After you create a blog on WordPress, one of the most important things to do is to verify your website’s ownership with Search Engines. If you want to verify your website with Google, the two most important Google Webmaster tools are Google Search Console and Google Analytics. This Guide will take you through the steps needed to verify the owner of a property with Google Search Console.
The question you may be asking now is, ‘why do I need to verify my website with Google Search Console’?
Reason you must add your blog to Google search console is that, if there are any issues regarding your website’s SEO (Search Engine Optimization), the Search Console tool will detect and notify you. So, it is the very first step to Search Engine Optimization.
How to Get Google Search Console verification Code
Step 1: Sign in with Google Search Console:
Login to Google Search Console using your Gmail account. If you don’t have a Gmail account, then you have to create one.
Step 2: Add a Property:
Enter the URL of the website you want to verify with Google Search Console and click on ‘Add A Property‘.
After that, you will be provided with several codes you will be needing to verify your website with.
Google Search Console Verification Methods.
There are many ways you can go about the verification of your website’s property on Google search console. I will take you through the two easiest methods. Depending on the one you feel more comfortable following.
Method 1: Upload HTML file using an FTP client.
There are several FTP clients available for WordPress Websites. You can download FileZilla here. For this guide, I will be using FileZilla. Even if you use any other FTP client, the processes are the same. Only the views are different.
Follow the steps as shown: Click on download the html file and take note of where the file was downloaded to on your computer.
login to your FTP client.
Locate and the file on your remote computer.
Right click on the Google verification file you downloaded and click on upload.
Test the uploaded link by visiting the address shown on your Search Console verification page.
If it opens successfully, confirm that you are not a robot and click on verify. You should get a success message.
The method of verification above is the most recommended method. Especially for people that change their WordPress themes often.
If you had no luck with the above method, or you don’t know how to use an FTP client, then method 2 is for you.
Method 2: Upload Meta tags using a plugin
Select ‘Alternate methods’. Click on HTML tag and copy the code.
The code you have just copied will be used to verify your website by using a plugin.
You can go about it using WordPress SEO plugin by Yoast. If you currently do not have Yoast SEO setup on your blog, check our guide on how to install and use the free version of Yoast SEO.
Open Yoast SEO on your WordPress dashboard and click on general.
Locate and click on webmasters tab on the general tab options.
Click on Save Changes. And on your Google verification page, click on verify.
If you don’t have Yoast SEO setup, maybe because you currently have another SEO plugin setup, don’t worry, there’s another method to go about adding Google verification meta tags to your blog.
Download and install insert headers and footer Scripts plugin. You can learn how to install a WordPress plugin from our previous guide.
After installing, you can easily add your verification meta tags to your website’s homepage using this plugin.
After successfully verifying your website with on Google Search Console, the next thing you must do is to submit your sitemap. Check out our guide on how to create and submit a sitemap on Google Search Console.
You may also like to have a peak on our guide to help you verify your website with Google Analytics.