I will share the facts and not the good/bad. It is your decision on why and how you will use the Search Console to audit your site. If you use the old version, the access is via Google.Com/Webmasters and for the new version, you use actually Search.Google.com//Search-Console?resource_id=yourURL.Thus for the question "How can I access the new Search Console?" this is the answer: You can use the same link to login google.com/webmasters and you will be redirected to https://search.google.com/search-console/inspect?resource_id=YourURL.
OK. Let`s start with the changes:
If you see some errors in Coverage report, you should fix them and ask for validation. I had an error "Submitted URL has crawl issue" and asked for Validation on 19 Dec 2018. Still awaiting the answer, it is Pending - today, 8 Feb 2019. Another error was "Submitted URL seems to be a Soft 404" that now is Validation Passed. The validation process took three days.
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OK. Let`s start with the changes:
1. Crawl errors report
It will be removed at the end of March 2019. Something still will be happening due to the new Index Coverage Report.
If you see some errors in Coverage report, you should fix them and ask for validation. I had an error "Submitted URL has crawl issue" and asked for Validation on 19 Dec 2018. Still awaiting the answer, it is Pending - today, 8 Feb 2019. Another error was "Submitted URL seems to be a Soft 404" that now is Validation Passed. The validation process took three days.
2. Sitemaps
The feature will be removed completely from the old version where you saw only the number of URLs submitted and indexed. In the new version, you are able to see the number of URLs both valid and excluded, or valid with errors and identified issues.
You see examples of exact URLs and the date when was last crawled. It is a strong correlation for Sitemaps and Coverage under the Index, and URL inspection. Continuing with this, you see the code (html), the screenshot, http response (should be 200), page resources, javascript console messages.
3. User-management
Settings feature includes all verified owners and methods for verification in the new version. The methods are with HTML file, HTML tag, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager. The "Domain name provider" verification method is available (at least for the moment) in the old version only.
In the new version, Adding a new user is done in User and permissions (under Settings) with Full or Restricted permission.
4. Mobile Usability
It is the feature under Enhancements in the new version where you can see mobile-friendly pages valid or with errors (such as Viewport not set, Content wider than screen, Clickable elements too close together).
The Mobile Usability report is no longer available in the old version.
Source:
Google Webmaster Central Blog - "Official news on crawling and indexing sites for the Google index"
©2018 Google LLC All rights reserved. Google and the Google logo are registered trademarks of Google LLC.
