Google Search Console: connect your website to Google

What you'll achieve

• add your website to Search Console and verify it with a DNS record;
• submit your sitemap;
• know which reports to read and how often.

Before you start

• A Google account (Gmail or Google Workspace). Use a business account, not a personal one you might lose.
• The website runs on https://, with a valid certificate (see The free SSL certificate (Let's Encrypt)).
• Access to the domain's DNS: if your domain uses our nameservers, the editor is in Enhance (see DNS zone editor: A, CNAME, MX and TXT); otherwise, at your DNS provider.
• On a website under construction, check that indexing isn't turned off. In WordPress: Settings » Reading, the Discourage search engines from indexing this site box must be unchecked.

The steps

A. Add a domain property

1. Open https://search.google.com/search-console and sign in with your Google account.
2. Choose Add property. You have two options:
   • Domain: covers the whole domain, with and without www, on http and https, plus subdomains. This is the recommended option;
   • URL prefix: only the exact address you enter. It can be verified in other ways than DNS, but you only see part of the website.
3. Choose Domain, enter domeniul-tau.ro (without https:// and without www) and continue.
4. Google shows you a TXT record like google-site-verification=.... Copy it.

B. Add the TXT record in Enhance

5. In Enhance: “Websites” » the website » “Domains” » “Manage” next to the domain » “DNS records”.
6. Click “Add record”. Under “Type” choose TXT, under “Hostname” enter @, and under “Value” paste the text from Google, without quotes.
7. Leave “Use zone default” for TTL and click “Create”.
8. Go back to Search Console and click Verify. If it doesn't work the first time, wait 10–30 minutes and try again.

Don't delete the record after verification: Google checks it from time to time and, if it disappears, you lose access.

C. Submit your sitemap

9. In the left menu, open Sitemaps.
10. Under Add a new sitemap, enter your sitemap address and click Submit. For WordPress it's usually wp-sitemap.xml or the address given by your SEO plugin; for a hand-built website, sitemap.xml. Details in Sitemap.xml and robots.txt: what they are and how to check them.
11. After a few days, the sitemap status should be Success, with the number of pages found.

D. Request indexing for a new or changed page

12. Enter the page address in the top bar (Inspect any URL, URL inspection).
13. If the page isn't in Google yet, click Request indexing. It doesn't speed things up indefinitely: Google has a daily limit and decides on its own when to come back.

E. Read the reports

• Performance: the searches you appear for, clicks, impressions and average position. Check it once a month.
• Pages (under Indexing): which pages are in Google and why others aren't. “Discovered – currently not indexed” is normal for a new website.
• Core Web Vitals (under Experience): the speed your visitors actually experience (see Core Web Vitals explained: LCP, INP and CLS).
• Security issues and Manual actions: these should be empty. If something shows up, Google also sends you an email (see How to tell if your website has malware).

If something doesn't work

• Verification fails. Use Dig (https://toolbox.googleapps.com/apps/dig/, type TXT, your domain) to check that the TXT record shows up. If it doesn't, your domain's DNS isn't with us: add the record where your nameservers are (see How to point your domain to NBT Host). If it shows up with extra quotes or cut off, fix it.
• The sitemap status is “Couldn't fetch”. Open the sitemap address in your browser: you should see a list of addresses, not an error. Also check robots.txt (see Sitemap.xml and robots.txt: what they are and how to check them).
• Your pages don't show up in Google after weeks. Check the indexing setting in WordPress (in “Before you start”) and the noindex tag in the page code. A new website with no links from other websites may need a few weeks.
• You want to give your web designer access. In Settings » Users and permissions, add them with their own address, without giving them your account.