You may have heard conflicting opinions on whether or not to submit your website to a search engine. It’s important to know that verifying your site with these services isn’t necessary for search engines to index your site, but if you want to increase your website’s traffic, you probably should. Submitting a website or single URL to search engines is one of the easiest and fastest things to do. In this article, I will guide you through the step-by-step process for submitting your website for verification to Google Search Console.
Why is it necessary for me to submit my website to search engines?
Google has robots that “crawl” the internet and index many websites. Google conducts automatic daily searches for links to new websites containing helpful information, as long as it is linked to their services.
It is, of course, possible to wait for Googles crawlers to automatically discover your website, but that could take days, weeks, months, or even years. My question for you is, do you really have the time to wait for Google when it can be done manually without breaking a sweat? Why wait for Google to discover your site when the process of submitting your website to Google Search Console is so quick and easy?
Here are a few more reasons why you should submit your website to Google Search Console
- It helps the search engine understand how frequently your website is updated.
- You’ll get free access to information from Google Search Console such as ranking data, traffic, and webpage errors.
- You can send in more information, like ranking your pages by importance.
- Google, Bing, and Yahoo account for 96% of the market share of search engines.
- Stay informed with the latest SEO news from Google.
- Your website will appear in the search results if it is submitted and indexed.
- It helps search engines like Google find, index, and rank your website faster.
With these considerations, you and your business have nothing to lose and can only gain traffic by completing this simple task.
When is the best time to submit my website to Google?
It is recommended that you submit your website to Google as soon as you get your domain name. Start by submitting your entire website URL (I will show you how below), then submit individual pages in your website as you add and update them.
Content quality and timeliness are page ranking factors for search engines. Please keep in mind that older pages may rank better if they are periodically updated with new and important information.
This doesn’t mean that you should submit your sitemap every time you change a page. However, it’s always a good idea to resubmit your sitemap periodically, if you’re constantly adding to your website.
I think you now understand the best time to send your website to Google. Let’s talk about how to send a website to these search engines.
Verify that you have the required access
Before you begin, ensure that you have access to your website and your domain name provider account (for example, WordPress, Bluehost, or GoDaddy). If you encounter any issues, please ask your website developer or host for access if necessary.
In the next step, you will need to input information into the back-end of your website or your domain provider to verify that you own it.
Read more: How to submit your website to Bing Webmaster Tools for verification
How to Submit Your website to Google Search Console
Once you have verified ownership of your website, open a new window and create an account on Google Search Console.
Google Search Console helps you assess your site’s search traffic and performance, resolve issues, and improve your site’s appearance in Google search results.
In summary, Google Search Console allows you to submit your website to Google for indexing. Below are the steps you can take to submit your site to Google Search Console for indexing:
First Step: Verifying Your Website
To add a site to your Search Console account, you need to be able to prove that you own the site. Google provides two ways to verify your website by adding a website property. You can create a website property that includes an entire domain (example.com) or a property that is limited to a single branch (example.com/clothing/).
If this is the first time you’ve added a website property, the most common way to verify it is by checking your DNS record. To begin, Click on start now
Select Add property from the Search property dropdown menu.
The Add Property feature is shown in the image above. To add your entire website, you simply need to enter the URL of your homepage. This is what it should look like.
After you select the Add Property feature, you will be presented with options to either enter a domain or a subdomain/URL Prefix. This offers more options for authentication.
If you choose to add a domain, and you choose WordPress as your DNS provider, click on start verification and this will let Google access your DNS account on WordPress.com. All you have to do is wait for the verification to finish before closing this tab.
If, however, you choose the option of Any DNS Provider, Google will then present you with a text record that you will have to copy and verify your account. This is your TXT record. All you need to do is to:
- Sign in to your domain name provider (e.g. godaddy.com or wordpress.com)
- Copy the TXT record below into the DNS configuration for your website
- After you copy and paste the text, it in your DNS configuration. Press the verify button
Next, go to your domain name provider’s website and log in. Find the page where you can edit your DNS records and add the Google verification TXT record.
How to edit your DNS record and add the Google TXT record
First to view your DNS record:
- From your sites’ dashboard, go to Upgrades → Domains to see all the domains that site is connected to.
2. To access the DNS records, click on the domain and then on ‘DNS records.’
3. You will be presented with a list of the current DNS records. You can make changes by clicking on Manage.
Adding Custom DNS Records
You can add the following DNS records on WordPress.com:
- A (see the Setting a Custom A Record page for more info)
- AAAA
- CNAME
- MX (see Add Email Through Other Providers for more info)
- TXT
- SRV
To create a new DNS record, please follow the steps below:
- From the upper-right corner, select the Add a record button.
2. Select the DNS record type from the Type dropdown.
3. Fill in the rest of the information you got from the service you’re adding the record for. Depending on the type of record you are trying to add, the fields will change.
How to edit or remove DNS record
To edit or remove an existing DNS record, click the three dots next to an existing record and select either Edit or Delete.
After you add the TXT record to your DNS configuration, switch back to Google Search Console and open your Unverified Property. Click the Verify button. Within 24 hours, you should be able to confirm whether or not you’re verified.
Remember, do not remove the verification code, even after you’re verified. Google’s crawlers check your site regularly to make sure it’s still verified.
Verification by Using HTML tag
Another method to verify your account is to copy the meta tag given to you and paste it into your site’s homepage. It should go in the <head> section, before the first <body> section.
By copying the meta tag given to you by Google, you can put it in the source code of the head <head> of your website. If you are using WordPress, It will look like this:
Log in to your WordPress website, and navigate to SEO > Dashboard:
Paste the HTML code you just copied into the Google Search Console box.
Make sure to click on Save changes when you’re done.
Finally, return to the Search Console and click on the ‘Verify’ button. You’ll get a success message saying you can use the tool with your website.
If that doesn’t work, you can find a free plugins website that will add your meta tag to the correct location. Also, adding more code to your website will cause your site speed to be slowed and affect your ranking in the search engines.
Find additional methods to verify your domain on Google Search Console here.
How to submit your XML Sitemap to Google
Since your account has now been verified, you can proceed to submit your sitemap to Google. This can help Google find important pages on your site that might have been hidden or far away from the start page.
What is an XML Sitemap
An XML sitemap is a list of the content on your website that is required for SEO. It tells Google information about the order and importance of your websites pages. Some website software, like WordPress, will automatically make a sitemap, but if you are using multiple content delivery systems, this can be a complicated topic.
If you have a generated one, you can find it by going to:www.(yourwebsite).com/sitemap.xml.
Or
If you are using a hosting service like WordPress, you can find it by following these steps:
- On the left side of the side menu, click on Tools and then Marketing.
- Next, click on Traffic and if you scroll down below, you will find your XML Sitemaps
Once you’ve identified your XML sitemap, the next step will be to input it in your Google Console Account. Simply clink on Sitemaps.
After clicking on sitemap, copy and paste your XML Sitemap into the box and click on submit.
And you’re done!
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