Google Search Console
This is how Google actually reads your site: what it found, what it did not, and what people typed before they arrived. It is the difference between guessing why you rank and knowing. It has to be verified against your domain, so the property has to be in your name.
READ THIS FIRST · THE MISTAKES THAT COST THE MOST
Where this goes wrong
- Pick Domain, not URL prefix. A URL-prefix property covers exactly the characters you typed, so the bare domain and the www version become two separate properties, each holding half your data.
- If the registrar Google shows you in its list is not the one you actually use, choose Any DNS provider and add the record yourself. Do not change registrars to match the list.
- If verification fails, it is almost always the record: leave the host or name field blank rather than typing your domain into it, and wait a day before trying again rather than editing it five times.
- Never delete the verification record once it works, and never change your nameservers from a screen you did not expect to be in.
Before you start
If one of these is missing, get it sorted first. It is faster than stalling halfway through.
- The same Google account you used for Analytics.
- Access to your DNS records — the registrar, or Cloudflare if DNS lives there.
- Patience afterwards. Google warns that a DNS record added by hand can take a couple of days to start being served, and search data accrues after that, not before.
Do it in this order
Open search.google.com/search-console and choose Add property.
Choose Domain, and type your domain plainly: yoursite.com, with no https:// and no www. Only choose the URL-prefix option if we have told you to — it covers one exact address instead of the whole domain.
Google will give you a DNS record to prove you own the domain. Choose TXT and copy the value. Leave the host or name field blank, or set it to @ .
Paste that value into a TXT record in your DNS — at the registrar if DNS lives there, or in Cloudflare if you have moved it. Then come back and press Verify.
Leave that TXT record in place afterwards. Deleting it is the one way to quietly lose the property later.
Send us your domain name. We build the sitemap and give you a single address to paste into Sitemaps.