Today you’ll learn exactly how to setup Google Search Console, step-by-step.
Whether you have a new blog or you’ve worked on your site for quite some time, and you feel like it’s time to use Google’s SEO tools, Search Console should be the first solution to set up and connect you’re your site.
Sure, there are third party tools that try to do what Search Console does. I’ve tried solutions such as the New Ahrefs Webmaster. And while it’s good for what it is, it isn’t as in-depth as Google Search Console.
Just like the refined Google Analytics, Google Search Console is free to set up and it’s extremely easy to use.
In this guide, I’ll walk you through the setup process of Google Search Console so that you can easily connect it with your blog.
But first things first…
What is Google Search Console?
Previously known as the Google Webmaster Tool, Search Console is a Search Engine Optimization tool built by Google to help you optimize the visibility of your website.
There’s more to the Search Console besides the ability to check clicks, impressions, and queries (keywords) your pages ranks for at a given time.
Among many functions, Search Console allows you to:
- Check if your web pages are mobile friendly
- Check which pages on your site need improvements in terms of Core Web Vitals
- Remove URLs that you don’t want indexed on Google’s search engines
- Check the index coverage and fix and validate errors if your blog has any
Even more interesting is that Google Search Console can spit up tons of keywords that you haven’t used in your content. As such, the tool gives you a great opportunity to produce more content and grow your site over time.
How to Setup Google Search Console
Just like Google Analytic, a Search Console account is very easy to set up. Therefore, it should take you only a few minutes to complete the setup and connect your website.
To get started:
- Click here to go to the Search Console Page
- Click the Start Now button and use your Google account’s email and password to login
- You can create a Google account here if you don’t have one yet
Now that you’ve already logged into your account, it’s time to show you the different ways to verify your website with Google Search Console.
How to Verify Your Blog with Google Search Console
In this section, we’ll look at four ways to verify your new blog with Google search console. To get started:
- Hover your mouse to the top left of the Google Search Console account
- Click select property and choose add property
This will bring up a property type window where you can enter the link to your website.
For this tutorial, you’ll need to use the URL prefix option to verify your website. Simply enter your blog’s root domain in the input section select “continue”.
At this point, Google gives you five verification methods to use to connect your new blog with the search console.
While their most recommended method is to upload a HTML file to your Cpanel, the other four technique should also give you the same results.
So let’s look at how you can use each option to get your blog connected to the search console.
Method 1: HTML Verification File
This is by far the most recommended method to verify your website with Google search console. For this to work, you will need to have access to your Cpanel to upload the HTML file provided in the search console.
- Download the HTML file provided by Google, as in the screenshot above
- Login to your Cpanel account, go to File Manager, and access the root folder of your domain name
- Upload the HTML file you download from Search Console in step one
- Go back to Google Search Console account and click the Verify button.
Clicking the “verify” button should complete the process.
Method 2: Using the HTML Tag
This one is also an easy technique to verify your site on Google search console. And it’s a good option to consider if you don’t have access to your server’s Cpanel.
There are two ways to use this method to verify your blog in Search Console. You can:
- Use Insert Headers and Footers plugin
- Add the HTML verification code directly to your blog’s theme, provided it’s a child theme.
Now to the practical part:
- Install and activate the Headers and Footers plugin to your WordPress site
- Click settings
- Open the Insert Headers and Footers
- Copy the HTML code from your Google Search Console account
- Paste the code in the header and click save
- Go back to search console and click verify to connect your blog to search console
Method 3: Using Google Analytics
This method works under certain conditions. It’s only effective if:
- You have gtag.js snippet on your site’s home page. You can get this by setting up and connecting Google Analytics to your blog.
- Make sure the tracking code is in the header section of your website’s homepage
- Allow editing of property in Google Analytics
If you have all these rules checked, simply click verify to connect your blog to search console
Method 4: The Domain Name Provider
You also verify your site with Google Search Console with your Domain Name Provider. For this method, you will need to:
- Sign in to your domain name provider
- Copy the text from your Google search console for this option
- Enter the code into the DNS configuration in your registrar account
- Go back to your Search Console account and click the verify button
Note that this method works for any domain name provider and takes less than 2 minutes to configure.
Conclusion
That’s how you set up Google Search Console. You should get it all done in under 30 minutes if you follow this guide step-by-step.