Google Search Console is a free tool provided by Google that helps you understand how your website is performing in search results. It shows you which search terms people use to find your site, whether Google can read your pages properly, and alerts you to any technical problems that might be affecting your visibility.
It’s free to use and every website owner should have it set up.
Why do you need it?
Google Search Console gives you direct insight into how Google sees your website. Without it, you’re relying on third-party tools or guesswork to understand your search performance.
The most important things it tells you are whether Google has indexed your pages, whether there are errors preventing pages from appearing in search results, which search terms are bringing visitors to your site, and whether your site has any security issues Google has detected. It’s also where you submit your sitemap, which tells Google about all the pages on your site and helps them get indexed faster.
WebSolutionZ sets up Google Search Console as part of every Website Design & Development project.
How to set up Google Search Console
To get started, visit Google Search Console.
Step 1: Sign in or create an account
- If you already have a Google account for your business, click Sign in.
- If you don’t, follow the prompts to create one. You can use a non-Gmail email address to create a Google account.
Step 2: Add your property
Google will ask you to add your website as a property. Choose the URL prefix option and enter your full website address including https://.
Step 3: Verify ownership
Google needs to confirm you own the website before giving you access to its data. Verification options include:
- Adding an HTML tag to your website’s header.
- Uploading an HTML file to your server.
- Using your Google Analytics or Google Tag Manager account if already connected.
- Adding a DNS record via your domain registrar.
If WebSolutionZ built your site, we handle verification as part of the setup process.
Step 4: Submit your sitemap
Once verified, submit your sitemap to help Google find and index all your pages. In the left menu, go to Sitemaps and enter your sitemap URL – for most WordPress sites this is yourdomain.com.au/sitemap.xml. Rank Math generates this automatically if it’s installed.
Using Google Search Console
Once set up, the main areas worth checking regularly are:
- Performance – shows which search terms are bringing visitors to your site, which pages rank, and how often people click through to you from search results.
- Coverage – shows which pages Google has indexed and flags any errors or warnings preventing pages from appearing in search results.
- Mobile Usability – flags any pages that don’t display properly on mobile devices. Given Google uses mobile-first indexing, this is worth checking. See What is responsive design? for more on why this matters.
- Security Issues – alerts you if Google has detected malware or hacking on your site. See How do I check my website security? for what to do if this happens.
Need help?
We offer Communications & Marketing and Website Design & Development services that include Google Search Console setup and configuration.