Table of Contents
Google Search Console, formerly known as Webmaster, is one of the most popular, impactful, and essential tools for website owners. That’s why the first task after publishing a website is Google Search Console verification so you can connect your site. It can be tricky, but it’s super easy using WordPress.
Connecting to Google Search Console with your WordPress-powered site is done in multiple ways. We’ll demonstrate ten methods in this article. After clicking your site with Google Search Console, you can understand its strengths and weaknesses and work on them. Overall, it’s an essential tool if you’re serious about your website.
Benefits of Using Google Search Console
- Google Search Console helps to optimize your content so that you can get more visitors to your site. Using this tool, you can also check the impression of your website, individual pages, clicks, position in search results, etc.
- It allows you to add sitemaps of your site so that Google bots can easily crawl your site without any issues.
- You can use Google Search Console to check whether your page is on Google. You can also index your content manually.
- Google Search Console informs whenever it finds anything unusual on the site and suggests how to solve it.
- It has dedicated training on Google Search Console for newcomers to understand it properly.
How to achieve Google Search Console Verification on WordPress
Here are 10 methods for integrating Google Search Console with your WordPress-powered website. Choose which one to follow first.
If you’re using RankMath, Yoast SEO, or AIOSEO, we recommend following the 5th, 6th, or 7th number method. People comfortable with setting domain can try the first, second, third, or fourth number method.
Moreover, if you’ve already connected your site to Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, or Google Site Kit, we recommend you follow the 8th, 9th, or 10th method.
For all of these methods, you need to log in to your Google account and open Google Search Console first, then click on the Start Now button to get started with Google Search Console. After that, you can follow any of these methods according to your choice.
1. How to Verify Google Search Console on WordPress Using DNS TXT Record
Step 1: If no site is connected to your account, you’ll see a pop-up like this. Type your domain name, and click CONTINUE.
If you’ve already added a domain to your account, you’ll see a dashboard like this. Click Add Property to add a new domain to your account.
Step 2: A pop-up with the details of the DNS record for Google Search Console Verification will appear. Copy the TXT record, log in to your domain name provider, and add the new DNS TXT record.
After doing that, come back to the pop-up and click on VERIFY. After propagation (usually 10-15 minutes), your domain ownership will be verified, and your site will be connected to the Google Search Console.
After clicking on VERIFY, a confirmation message like this will appear.
2. How to Verify GSC on WordPress Via FTP
Step 1: Type your website’s URL in the URL prefix section, then click CONTINUE.
Step 2: After that, a new pop-up will appear. In that pop-up, you’ll find some verification methods to verify ownership. Find the HTML tag method section, expand that section, and download the HTML verification file to your device. Now, you need to put this file inside the root of your website.
Step 3: Copy that HTML file and paste it into the root folder of your WordPress site.
Step 4: After putting that into the root of your website, on that pop-up, click VERIFY, then click DONE to complete the process.
Confirmation of site ownership will appear after clicking on the VERIFY button in GSC.
3. How to Verify Google Search Console on WordPress by Adding HTML Tag
In this method, we’ll customize the main theme file. To save the customization, we need to create a child theme first and then use that to do the customization.
In case you’re wondering why we need to create a child theme for customization– If you customize the main theme file, all customization will be lost when you update your theme. So, to prevent losing customization, you need to create a child theme and do all the customization there. Then, updating the theme won’t affect your customization.
Step 1: Type your site’s URL in the URL prefix section, then click CONTINUE.
Step 2: After clicking that, a new pop-up will appear. In that pop-up, find the HTML tag section and expand it. Then, copy the code.
Now, we need to put this code into the website’s header. Then, come back to this pop-up. So, please don’t close this pop-up or its tab.
Step 3: Go to your WordPress Dashboard. Hover the pointer on Appearance, then click on the Theme File Editor.
Step 4: The theme files will appear. Click on the Theme Header to access the header file.
Step 5: Now, we’ve found the header file. In this file, we need to paste the code inside the <head></head> section, then click on Update File to save it.
Step 6: After doing that, go to that pop-up again, and click on VERIFY and DONE.
After clicking on the VERIFY button, a Google Site Verification confirmation message like this will appear.
4. How to Verify GSC on WordPress Using WPCode
Step 1: Type your website URL in the URL prefix section, then click CONTINUE.
Step 2: After clicking that, a new pop-up will appear, listing out the verification process. In that pop-up, find the HTML tag section and expand it. Then, copy the code.
We’ll use a plugin to put that code inside the header. Then, we’ll return to this page and click VERIFY.
If you need help installing a WordPress plugin, the linked content has different ways of adding a plugin to your site.
Step 3: Go to the WordPress Dashboard, hover on Plugins, and click Add New to install a new plugin.
Step 4: Search for the WP Code plugin. Then, install and activate that plugin.
Step 5: After activating it, you’ll find a Code Snippet section in your Dashboard. Hover on that and then click on Header & Footer.
Step 6: A new page will now appear. You’ll find a Header section on that page. Paste the code there and click on Save Changes to save it. The code will then be automatically added to the main header file.
Step 7: After saving it, go to that pop-up again and click on VERIFY.
After clicking on VERIFY, a confirmation message like this will appear.
5. How to Verify GSC on WordPress Using RankMath
Step 1: Type the site’s URL in the URL prefix section, then click CONTINUE.
Step 2: After clicking that, a new pop-up will appear. In that pop-up, find the HTML tag section and expand it. Then, copy the code.
Please don’t close this pop-up or its tab. After entering the code, we need to click VERIFY to let Google know we’re trying to connect.
Step 3: Go to the WordPress Dashboard, hover on Plugins, and click Add New.
Step 4: Search for the RankMath plugin. Then, install and activate it.
Step 5: After activating it, you’ll be redirected to the All Plugins page. Then click on Settings of Rank Math SEO.
Step 6: Then, a new page will appear. Click on Webmaster Tools on the left side, paste the code in the Google Search Console section, scroll down, and click on Save Changes.
Step 7: After saving that, go to the Google Search Console page where you copied the code and click VERIFY in the pop-up.
After clicking on VERIFY, a confirmation message like this will appear.
6. How to Verify GSC on WordPress Using Yoast SEO
Step 1: Type your website’s URL in the URL prefix section, then click CONTINUE.
Step 2: After clicking that, a new pop-up will appear. In that pop-up, find the HTML tag section and expand it. Then, copy the code.
We must return to this page to click VERIFY and let Google know we’re trying to connect.
Step 3: Go to the WordPress Dashboard, hover on Plugins, and click Add New.
Step 4: Search for the Yoast SEO plugin. Then, install and activate that plugin.
Step 5: After the activation, go to the Dashboard, hover on Yoast SEO, and click General.
Step 6: Then, General-Yoast SEO will appear. Click on the Webmaster Tool. Then, find the Google Verification code, paste the code there, and click on Save Changes.
Step 7: Afterward, go to that pop-up and click on VERIFY.
After clicking on VERIFY, a confirmation message like this will appear.
7. How to Verify GSC on WordPress Using AIOSEO
Step 1: Type your website URL in the URL prefix section, then click CONTINUE.
Step 2: A new pop-up will appear. In that pop-up, find the HTML tag section and expand that section. Then click the COPY button to copy the code.
Step 3: Go to the WordPress Dashboard, hover on Plugins, and click Add New.
Step 4: Search for the AIOSEO plugin. Then, install and activate that plugin.
Step 5: From the Dashboard, hover on the All in One SEO, then click General Settings.
Step 6: A new page will appear. Click on the Webmaster Tools, then click on Google. After clicking that, you’ll find a section named Google Verification Code. Copy that code, and click on Save Changes to save it.
Step 7: After saving that, go to that pop-up again and click VERIFY.
After clicking on VERIFY, a confirmation message like this will appear.
8. How to Verify GSC on WordPress Using Google Tag Manager
To verify Google Search Console with your site using this method, you must ensure that your Google Tag Manager is connected to your domain. With it, this method will work.
Step 1: Type the website URL in the URL prefix section, then click CONTINUE.
Step 2: Scroll down, find Google Tag Manager, and click VERIFY.
After clicking on VERIFY, a confirmation message like this will appear.
9. How to Verify GSC on WordPress Using Google Analytics
First, ensure your site is connected to your Google Analytics account. Then, you can easily add Google Search Console.
Step 1: Type your site’s URL in the URL prefix section, then click CONTINUE.
Step 2: Scroll down, find Google Analytics, and click VERIFY.
After clicking on VERIFY, a confirmation message like this will appear.
10. How to Verify GSC on WordPress Using Google Site Kit
Step 1: Go to the WordPress Dashboard, hover on Plugins, and click Add New.
Step 2: Search for the Site Kit using the Google plugin. Then, install and activate that plugin.
Step 3: Now, hover on the Site Kit and click on Dashboard.
After that, this plugin lets you connect your Google products with your site. You can also control Google Products using a single dashboard. Logging In with your Gmail account will be enough to connect your site with Google Search Console.
Conclusion on Google Search Console Verification on WordPress
We hope you’ve successfully added your WordPress-powered site to Google Search Console. If you’re facing an error after clicking VERIFY, you need to give it some time. Sometimes, Google requires some time to validate your request. So, you may need to wait 5-30 minutes for the verification. Once the verification process is validated, you must wait an additional 24/48 hours while your Google Search Console account is populated before you can start looking at your search data.
Google updates its user interface often, so if you’re facing something different in your Google Search Console account from our tutorial, don’t worry. The process is the same; some functions may change their placement. You can easily find them. Also, let us know about the change, and we’ll update this tutorial as soon as possible.
