How to Add Google Search Console to Your WordPress Website

Do you want to know how to add Google Search Console to your WordPress website? One of the most important steps in optimizing your WordPress site for SEO is adding it to Google Search Console. 

Did you know that the average person searches for something online 3-4 times a day?

It's, therefore, important to make sure Google sees your website and shows it in search results.

This is the first step to driving traffic to your site, boosting conversions, and growing your business. After all, if Google doesn’t know your site exists, no one else will either.

In this post, we’ll show you how to add Google Search Console to your WordPress website so that you can monitor your site’s presence in Google search results and improve your SEO.

Please feel free to use these quick links to jump straight to the sections you want:

Let's start by explaining Google Search Console and why it's a helpful tool for website owners.

What Is Google Search Console?

Google Search Console, formerly known as “Google Webmaster Tools,” is a free service available to all website owners.

It shows you how Google indexes and adds your website to search results, so you can ensure that the right people are seeing your site.

With Google Search Console, you can:

• Confirm that Google can locate and crawl your WordPress site
• Submit new content for indexing and add a sitemap
• Analyze your site's impressions, clicks, and position on Google
• See which search queries (search terms) cause your site to appear in search results
• Delete or hide content from Google so it doesn’t appear in search results
• Find and fix common malware and spam issues
• See which other sites are linking to your site
• Test if your mobile site is driving traffic to your site

In other words, Google Search Console is a helpful tool that gives you information about your site and the people visiting it.

That being the case, let’s take a look at how to add Google Search Console to your WordPress website.

Add Google Search Console to Your WordPress Website

To get started, head over to Google Search Console and click on the Start Now button.

Next, sign in with your Google / Gmail account. If you don’t have one yet, you can create an account here.

It's easy and will only take you a couple of minutes.

Once you’ve created your Google / Gmail account and logged in, you’ll see a welcome page.

On the right side of the page, you’ll see a box called URL prefix. 

Click on this box, enter the full URL for your website, and then click the Continue button.

Note: The URL you enter must exactly match the URL for your site. This includes https:// and www, etc.

After you've clicked continue, it will take you to a new Verify ownership window.

We’re going to use the HTML tag to verify your WordPress website with Google. With that said, simply scroll down to Other verification methods, and click on the HTML tag option.

This will open a new window with the meta tag that you need to add to your WordPress site’s homepage.

Here you need to click on the Copy button to copy the HTML tag.

Anyway, you can now open a new browser window and log into your WordPress site. 

In the next step, we're going to show you how to easily verify your WordPress site with Google Search Console using the best SEO plugin in the market, All in One SEO (AIOSEO).

Easily Connect Your WordPress Site Using AIOSEO

Many people find the above method complicated and tedious. That's why we decided to create a flow that's super easy—you don't even need to use a verification code.

Step 1: Install All In One SEO (AIOSEO)

The first step to connecting your site to Google Search Console is to install a powerful SEO plugin like All In One SEO (AIOSEO).

AIOSEO is the best WordPress SEO plugin on the market. Over 3 million savvy website owners and marketers trust it to help them dominate the SERPs (search engine results pages) and drive relevant site traffic. This is because of the powerful SEO features and modules designed to help you optimize your site for greater search visibility.

One of the most loved is the Webmaster Tools section.

This function lets you connect your site to various platforms, including Google Search Console (GSC). As for GSC, you don’t have to go through the tedious process of copying and pasting verification codes.

Other features you’ll love in AIOSEO include:

• Cornerstone Content: Helps you build topical authority and enhances your semantic SEO. 
• Next-gen Schema generator: This no-code schema generator enables users to generate and output any schema markup on your site.
• Redirection Manager: Helps you manage redirects and eliminate 404 errors, making it easier for search engines to crawl and index your site.
• Sitemap generator: Automatically generate different types of sitemaps to notify all search engines of any updates on your site.
• SEO Revisions: Track any changes you make to your site and see their impact on your SEO. Plus, you get to see on a timeline how Google updates affect your site.
• Advanced Robots.txt Generator: Easily generate and customize your robots.txt file for better crawling and indexing. 

For step-by-step instructions on how to install AIOSEO, check our detailed installation guide.

Why Use AIOSEO to Verify Your Site with Google Search Console?

There are many reasons to use AIOSEO to verify your site:

Here are a few:

• Editing theme files is risky: It's never a good idea to edit theme files directly. When the theme updates, all your edits will be gone.
• You’ll miss out on powerful features: With AIOSEO, you can easily include advanced SEO features that will improve rankings and drive more traffic to your site. For example, the Index Status Checker, Author SEO, and many more.
• Automatic syncing of sitemaps: When you verify your site with AIOSEO, your sitemaps automatically sync with GSC. This results in faster indexing and an advantage in ranking higher on SERPs.
• It's much easier: AIOSEO takes the grunt work out of so many SEO tasks, including verifying your site with GSC. You don't have to know coding, and most features are enabled by default, so you only have to install the plugin, and it's all set!

Now that you know why you should use AIOSEO, let's take a look at how to easily verify your site with Google Search Console.

Step 2: Access AIOSEO’s Webmaster Tools

With AIOSEO installed and an active Google account, you can now move to the next step in connecting your site to GSC—the easy way. To do that, head to AIOSEO’s Webmaster Tools section. If your site is not yet connected to GSC, you’ll get a prompt asking if you have:

You can click the Connect to Google Search Console or the Google icon if you’re not connected.

Step 4: Connect to Google Search Console [No Verification Code Required]

When you click the Connect to Google Search Console or the Google links, you trigger a flow for connecting to GSC.

Click on the Connect to Google Search Console button to start the connection wizard. The first step requires you to select the Google account you want to use to connect to GSC.

Next, you’ll be asked to sign in to your AIOSEO account:

When you sign in by clicking Continue, you'll be asked to give AIOSEO permission to access your GSC account.

Once you click Allow, you will be taken to the last step, where you verify site ownership by clicking a button:

When you click Complete Connection, your site will be connected to GSC.

You’ve connected your site to Google Search Console—and that without using a Google Search Console verification code!

And there you have it!

You’ve now successfully added Google Search Console to your WordPress website.

How to Add Google Search Console to Your WordPress Website: Your FAQs Answered

Kato Nkhoma Content Writer

Kato is one of those rare unicorns born with a pen in his hand—so the legend says. He’s authored 2 books and produced content for hundreds of brands. When he’s not creating content for AIOSEO, you’ll find him either watching tech videos on YouTube or playing with his kids. And if you can’t find him, he’s probably gone camping.

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