How To Use Google Search Console

One of the most important parts of proper SEO is to let Google know about the content on your website and when you make future updates. You can do this by placing a small piece of code from Google Search Console on your site that will notify Google when you have made updates to your sitemap. In this post we’ll cover how to set up a free Search Console account, validate your site and how to use submit your first XML sitemap to Google.

How To Use Google Search Console To Validate Your Site

To begin, do a Google search for “Google Search Console” and click on the first result and then start now. You will be given 2 options, domain and url prefix. I recommend you go with URL Prefix as it is less complex. Enter the url of you website in the space provided and click continue. Now to validate your site and prove you are the owner. Choose the second option “HTML Tag” and copy the code provided by Google. Now go to your WordPress dashboard and select your theme (I recommend Divi if you have not selected a theme yet). Go to Divi Theme Options > Integrations and paste code into (add code to head of your blog) and click save. Then go back to Google Search Console and click validate. If you are using a different theme, reach out to the theme’s author and ask where to paste your Search Console code for validation. 

How To Use Google Search Console To Upload Your XML Site Map

Now that your site is validated with Search Console you need to upload your XML Sitemap that give Google the info needed for proper indexing. Go to your the SEO plugin you are using and navigate to the XML section to view your current site map. If you don’t have a SEO Plugin, I highly recommend SEO Press Pro. You can also view a previous post for instructions on How to use SEO Press Pro. Once you have confirmed your site map looks correct, go back to Google Search Console and via the left hand menu select Sitemaps. Enter sitemaps.xml and save. This will allow Google to properly fetch on the info from your site for indexing.

Resources Mentioned in the How To Use Google Search Console Video

These are affiliate links. I promote SEO Press and Elegant Themes because I use their products every day and highly recommend them.

SEO Press Pro
My personal favorite SEO plugin for WordPress to help improve your search results in Google.

Divi Theme by Elegant Themes
The #1 WordPress Theme in the world for good reason.

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