How To Set Up Google Search Console For Your Website

How To Set Up A New Google Search Console Property

If you’re not familiar with Google Search Console, it’s a REALLY important tool to help your website rank in Google Search and for you to understand how your site is performing on Google. You can gain all kinds of juicy keyword details and site performance insight from Google Search Console to help you improve and gain traffic!

If you are a blogger or business owner with a self-hosted website that you are trying to build organic search traffic for, then Google Search Console is a must. It’s super easy to set up and could be a pivotal success factor for your growth.

So, here’s how to set up Google Search Console for your self-hosted blog or business website…

Google Search Console Domain Property Set Up

Vist https://search.google.com/search-console/about and click “start now”
When you get yourself signed in you will need to click “Add Property” to connect your website. Type in your website’s name with no http:// or https:// in front of it and Google Search Console will take you to a screen where you need to copy a verification code.
Copy the verification code Google Search Console provides and paste it into the DNS editor provided by your hosting company (ie. Siteground, Bluehost, BigScoots, etc.). For Siteground users you can find this after you login to your Siteground account on the far left menu under “Domain”. It is titled “DNS Zone Editor.” Click on this and then under the “Create New Record” heading choose “TXT”. Leave all the fields as they are and paste your copied code into the “Value” field and click “Create”. If you are using another hosting provider, login into your hosting account and you should have access to a DNS Editor to paste the code into. Contact your hosting company if you have any problems finding the correct input field.
Go back to the Google Search Console page that held your verification code and click “Verify.” Your website will then be linked!

Once your website is connected to Google Search Console, it is important to submit your website’s sitemap to Google Search Console to get your content indexed. Follow the steps below to upload your sitemap:

How To Submit Your Sitemap To Google Search Console (For WordPress Users)

Login to your Google Search Console account and click on “Sitemaps” in the left-hand menu. This will take you to a screen that says “Add A New Sitemap” with a field to enter a URL.
In a separate browser tab, open your WordPress admin dashboard and Install the Yoast SEO plugin. After you’ve installed it navigate back to your main WordPress dashboard page and follow the below instructions.
1. Click on “SEO” in left-hand menu, then “General” and click on the “Features” tab
2. Make sure the XML sitemaps switch is “ON”
3. Go back into “SEO” in the left-hand dashboard menu and then the “General” and “Features” tabs and click on the small question mark next to XML sitemaps.
4. Click on the “See The XML Sitemap” linked text that shows up. This will bring up your sitemap in a separate tab.
5. Copy the URL from this separate tab and navigate back to the Google Search Engine page that you opened at the beginning. Paste the URL you copied into the Google Search Console field where it says “Enter Sitemap URL.”
6. Click Submit
That’s it!

Once you’ve created a Google Search Console account, added your website as a new property, and submitted your sitemap Google has all of the information it needs to index your posts and pages and help you appear in search results!