How To Set Up Google Search Console and Add Your Website

Are you trying to figure out how to set up Google Search Console so you can add your website url to Google?

Adding your website to Google Search Console (formerly known as Google Webmaster Tools) is a good idea because it will help your site rank in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) quicker and it will give you a useful insight into how your website is performing.

Google Search Console is a must have tool for any website owner. It will help you monitor your website stats and notify you of any errors on your site.

Follow this step by step tutorial and find out how to add your website to Google Search Console.

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What is Google Search Console

Google Search Console (GSC) is a free SEO tool that helps you monitor your site’s search performance and website health.

The purpose of Google Search Console is to offer insight into the search performance of your site. These insights include:

• How many impressions and clicks you get in Google Search
• The search queries your users type into search engines to get to your site
• How well your site is performing on mobile devices
• Which websites link to your site

Why Use Google Search Console

Besides giving you a lot of insight on how your website is performing in the SERPs,  Google Search Console also assists in troubleshooting and resolving issues related to visibility, indexing, and mobile-friendliness.

When Google encounters any complications while crawling or indexing your website, Google Search Console will notify you so that you can fix these problems. This ensures that the most accurate, updated version of your website is available for your users.

So basically Google Search Console is a must-have tool for any website owner who wants to improve and optimise their site for their users and search engines.

Get Started With Google Search Console

If you create a new website and you want it to rank in Google quicker, it’s important to upload it to Google Search Console!

When you add your site to Google Search Console, it means that Google’s bots will crawl your website pages and start ranking them in Google. Don’t expect your website to rank overnight though, it can take 3-6 months for a new website to start ranking in search engines.

Because it can take a while to rank in Google, it’s a good idea to upload your site to Google Search Console as soon as possible!

Follow the next steps to add your site to Google Search Console.

How to create a Google Search Console account

Before you can add your website to Google Search Console you need to create a Google Search Console account.

1. Go to Google Search Console and click Start Now.

2. In the next screen you’ll be asked to enter your name and some basic information.

3. Create a Gmail address or choose to use a different email instead.

4. Verify your email address.

5. Create a strong password.

6. Add a phone number or skip this step.

7. Agree to the Privacy & Terms.

8. Now your Google Account is ready and you can click Continue.

9. Get your business discovered on Google Search, Maps and more > Enter your business name and click Continue.

10. Choose your business type > For blogs Online Retail is the best option

11. Add your website address and click Next.

12. Add a business category, just start typing and see which category fits your site the best.

13. Add your address.

14. Verify your business by recording a short business video. This video is only used for verification and will not be shown publicly. You can also skip this step now and click Verify later.

15. Add your services, don’t be shy to use keywords here that people would use to find your business.

16. Add your business hours.

17. Select if you want to accept messages or not.

18. Add a business description, briefly describe what you offer for your clients.

19. Next you can add some photos of your business. Even if you don’t have a brick and mortar business I recommend adding a few photos because this will make your site more visible in Google. You could add photos of your home office or any digital products you offer. Your photos may appear in Google searches, on Google Maps and on other Google services.

20. Select if you want to turn on notifications for surveys and pilots.

21. Choose if you want to claim your free advertising credit (you have to spend money first before you can claim this). I only recommend doing this if you know what you’re doing and you have a product or service to sell.

22. If you haven’t verified your business with a video yet, you’ll now get a message that your edits will be visible once you’re verified. So create a quick video to be able to continue.

how to add your website to google search console

Now you’ve set up your Google Search Console account you can add your site.

1. Add property

Log in to Google Search Console and in the top left menu click on + Add property under the drop-down.

2. Select property type

Choose from Domain or URL prefix and enter your website URL in the allocated box.

Which option you pick is up to you. The Domain option is more flexible, but harder to verify as it needs to do that with DNS. In this example, we use the URL prefix option. Please make sure you enter your complete URL.

For example, if your site is https://yourdomain.com/ it needs to be that exact URL. Don’t forget the / at the end of the URL.

If your site uses WWW or HTTP you need to add properties for those as well. Google provides multiple ways of getting your site verified and they even suggest adding multiple ways because of security. If you are not sure what your site has, please speak with your hosting provider.

4. Copy the authorisation code

Next you need to copy the authorisation code so you can paste it in Yoast SEO. Click the arrow next to HTML tag to expand the option.

You don’t need to copy the entire meta tag code, you only need the random string of letters between the quotations marks < > Hold Command C or right-click > Copy to copy the string of code.

Leave this browser window open so you can come back to it in a minute to verify your site.

5. Log in to your WordPress website

In your WordPress backend, locate the Yoast menu or install the Yoast plugin if you don’t have it yet.

6. Locate site connections

Go to your WordPress dashboard menu on the left, locate your Yoast SEO menu and click on Settings. In the next screen under General, click on Site connections.

7. Paste your code

This page has all the fields to enter the verification codes for from Baidu, Bing, Google, Pinterest and Yandex. Locate the Google box, paste your code and hit the Save changes button.

8. Go back to Google Search Console and click Verify

Congratulations! You’ve connected your website to Google Search Console!

How To Use Google Search Console

For more information on how to use Google Search Console, check out this article by Yoast.

This is how to add your website to google search console

I hope you found this tutorial helpful and you now know how to set up Google Search Console and add your website URL to Google.

If you have any questions, let me know in the comments below.