How to set up Google Search Console: a step-by-step guide

Your site is live, but can Google see it? Google Search Console is the free way to measure that instead of guessing. It shows which of your pages are indexed, which searches you appear in and where Google is running into problems on your site.

This guide covers the whole setup: choosing a property type, verifying the site, submitting a sitemap and what to look at in the first few weeks. It takes 15–20 minutes.

What Search Console does, and what it doesn’t

Let’s set expectations first. According to Google’s own documentation, adding a property does not change how your site appears in search; it only lets you monitor it (Google: Add a website property). Search Console is a dashboard, not a ranking button. But it is the quickest way to spot problems early and to tell Google that a page has been fixed.

1. Choose a property type: Domain or URL prefix?

Search Console offers two property types:

Choose a Domain property if you can. Every version of your site is gathered in one place, so data for www and non-www, or http and https, isn’t split across separate properties. The only requirement is access to your domain’s DNS settings.

A URL-prefix property only makes sense if you can’t reach the DNS, or if you want to track one section of the site (say, /blog/) on its own.

2. Verify the site with a DNS record

1. Go to search.google.com/search-console and sign in with your Google account.
2. Click Add property and type only the domain into the Domain box: example.com. Don’t add https:// or www.
3. Search Console gives you a TXT record that starts with google-site-verification=…. Copy it.
4. Open the panel where you manage your domain’s DNS (Cloudflare, your registrar or your hosting control panel) and add a new record:
   • Type: TXT
   • Name: @ (the domain itself)
   • Value: the text you copied
5. Go back to Search Console and click Verify.

DNS changes usually spread within minutes, though sometimes they take longer. If verification doesn’t go through straight away, use Verify later to save your progress and try again.

Don’t delete the TXT record after verification. Google re-checks it from time to time, and if the record is gone you lose access.

3. Submit your sitemap

A sitemap is an XML file that lists the pages on your site. Google also finds pages by following links, but on a new site a sitemap speeds things up.

First, find the file’s address. Most systems generate it automatically:

• WordPress (5.5 and later): /wp-sitemap.xml; with Yoast or Rank Math, /sitemap_index.xml
• Frameworks such as Astro or Next.js: /sitemap-index.xml or /sitemap.xml, depending on the plugin
• Shopify, Wix, Squarespace: /sitemap.xml

Open the address in your browser and check that an XML list actually loads. Then, in Search Console, go to Sitemaps in the left-hand menu, enter the address and click Submit.

A few facts worth knowing (Google: Build and submit a sitemap):

• Submitting is a hint; Google doesn’t guarantee it will download the file or crawl every address.
• Google ignores <priority> and <changefreq>. Don’t spend time tuning them.
• <lastmod> is only used if it is consistently accurate. It should change only when the content really does.
• Also add the sitemap to your robots.txt with a line such as Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap-index.xml, so other search engines find it too.

4. Check key pages with URL Inspection

Paste one of your site’s addresses into the search box at the top: this is the URL Inspection tool. It tells you whether the page is in Google’s index, which address Google treats as the main (canonical) one and whether the page carries noindex.

For a page you’ve just published or fixed, you can click Request indexing. According to Google, this usually takes about a day, sometimes a week or two, and it doesn’t guarantee the page will be indexed; there is also a daily request limit (Google: URL Inspection tool). So save this button for a handful of critical pages, such as your home page and service pages. For many pages, the sitemap is the right route.

Test live URL fetches the page as it is now, through Google’s eyes. It’s how you find out whether a fix you made after launch is visible to Google.

5. Two reports to watch in the first weeks

According to Google, data collection starts as soon as the property is added and usually appears within a few days. For a new site, two reports are enough in the first weeks.

Page indexing

The Pages report (Indexing → Pages) lists how many of your pages are indexed and why the rest aren’t. Common statuses:

• Excluded by ‘noindex’ tag: a noindex was added to the page, on purpose or by mistake. In WordPress, if the search engine visibility box under Settings → Reading is left ticked after launch, the whole site ends up here. Check this first.
• Discovered – currently not indexed: Google knows the address but hasn’t crawled it yet. This is normal for new sites and tends to shrink over time.
• Crawled – currently not indexed: Google read the page but didn’t index it. Often this means the content is thin or too similar to another page.
• Page with redirect and Alternate page with proper canonical tag: usually not a problem; http → https and www redirects land here.

Performance

The Performance report shows four measures (Google: Performance report):

• Total clicks: how many times people clicked through to your site from search
• Total impressions: how many times your site appeared in search results
• Average CTR (click-through rate): clicks ÷ impressions
• Average position: the average of your top position in the results

On a new site, clicks can stay low for a while; look at impressions and the Queries tab first. Seeing which searches you appear in shows you which topics deserve a new page or post.

Quick checklist

• Domain property added and verified with a DNS TXT record
• TXT record still in the DNS
• Sitemap loads in the browser and has been submitted in Search Console
• robots.txt points to the sitemap
• Home page and service pages checked with URL Inspection
• No unwanted noindex in the Pages report
• Performance → Queries to be checked in two weeks

Setting up Search Console is a one-off job; its real value shows once you make a habit of opening it once a month. Whenever you add a page, change an address or see traffic drop suddenly, this should be the first place you look.