How to Add Your WordPress Website to Google Search Console
01/12/2023 · Updated on: 03/05/2024
Google Search Console helps monitor and troubleshoot your website’s performance on Google Search to improve its rankings.
Here are some of the ways Google Search Console helps to optimize your website:
- Confirming that Google can crawl the site.
- Fixing indexing issues and reindexing updated content.
- Displaying Google Search traffic data for your website.
- Showing which sites link to your website.
- Providing further insights regarding your website’s mobile optimization.
Adding your WordPress website to Google Search Console is a straightforward process. Here's a step-by-step guide to help you:
- Go to the Google Search Console website (https://search.google.com/search-console) and sign in with your Google account. If you don't have an account, you'll need to create one.
- Once you're signed in, you'll be prompted to add a property to the Search Console. Enter the URL of your WordPress website (e.g., https://www.yourwebsite.com) in the provided field and click on the "Continue" button.
- On the next screen, you'll see several verification methods. Choose the "HTML tag" option.
- Copy the HTML tag that is displayed (it should be in the format
<meta name="google-site-verification" content="XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX" />). - Log in to your WordPress admin dashboard.
- In the WordPress admin menu, go to "Appearance" and click on "Theme Editor."
- In the Theme Editor, locate the "header.php" file and click on it to open it for editing.
- Find the
<head>section within the "header.php" file. It's usually near the top. - Paste the HTML tag you copied from the Search Console between the
<head>and</head>tags in the "header.php" file. - Save the changes by clicking on the "Update File" button.
- Go back to the Google Search Console tab and click on the "Verify" button.
- If everything is set up correctly, Google will successfully verify your ownership of the website, and your WordPress site will be added to the Search Console.
After the verification process is complete, you can access various reports and tools in the Google Search Console to monitor your website's performance in Google search results, submit sitemaps, analyze search traffic, and more.
Remember to keep your HTML tag in place in the "header.php" file. If you change themes or update your WordPress installation, double-check that the tag is still present to maintain your site's verification status in the Search Console.
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