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How to set up Google Search Console

September 05, 2025

Google Search Console is a free service by Google that helps website owners, developers, and SEO professionals monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot their site's presence in Google Search results. It provides data on how your site performs, helps identify and fix indexing and other issues, and allows you to submit sitemaps to improve how Google finds and crawls your content. Key features include performance reports (impressions, clicks, queries), indexing coverage analysis, and the ability to receive and act on alerts about site problems. 

How to set up Google Search Console — Step-by-step (Complete Guide)

This guide walks you through everything: adding a property, verifying ownership, submitting sitemaps, inspecting URLs, reading key reports, and common troubleshooting. Copy the code examples you need and follow the numbered steps.

Prerequisites

  1. Google account (Gmail or Google Workspace). If you don't have one, create it at accounts.google.com.
  2. Access to your website: ability to upload files, edit the HTML of your home page, or manage DNS records at your domain registrar/DNS host.
  3. Optional but recommended: a working sitemap (e.g., /sitemap.xml) and Google Analytics or Google Tag Manager already installed.

Tip: If you use WordPress, the Site Kit plugin by Google simplifies verification and linking to Analytics / Search Console.

Step 1 — Open Google Search Console and add your property

  1. Go to https://search.google.com/search-console and sign in with your Google account.
  2. Click "Add property" (usually a button or plus icon).
  3. Choose a property type:
    • Domain property — covers example.com and all subdomains and protocols (http/https). Verification requires DNS record access.
    • URL-prefix property — covers one exact URL prefix like https://www.example.com/. Verification can be done via HTML tag, file upload, etc.
  4. Enter the domain or URL prefix and click Continue.
Domain vs URL-prefix Choose Domain for full coverage Use URL-prefix if you only control a subfolder/URL

Step 2 — Verify ownership (multiple methods)

After adding a property you'll be presented with verification methods. Common methods are:

MethodHow it worksWhen to use
Domain (DNS)Add a TXT record to your DNSBest for full-domain coverage (all subdomains & protocols)
HTML file uploadUpload a verification file to your website rootIf you can upload files but not edit DNS
HTML meta tagPaste a meta tag into your homepage <head>When you can edit page HTML
Google Analytics / Tag ManagerVerified if the tracking snippet or GTM container is present and you’re an adminWhen GA/GTM is already installed

DNS TXT verification (Domain property)

  1. From Search Console choose the Domain property verification option.
  2. Copy the TXT record value provided (looks like google-site-verification=XXXXXXXX).
  3. Open your domain registrar/DNS host (Cloudflare, GoDaddy, Namecheap, Route53, etc.) and add a new TXT record: 
    Host / Name: @ (or leave blank depending on provider)
Type: TXT
Value: google-site-verification=YOUR_TOKEN_HERE
TTL: 3600
  4. Save DNS record and wait for DNS propagation (can be minutes to a few hours; sometimes up to 48 hours).
  5. Back in Search Console click Verify. Once verified, your Domain property is active.

HTML file upload (URL-prefix)

  1. Choose the HTML file verification method in Search Console.
  2. Download the file (example: googleabcdef12345.html).
  3. Upload it to your site root (https://example.com/googleabcdef12345.html).
  4. Verify by visiting that URL in the browser; then click Verify in Search Console.
If verification fails: clear caches (CDN), ensure there are no redirects on the verification file, and double-check you added the TXT exactly as shown.

HTML meta tag verification (URL-prefix)

  1. Choose the HTML tag option in Search Console and copy the provided meta tag.
  2. Paste it into the <head> section of your site's homepage, e.g.: 
    <meta name="google-site-verification" content="YOUR_TOKEN_HERE" />
  3. Save and publish your page, then click Verify.

Verify via Google Analytics / Google Tag Manager

  1. If you have the GA tracking snippet (older UA) or GTM container and you're an admin, Search Console may allow verification through these integrations.
  2. Ensure the snippet is in the site header and that the account you used in Search Console has the required permissions.

Step 3 — Generate & submit a Sitemap

A sitemap helps Google discover URLs on your site faster.

Common sitemap locations & generation

  • Typical path: https://example.com/sitemap.xml
  • WordPress <em>plugins</em> (Yoast, RankMath) auto-generate sitemaps.
  • Static sites: create a sitemap using tools or scripts (lots of open-source sitemappers available).

Submit your sitemap

  1. In Search Console (left menu) go to Sitemaps.
  2. Enter the path sitemap.xml (or full URL) and click Submit.
  3. Check the status — Search Console will show how many URLs were discovered and any errors.

Example sitemap (simple)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
  <url>
    <loc>https://example.com/</loc>
    <lastmod>2025-09-01</lastmod>
    <changefreq>daily</changefreq>
    <priority>1.0</priority>
  </url>
</urlset>

robots.txt

User-agent: *
Allow: /
Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap.xml

Step 4 — Inspect URLs & request indexing

  1. In Search Console select URL Inspection.
  2. Paste a page URL (exact canonical URL) and press Enter.
  3. Search Console shows index status, last crawled date, and any issues (mobile-usability, resources blocked by robots, etc.).
  4. If the page isn't indexed or you updated it, click Request indexing.

Note: Requesting indexing does not guarantee immediate inclusion — Google schedules crawling and indexing according to many signals.

Step 5 — Understand the key reports

Performance

Shows clicks, impressions, CTR, and average position. Use filters for queries, pages, countries, devices, and date ranges to find optimization opportunities.

Coverage

Shows which pages are indexed, which have errors, which are valid with warnings, and which are excluded (blocked by robots, noindex, canonicalized elsewhere, etc.).

Enhancements

Reports for structured data, mobile usability, breadcrumbs, product markup, and Core Web Vitals (Page Experience). Fix reported errors to improve search appearance and rankings.

Links

Top external and internal linking structure — useful for identifying which pages are popular or under-linked.

Security & Manual Actions

Check if Google detected manual penalties or security issues (hacked content, malware). If present, follow the remediation steps and request a review.

Step 6 — Users & permissions

  1. In the left menu go to Settings > Users and permissions.
  2. Click Add user and enter the person's Google account email.
  3. Choose a role:
    • Owner — full control (can add/remove users, manage settings).
    • Full user — access to most data and actions but cannot manage owners.
    • Restricted — limited read-only access.
  4. Use owners sparingly — prefer full users for analytics/SEO teammates.

Step 7 — Troubleshooting & common issues

Verification fails

  • DNS: allowed propagation time (sometimes up to 48 hours). Use dig or your DNS host's UI to confirm.
  • HTML meta/file: caching or CDN may serve an old cached page — flush caches, then retry.
  • Using wrong property type (Domain vs URL-prefix) — double-check you added the correct one.

Pages not indexed

  • Check Coverage for "Excluded" reasons (noindex, blocked by robots, canonical to another URL).
  • Ensure sitemap includes the URL and it's reachable (HTTP 200).
  • Fix heavy server errors (5xx) and long load times — these can slow crawling.

Sitemap errors

  • Malformed XML — validate with an XML validator.
  • URLs in sitemap blocked by robots.txt or returning non-200 responses.

Step 8 — SEO & maintenance best practices

  1. Use a clean sitemap and update it whenever you add or remove content.
  2. Ensure canonical tags point to the preferred URL and avoid duplicate content.
  3. Serve your site over HTTPS; mixed content or certificate issues can stop indexing.
  4. Monitor Core Web Vitals and mobile usability for better user experience.
  5. Keep structured data accurate to enable rich results (rich snippets).
  6. Regularly check Search Console for messages, coverage issues, and security alerts.

Pro tip: set up an email filter or periodic check to monitor Search Console messages — Google will send important alerts (security, manual actions, indexing issues).

Extra: Quick checklist & handy commands

Quick checklist

  • Added property (Domain or URL-prefix)
  • Verified property successfully
  • Submitted /sitemap.xml
  • Inspected & requested indexing for key pages
  • Linked to Analytics / GTM (if needed)
  • Set users and permissions
  • Fixed any Coverage errors

Useful commands (for advanced users)

# DNS check (Linux / macOS terminal)
dig TXT example.com +short

# HTTP check
curl -I https://example.com/sitemap.xml
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