How to add and verify your site in Google Search Console
Add your site to Google Search Console in a few minutes. Domain or URL-prefix property, how to verify with DNS or your GA4 tag, and what to do next.
To add your site to Google Search Console, go to search.google.com/search-console, add a Domain property for your whole domain and verify it with a DNS record, or add a URL prefix property and verify it with your existing Google Analytics tag. Data starts appearing within a few days.
Domain or URL prefix?
| Domain property | URL prefix property | |
|---|---|---|
| Covers | Every subdomain and protocol: mysite.com, www.mysite.com, blog.mysite.com, http and https | Only addresses that start with exactly what you enter, like https://www.mysite.com/ |
| Verify with | A DNS record at your domain provider | An HTML file, a meta tag, your GA4 tag or Google Tag Manager |
| Best for | Most sites | When you can't change DNS |
Choose Domain if you can: it sees all your traffic in one place.
Add a Domain property
Open Google Search Console, choose Add property, and enter your domain without https:// or www, for example mysite.com.
Google shows a TXT record like google-site-verification=…. If your domain is at a provider Google recognises (Cloudflare, for example), it can offer to add the record for you: follow its button and sign in to your provider.
Otherwise, copy the record, open your domain provider's DNS settings, and add a TXT record for the root of your domain (often written as @) with that value.
Back in Search Console, choose Verify. DNS changes can take a few minutes to a few hours; if it fails, wait and try again.
Add a URL prefix property (with your GA4 tag)
- Choose Add property → URL prefix, and enter your full address, for example
https://www.mysite.com/. - Choose Google Analytics as the verification method. It works if your homepage has the GA4 tag and your Google account can edit that GA4 property.
- Choose Verify.
What happens next
- Data takes a few days to appear, and Search Console then shows up to 16 months.
- Submit your sitemap: Indexing → Sitemaps → enter
sitemap.xml(or your sitemap's address). - Look at Performance → Search results to see clicks, impressions, click rate and position for your searches and pages.
Related
Sources
- Google: Add a website property to Search Console
- Google: Verify your site ownership
Last updated
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