How To Submit A Website To Google Search Console

Introduction

If you want your website to be visible on Google’s search results, it’s essential to have it indexed by Google. And that’s where Google Search Console (GSC) comes in.

In this guide, I’ll walk you through the process of submitting your website to GSC, ensuring that your site gets the visibility it deserves.

By doing so, you’ll gain access to valuable insights and reports that can help you optimise your site’s performance and improve your search rankings.

You’ll be able to monitor how Google crawls and indexes your site, identify any issues affecting your visibility and submit sitemap files for better indexing.

So, let’s get started!

Step 0: Prerequisites

Before we begin, there are two prerequisites that you must have.

1. You must have a Google account.

2. You must be able to prove that you own the site (or at least a section of it)

   
   

As for the first point, I assume most people already have a Google account. If you don’t, create one.

As for the latter, Google requires you to prove your ownership over the website so that only you (and maybe your collaborators) can access the data and reports Google Search Console provides.

If you’re not the website owner but still need access to it, you can ask the owner to grant you access.

If you have these two things in place, let’s start with the actual guide.

Step 1: Create a Google Search Console Account

Let’s start by signing in Google Search Console:

1. Visit the Google Search Console website

2. Sign in with your Google account.

3. Click the “Add Property” button.

Now, you’ll be presented with two options:

• Domain property

• URL-prefix property

What’s the difference between the two?

Domain Property

A domain property represents your entire website, including all subdomains, URLs, and protocols.

Domain properties are the best option for tracking the overall health of your website, as they provide you with a comprehensive overview of your site’s performance in search results.

If you go with this option, you’ll have to prove that you’re the owner of the whole website, and not just a part of it.

This can only be done through a DNS record verification (more on this later).

URL-Prefix Property

A URL-prefix property represents only the specified URL.

This means that you can track the performance of a specific section of your website without being overwhelmed by data from the rest of your site.

URL-prefix properties are also useful for tracking the performance of different languages or versions of your website.

Unlike the domain property, this option provides many different methods to verify its ownership, including:

• HTML file upload

• HTML tag

• Google Analytics tracking code

• And many more!

For the sake of brevity, I’ll only focus on the most important ones.

Step 2: Verify Your Website Ownership

As I mentioned earlier, if you want a domain-level property, you’ll have to verify your website ownership through a DNS record verification.

On the other hand, if you’re going with a URL-prefix property, there are several alternatives you can choose from.

Let’s look at the three most common ones:

• DNS verification

• HTML file upload

• HTML tag

Method 1: DNS Verification

Note: This method, which is a bit more complicated than the others, is required only for Domain property, not URL-prefix property. If you use this method on a URL-prefix property, you will also be auto-verified for the Domain property.

Steps:

1. Enter your domain name and click “Continue”.

2. Copy the TXT record.

3. Log in to your domain provider (Squarespace, GoDaddy…).

4. Go to “Edit DNS” (or something along those lines).

5. Click “Add Record” with the following data:

   1. Host: Leave it empty or with a “@”

   2. Type: Select TXT

   3. TXT Value: paste the TXT record you’ve copied from Google Search Console

6. Head back to the Google Search Console window and click the “verify” button.

And Whoola! You can now access your property.

It’s important to point out that you might encounter a failed verification error. That’s because DNS records may take a while to update.

What do you have to do in that case? Absolutely nothing. It will almost always resolve itself within 24 hours.

Note: From now on, all the methods I describe will only be valid for URL-prefix property.

Method 2: HTML File Upload Verification

If you’ve full access to the website root’s directory, this is one of the easiest methods.

Here’s the step-by-step guide:

1. Enter your URL and click “Continue”.

2. Select “HTML File” and download the provided file.

3. Head over to your hosting platform and access your website root’s directory.

4. Upload the file you’ve just downloaded.

5. Head back to the Google Search Console window and click the “verify” button.

And Whoola! You’re all done!

Method 3: HTML Tag Verification

This method is similar to the previous one.

Just follow these simple steps:

1. Enter your URL and click “Continue”.

2. Select “HTML tags” and copy the provided tag.

3. Paste the copied meta tag into your homepage’s <head> tag.

4. Head back to the Google Search Console window and click the “verify” button.

Step 3: Submit Your Website’s Sitemap

Once you’ve verified the ownership of your website, it’s time to let Google know it exists. And you do that by submitting a sitemap.

A sitemap is an XML file that provides a structured overview of your website’s content, making it easier for search engines to crawl and index your pages.

Steps:

1. Go to the “Sitemaps” tab in the left-hand menu.

2. Paste the URL of your XML sitemap into the text box.

3. Click the “Submit” button.

Step 4: Submit Individual Pages (Optional)

If you have new or recently updated pages that you want to ensure are indexed, you can use Google Search Console's URL Inspection Tool:

1. Go to the "URL Inspection" tab in the left-hand menu.

2. Paste the URL of the page into the text box.

3. Click the "Inspect" button.

4. If the URL is not yet indexed, you can submit it for indexing.

Monitoring Your Website Performance In Google Search Console

Once your website is added to Google Search Console and indexed by Google, you can start monitoring its performance and identifying any issues that may be affecting your visibility.

Here are a few key features to explore:

1. Performance report

   → This report shows how your website performs in Google search results. You can see which keywords are driving traffic to your site, the click-through rate (CTR) for each keyword, and the average position of your site in search results.

   
   

2. Coverage report (under indexing > pages)

   → This report shows you the indexing status of your website's pages. You can see which pages are indexed, which have errors, and which are excluded from indexing.

   
   

3. URL Inspection tool

   → This tool allows you to inspect any URL on your website and see how Google sees it. You can check if Google has indexed the page, view any crawl errors, and view a rendered version of the page.

   
   

4. Core Web Vitals report

   → This report reveals your website's performance based on the Core Web Vitals metrics of loading speed, interactivity, and visual stability.

By regularly monitoring these reports and tools, you can identify any issues that need to be addressed and make informed decisions to optimise your website's performance.

Summary

Submitting your website to Google Search Console is an essential step in getting your website indexed and ranked on Google's search results.

By following this step-by-step guide, you can ensure your website gets the visibility it deserves.

Remember to regularly monitor your website's performance in Google Search Console, optimise your content and website based on the insights provided, and troubleshoot any issues that may arise.

FAQs

Q1 - What Is Google Search Console?

Google Search Console is a powerful free service offered by Google that helps website owners monitor their website’s traffic, performance, issues, and much more!

Q2 - Do You Pay For Google Search Console?

No, Google Search Console is totally free.

Q3 - How Do I Make My Website Appear On Google Search?

If you want your website to appear on search results, Google has to crawl and index it first. You can ensure Google finds your website by either having backlinks or using Google Search Console. If you want a deeper dive, I wrote an entire guide on how to get your new website indexed.

Q4 - Is My Website Searchable On Google?

If you want to check whether Google is indexing your website, you can type site:domain in the search bar and see if there are any results. If there’s at least one, Google knows about your website. If there are none, I have bad news for you.

Q5 - How Does Google Find Sites To Index?

Google uses software called “web crawlers” that automatically scan the internet, looking for new websites to add to its index.

Conclusion

Thank you for taking the time to read the whole article. I hope you found it helpful.

If you need any help with building your website, don’t hesitate to reach out.

If you’ve found this article helpful, I kindly invite you to share it with a friend who might benefit from it!