Google Search Console is an important tool for website optimisation and many people wonder how to set up Google Search Console for their website. Luckily, SEO Syrup is here to guide you on it.
There are various tools available online that can help you in optimising your website. For instance, few of the tools are offered by third-party and you must subscribe by paying a small fee to use them.
Others are few but offer limited support and few are indirectly providing services from Google tools. Google Search Console is one of the best tools that can offer valuable insight into the rankings and overall visibility of web pages.
Google search console helps in building an effective SEO plan and finding the loopholes to resolve issues before they affect the site’s health negatively.
As the tool is free to use and offers comprehensive support in search engine optimisation, many people are eager to know how to set up a Google search console account.
Here in this guide, we will guide you step by step on how to create your GSC account. So, let’s get started.
What is Google Search Console?
Google Search Console or GSC is a free tool that helps monitor the performance of a website and analyses the technical SEO health. GSC previously known as Google Webmaster Tools lets site owners and SEO experts know how their site is performing and where are the issues stopping it from ranking high.
GSC helps to report on various metrics from visibility on SERPs to user experience. It can help in finding the issues and improve the website status to get more traffic organically from search engines.
Google Search Console helps perform various tasks such as:
- Monitor and review website performance on Google
- Helps in finding your website’s non-index pages so you can request Google to index them
- Make the ranking process quick by submitting sitemaps and separate URLs for crawling
- Identify the technical SEO issues
- Alert you if there are any issues or actions taken by search engine
- Helps in optimising mobile site performance
And the list never ends.
So let’s start with how to set up Google Search Console for your website
How to Set Up Google Search Console
Here is a step-by-step guide on how to set up a Google Search Console account
Login:
Go to the Google Search Console and sign in with your Gmail account.
Once logged in you will be redirected to the next screen with two options, i.e.
Set up GSC for an entire domain or set up for a specific URL path
How to set GSC for the entire domain:
It is the best option to choose as you can easily track the performance of all web pages on your site including HTTP and mobile versions along subdomains such as blog.yourwebsdomain.com
Enter your domain details in the left panel and click continue
How to Set GSC for Specific URL Paths?
To do so select the right pane and write down your URL path such as yourwebdomain.com/blog.
Add domain as your property:
The next step is to add the website as your “property”
Verify website:
Once added you have to verify the website for its ownership. The process is different for domain and URL. Let’s go through each of them to know the method.
Verifying domain:
To verify the domain you have to go through DNS – Domain name service provider. For instance, if you have used WordPress for hosting and domain you will go through it.
To verify the domain follow the GSC instructions. The general process of domain verification is like this:
- Click on “Copy” next to the TXT record provided by Google Search Console
- Visit the Domain Name Service provider site and log in
- Afterwards, pull up the domain to verify it in GSC
- Search for the domain management screen and ass a new Domain Name Service Record
- Select the “TXT” as the record type and paste it into the given blank field.
- Now click on the save button go back to GSC and press the “verify” option.
- The verification can take from a few minutes to 72 hours and once it is successful the Google Search Console will indicate that the site has been verified.
Verify URL:
- To verify the URL on GSC you will need to upload an HTML file to the website’s root folder. GSC will provide the file so you can download it. You can then direct to the website’s root directory and upload the file there.
Bingo! Your Google Search Console account is created.
What’s next after setting up a GSC account?
The first milestone has been completed successfully. Now the next question is what to do next. Your account is created so you can now utilise the GSC tools for search engine optimisation of your website or a specific page.
Typically, the first thing that should be done is to submit a sitemap. The step helps to ensure that your website is completely crawled and pages are indexed, in case they have not already. Once done, start tracking metrics and improve your site’s SEO.
Conclusion:
And that’s all about how to set up Google Search Console! You see, it is a simple process. You can avail of options like setting an account for a domain or a specific URL only. Once the account is created you can utilise the GSC tools and monitor website performance to improve SEO.
For instance, you can see how mobile-friendly your website or page is. Or monitor any issues in the technical aspects of the website or submit a sitemap to index content faster. GSC or Google Webmaster tools help improve website performance and optimisation for sustainable high ranking so your business can grow and you get more organic traffic to generate revenue.
