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Google Search Console

2 min readApplies to every PremiumPress theme · 12.x

Google Search Console

How to add your site to Google Search Console, prove it is yours, and submit your sitemap.

Google Search Console is a free service from Google. It shows which searches bring people to your site, how often your pages appear and get clicked, and any problems Google finds while reading your pages. You need a Google account to use it.

1. Add your site​

  1. Open Google Search Console and sign in with your Google account.
  2. Click Add property (on your first visit you go straight to this step).
  3. Choose one of the two types:
    • Domain: covers your whole domain, with and without www, and both http and https. Type just the domain, for example yoursite.com. This is the best choice if you can change your domain's DNS settings.
    • URL prefix: covers one exact address. Type your full home page address, for example https://www.yoursite.com/.

2. Prove the site is yours​

Google then asks you to verify that you own the site.

For a Domain property, Google gives you a line of text (a TXT record). Add it to your domain's DNS settings, where you bought the domain or in your hosting control panel, then click Verify in Search Console. DNS changes can take from a few minutes to a day to be seen, so if it fails the first time, try again later.

For a URL prefix property, the simplest method is HTML file:

  1. Download the small file Google offers.
  2. Upload it to the main folder of your website (the same folder as wp-config.php), using your hosting control panel's file manager or an FTP program.
  3. Open the file's address in your browser to check it loads, then click Verify.

Leave the TXT record or the file in place after verifying: Google checks it again from time to time.

3. Submit your sitemap​

  1. In Search Console, click Sitemaps in the menu on the left.
  2. Type wp-sitemap.xml in the box. If you use Yoast SEO or Rank Math, type sitemap_index.xml instead.
  3. Click Submit.

To check the address first, open Your sitemap under Quick links on the SEO screen in your admin sidebar. See Your sitemap.

What to look at next​

Give Google a few days to collect data. Then:

  • Performance shows the searches people used, how often your pages appeared, and how many clicks they got. Use these words when you choose focus keywords on the SEO screen.
  • Pages shows which of your pages are in Google, and why any are not.
  • URL inspection (the search box at the top) checks a single page. After you change a page's title or description, you can ask Google to look at it again from here.

There is a link to Google Search Console in the Quick links card on the SEO screen.