Before, diving into the depth, it is very important for us to understand the definition of Google webmasters tools or Google Search Console. Then with the flow of the article we will learn about setting up Google webmaster tools step by step. In this guide, you will get the complete details of how to set up Google webmaster tools.
What is Google Webmaster called now?
In the beginning (2005) it was referred as Google Site Maps then in the year 2006, Google renamed it to Google Webmaster Central. The name, Google Webmaster Central continued for 14 years, and in the year 2015, finally Google came out with more inclusive name and rechristened it to, Google Search Console (2015)
What Is Google webmaster tools?
Note: Also Submit your website in Yandex Webmaster and Bing Webmaster Tools.
Google webmaster tools or Search console is a free Google web application which is mainly used by the webmasters to monitor the health and performance of the website.
This tool comes with many inbuilt features by which you can easily track the performance of your site. Overall, this tool can be referred as the doctor of the website because it tracks each and every information about the website.
How to set up Google webmaster tools
Now you have got an idea about why this tool is essential for website. So today, in this article you will get an in-depth detail about how to set up Google webmaster tools in easy to understand language.
STEP 1: Go to the site https://search.google.com/search-console/about, click the start know button and then log in with your Gmail account.
After logging in with your Gmail id you will be redirected to the first page of Google Search Console. Just add your website property in the box given in the page and then click to continue.
STEP 2: After clicking CONTINUE, a pop up will emerge which will ask you to verify ownership for your domain. The pop will show you the recommended verification method and Other verification methods such as HTML file, HTML tag, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, and Domain name provider.
STEP 3: Choose the verification methods according to your strategy. Here, We will go with uploading an HTML file in the server. To upload an HTML file, first of all you would need to download the HTML file and then upload it in the Public_html folder of the server where your site is located.
STEP 4: Now click on the verify button.
STEP 5: Finally, a pop will emerge which will say that your ownership has been verified. Click wither DONE or Go to PROPERTY, The Go TO PROPERTY will take you to the Google Search console dashboard and when you will click DONE, the pop up will vanish.
Step 6: Submitting sitemap in Google search console: In order to properly index web pages in Google search engine, it’s essential to submit a sitemap in search console. A sitemap is basically an XML file which contains information about the pages and content available on the website. To crawl the site in search engines like Google, Yahoo or Bing sitemap is required.
There are various free sitemap generator tools available on the internet using which you can easily generate a sitemap for your website. If you are using WordPress then you can either go with Yoast Seo or RankMath plugin to generate sitemap.
Overview of the features of the Google Search Console
STEP 7: Google Search Console page is divided into two columns. The left
Let us analyze the main features of Google search console
1. Overview: The overview tab is a default tab in Google search console. It has three main areas. These are performance, coverage, and enhancement. It shows the overall performance of the website. In brief, a quick description of the website.
2. Performance: The performance tab of the Google webmaster console shows how many total clicks, impression, and CTR the website has got. In addition to this, it also displays the average position of the site in the search result.
3. URL Inspection: In order to fetch website or any URL in Google webmaster console which are not indexed or submitted, use this section. Just you need to enter the URL and hit enter.
If the URL is indexed then you do not need to worry. If it is not indexed then you need to request for indexing. After this Google will take some time and will index the URL.
4.Index: The index feature in the search console dashboard is categorized into three parts. These are : Pages, Sitemap, and Removals.
The page indexing is a reporting section that will show you how many pages are indexed in Google search and how many are not indexed.
Apart from this, you will get hints about the pages which are not indexed and what needed to be done to indexed those pages.
5.Sitemap: Here, in this section, you can add a new sitemap. If you are using WordPress then our recommendation is to go with RankMath or Yoast Seo plugin to generate a sitemap. Otherwise, you can search for free sitemap generator tool in Google.
6. Removals: This section can help you to remove unwanted content from Google. So, if there is an urgency to remove content from Google use this section of the search console.
7. Security & Manual Action: Google is very intelligent; it can easily detect if something spammy happens on the site.
If you are doing something wrong or going out of the Google’s guideline with your website such as black hat SEO then you will be warned by Google through the notification and it will ask to do some manual action to fix it.
If not done your website might be blocked by Google or might be demoted in the search engine result page. So, I would suggest you not to do black hat SEO to optimize your website.
If in this section you see no notification that means there is no problem in your site and if you see any notification then immediate action must be taken to resolve the issue.
Also, if there are any problems regarding security you will be informed in this section through notifications.
8. Links: This section of Google webmaster shows you how many external and internal links your webpage is pointing to. So if you want to check how many your website has got external links then you should click to the links section of the new Google search console and can easily check the external links of your website.
Also, you can examine how many internal links you have for your website. Even you can easily remove the bad links pointing to your website using a technique called Google Disavow.
So if you want to check how many your website has got external links then you should click to the links section of the new Google search console and can easily check the external links of your website.
Also, you can examine how many internal links you have for your website. Even you can easily remove the bad links pointing to your website using a technique called Google Disavow.
9.Setting: Under the setting tab of the search console you can check the status about the ownership verification and who is the authorized person.
10. Go to the old version: This feature has been removed by Google and now you cannot go to the older version of the Google Webmaster Tools.
Conclusion
Other parameters include are Page experience, Core Web Vitals, Legacy tools and reports, settings, submit feed back, and about Search console that will discussed in our next article.
In brief, I would like to conclude that Google Webmaster console or new search console is one of the best tools available on the internet which you can use to track all the vital information about your website.
In addition to this, if you are really concern about organic traffic and want to perform better in search results pages of Google then this tool can help you to achieve your goal if you follow all the rules of the webmaster. So, you should utilize the tool to the full capacity to enhance your website performance.
Also, follow all the recommendation of Google to fit in their requirements.
If you have any doubt regarding how to use Google webmaster tools then you can email me or can provide me with any feedback through email. Please keep reading the blog to acquire knowledge and I will keep working hard to provide you with more information and knowledge related to Google analytics, webmaster, SEO, and social media marketing, etc.
If you want to add your website in Bing then you can follow the article Take a closer look at Bing Webmaster tools.
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