.readonly scope). VeloCMS never requests permission to change anything in your Search Console account.
If you see "Not yet available" instead of a Connect button, the connector hasn't been turned on for this VeloCMS instance yet — check back, or ask your VeloCMS admin.
Choosing a property
Once you're connected, a dropdown lists every Search Console property Google has verified for your account, in both forms Google uses — a domain property like sc-domain:example.com and a URL-prefix property like https://example.com/. Pick the one that matches your blog. If the property you pick doesn't actually cover your blog's live address, VeloCMS shows a warning naming both — pick a different property, or verify the right one in Google Search Console first.
What shows up in the editor
Open any published post and scroll to the SEO panel. Below the score you'll see a "Google, last 28 days" block with real impressions, clicks and average position for that post's exact URL — plus an indexing line telling you whether Google has picked the page up. A freshly published post that's too new to have data yet says so plainly, instead of showing a misleading zero. If your Google connection has expired, the panel says "Reconnect needed" instead of quietly going stale.
The Search Console dashboard
Admin → Search Console is the site-wide view: top queries and top pages over the last 28 days, an indexing list across your recent posts, and your sitemap submission status — all read from Google, all read-only. It's the place to go when you want the whole picture instead of one post at a time.
The indexing check, and what it doesn't do yet
For each post, VeloCMS can check with Google's URL Inspection API whether the page is indexed, partially indexed, or not indexed, along with Google's own reason. Google caps this check at 2,000 URLs a day per property — if that limit is reached, VeloCMS says so plainly rather than leaving a blank that looks like "fine". A post that hasn't been checked yet always shows "Not checked yet", never a guess. Automatic checking on a fixed schedule is still rolling out — until it is, a post's indexing line reflects whatever the most recent check found, not a promise of daily updates.
Why the numbers won't exactly match Google's own Search Console
Two honest reasons. First, Google's data lags 2-3 days behind real time, so a post published yesterday can legitimately show nothing yet. Second, Google omits very rare, personally-identifiable-looking queries from the numbers it hands out, for privacy — so your totals here (and in the Search Console UI itself) will always run a little under what actually happened. Neither is a bug; both are Google's own limits, not VeloCMS's.
Search Console vs. Site Search — two different things
VeloCMS has two features with "search" in the name, and they measure completely different things. Search Console (this connector) is Google's own product — it tells you how your blog performs in Google's search results. Site Search, listed separately in your sidebar, is the search box on your own blog — it tells you what your readers typed into it. If you're looking for what your own visitors searched for, that's Site Search, not this page.
Who on your team can see this
The Search Console dashboard and the editor panel are visible to editors and owners — writers don't see search performance data, matching how VeloCMS scopes other analytics.