Module 2 · 2.1

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Google Search Console: adding and verifying your site

Module 2: Search Console, Bing and IndexNow · Reading time: 12 minutes

Learning objective: After this lesson you can add your site to Google Search Console, choose between a domain property and a URL-prefix property, and prove ownership with a TXT record in your DNS, without the mistakes people often make along the way.

Key concepts: Google Search Console, property, domain property, URL-prefix property, verification, TXT record, google-site-verification=, other verification methods (HTML file, meta tag, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager), owner and user, leaving the record in place

What Search Console is (and what it isn't)

Google Search Console is a free Google service for anyone who manages a website. It shows you how Google sees your site: which pages are in the index and which aren't (and why), which searches your site appears for, how often people click, and whether Google found any problems. You can also submit a sitemap there and have a single page inspected.

What Search Console doesn't do: move you up in the search results. Google says so itself: signing up helps Google find your pages and gives you insight, but a top spot is never guaranteed. It's a measuring instrument and a toolbox, not a booster.

So why bother? Because otherwise you're flying blind. If your homepage accidentally has a noindex, or your robots.txt blocks everything after a move, Search Console shows you within a few days. Without it, you only notice when customers stop coming.

Two types of property

In Search Console, a site is called a property. There are two types, and your choice has consequences.

	Domain property	URL-prefix property
What you enter	`example.com` (without `https://`, without `www`)	`https://www.example.com/` (exactly how the address begins)
What it covers	all subdomains (`www`, `shop`, `m`) and both `http` and `https`	only addresses that begin exactly like that; `https://example.com/` without www is a different property
Verification	only via DNS	HTML file, meta tag, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager or DNS

This course's advice: choose a domain property. You then see everything on your domain in one place, even if your site once moved from http to https or from www to no www. That way you don't lose data that arrives on the "wrong" variant.

A URL-prefix property is useful if you have no access to the DNS (for example, a site on a platform where you only manage the pages), or if you want to look at one part of a large site separately, such as https://www.example.com/blog/. You can have both side by side.

Good to know: Search Console starts collecting data as soon as someone adds the property, even before verification. The first data appears after a few days.

Verifying with a TXT record

Before you can see anything, you have to prove the site is yours. For a domain property, the only way is a TXT record in your domain's DNS. How TXT records work is covered in the DNS course, lesson 4.2. In short: a TXT record is a piece of text stored with your domain name in the DNS. Only whoever manages the DNS can put it there. That's why it counts as proof.

Here's how it works:

In Search Console, choose Add property and enter example.com under Domain.
Search Console shows a value such as google-site-verification=Ab12Cd34Ef56.... Copy all of it.
At your DNS provider, create a TXT record on the domain itself, with that value.
In Search Console, click Verify.

In the DNS, the record looks like this:

example.com.  3600  IN  TXT  "google-site-verification=Ab12Cd34Ef56Gh78Ij90"

Not working straight away? Google says that for a manually added record it can take up to two to three days before your provider shows the record; usually it's much faster. Try again after fifteen minutes, and otherwise the next day. For a number of large DNS providers, Search Console can also add the record itself once you log in with that provider.

Leave the record in place

Search Console regularly checks whether the record is still there. If you remove it, you get a notification, and after a grace period you lose your rights to the property. So always leave the verification record in place. It does nothing else: visitors and email aren't affected by it.

More owners, more records

Several people can verify the same domain, each with their own code. In that case there are several google-site-verification= records side by side. That's fine: Google searches all TXT records for the code of the person verifying. So never overwrite someone else's record. If you want to remove access for a former employee or a previous web designer, delete their code and also remove them as an owner in the Search Console settings.

Would you rather give someone access without them having to verify? Add them as a user in Search Console. Only a verified owner has full rights.

The five mistakes we see most often

The wrong name. The record must be on the domain itself. With one DNS provider you leave the name field empty, with another you enter @, and with yet another the domain name is already there with a dot after it. If you type example.com yourself into a field that automatically adds the domain name, you end up with example.com.example.com, and Google doesn't look up that name.
Placed on www or a subdomain. A record on www.example.com doesn't count for the domain property example.com. Verifying the main domain covers the subdomains, but not the other way round.
Double quotation marks. Many control panels add quotation marks around the value themselves. If you add them too, you get "\"google-site-verification=...\"" and the code no longer matches.
Only part of the code. Copy the whole line, including google-site-verification=. A space at the end or a truncated ending when pasting is enough to make it fail.
The record with the wrong party. A record only works with the party your nameservers point to. If your nameservers are with another party (Cloudflare, for example), a record in your registrar's panel has no effect. First check where your DNS really is (DNS course, lesson 2.1).

Two things that are not mistakes: several TXT records on the same name (allowed, see above), and a verification record alongside your SPF record. But never put the Google code inside your SPF record: that's a different record with its own purpose.

In practice: adding the record in My WebOké or DirectAdmin

At WebOké you manage your DNS in My WebOké: My Domains, the DNS tab, then + Add Record. Choose the type TXT, enter @ under Name (that's the domain itself), paste the code into the value field without quotation marks and click Save Record. Below the name field, the window shows the full name: it must say exactly your domain name. In DirectAdmin, go to DNS Administration and Add Record; there the name field already shows your domain name with a dot after it, and you leave that as it is.

Other providers work in a similar way, but the buttons and fields have different names. Search their help pages for "add TXT record". If you use the AI Builder or WordPress on your own domain, you verify the domain, not the website builder: verification lives in the DNS and is separate from the program you use to build your site.

Summary

Search Console shows how Google sees your site; it doesn't move you up.
Choose a domain property: it covers all subdomains and both http and https, and you verify it with a TXT record.
Put the TXT record on the domain itself (name empty or @), with the full code, without extra quotation marks, at the party your nameservers point to.
Leave the record in place; if you remove it, you lose access after a while.
Several owners may each have their own record; never overwrite someone else's.

Quiz

Exercise

Exercise A2.1: Is your verification record set up correctly? Add your domain as a domain property in Search Console and create the TXT record. Then enter your domain, and optionally the code Search Console gave you. The program looks up your domain's TXT records, both via a public resolver and directly at your own nameserver, and tells you whether there's a valid Google verification record in the right place. It warns you about the mistakes from this lesson: a record on www, extra quotation marks, a code that doesn't match. No domain of your own? Enter wikipedia.org: it has a Google verification record alongside an SPF record and another search engine's verification.

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