How to set up Google Search Console

admin | 07.09.2022

Google Search Console is a powerful and most importantly – free SEO tool.

Google Search Console can help you assess your website’s organic search ranking. 

Benefits of Google Search Console:

  • Analyze which keywords your page ranks for in search results
  • See how well your pages rank
  • Get an overview of external and internal links
  • Identify technical errors that need fixing
  • Get information about the mobile usability of your website
  • Add sitemaps

Setting up Search Console is the first step to start optimizing your website. Google Search Console setup is easy and takes less than 10 minutes. We’ve written down the main steps on how to set up an account.

Google Search Console setup

Step 1: Sign in to Search Console with your Google Account

Step 2: Add property

There are two ways to set up a Google Search Console account – add a property type via your domain or via a URL prefix. We recommend you set up Google Search Console using a domain. A domain-based setup will include all the subdomains and protocol prefixes associated with your domain, giving you access to more data.

Selecting “URL prefix” sets up a URL prefix property. This means you’re creating a single property for only one URL prefix for your site. As such, Search Console will only be connected to one version of your site – not the whole thing with all protocols and subdomains. Therefore it may not provide accurate data, but sometimes you have no choice but to use a URL prefix. 

Step 3: Verify your website

To start using the tool, you need to verify that you are the owner of the website. 

  • Domain-based verification

Domain ownership is verified via DNS record.

Sign in to your domain name provider (e.g. Veebimajutus, Zone) Next, copy the TXT record and paste it into your domain provider’s DNS record.

If you are using Veebimajutus, choose Domain > Name Server > Other DNS Records > Change and paste the copied text snippet into the TXT record field.

If you are using Zone, log in to your account and click on the desired domain name. In the next window, select “DNS Records”.

In the window that opens, you can edit the current DNS records by clicking on the pencil icon in the record section. To add a new record, click on the “+ Add record” button. Select a TXT record from the list and then add the copied text snippet.

Once you have added the TXT record, click “Verify” on the Google Search Console page.

If you did the previous steps correctly, you should see the confirmation “Ownership verified”.

Keep in mind that it can take up to 72 hours to update the DNS record. If your ownership isn’t verified right away, check back in a few hours or the next day.

  • Verification for a URL prefix property

If you don’t have access to the domain registration platform, or you don’t want to do it through a DNS record, you can set up your account using the URL prefix property. This option offers several ways to identify yourself.

  • Verification by HTML file

You must upload an HTML file to your website’s root folder in order to use this method. The only drawback is that you must have access to your server, either through an FTP client or a cPanel File Manager. Do not try to verify using this method if you are unfamiliar with either.

  • Verification by HTML tag

To verify using the HTML tag you need to add a meta tag to your site’s section. You will require developer access to your site’s CMS to accomplish this. 

For example, in WordPress, this can be done in two ways:

  1. By adding a meta tag to the header.php file
  2. Using a plugin

Using a plugin, the steps are as follows:

  1. Copy the tag
  2. Log into your site’s WordPress admin in a new tab
  3. Install the Insert Headers and Footers plugin on your site
  4. Go to Settings > Insert Headers and Footers
  5. Past the Search Console meta tag in the “Scripts in Header” field
  6. Return to Search Console and select “Verify”
  • Verification with Google Analytics

If you have a Google Analytics account and have uploaded a tracking code to your website, you can also verify yourself using GA. To do this, open the Google Analytics verification box in Search Console and select “Verify”. 

  • Verify using Google Tag Manager

Similar to the Google Analytics verification method, you can verify yourself using Google Tag Manager with just one click. To do this, in the Search Console, open the Google Tag Manager verification box and select “Verify”. 

How to add sitemap in Google Search Console?

Once you’ve set up and verified your account, the next step is to upload your sitemap. 

Submitting your XML sitemap is very important because it is used by a search robot to better understand your website and index your content.

You can find your sitemap by adding “/sitemap.xml” to the end of your domain in your browser. 

If this doesn’t work, you may need to check your content management system (CMS) settings to see if it creates a sitemap for you. You can also check the robots.txt file to see if the sitemap is listed there.

Adding a sitemap in Google Search Console is easy:

  • Select “Sitemaps” from the menu on the left
  • Enter sitemap URL and select “Submit”

In just a few days, the URLs of your page should be scanned and indexed by a search robot. 

If you need help setting up your Google Search Console account or next steps, please contact us.

Find out more about what’s included in our SEO service on our services page.