How to Set Up Google Search Console
Quick Answer
Google Search Console is a free tool that shows you exactly which Google searches are bringing people to your website, how often your site appears in results, and any technical issues Google has found. It pairs directly with Google Analytics.
1.Go to Google Search Console
Visit search.google.com/search-console and sign in with your Google account.
2.Add your website as a property
Click "Add property" and enter your full website URL (e.g. https://yoursite.com). Choose "URL prefix" — it's the simpler option.
3.Verify ownership
Google needs to confirm you own the site. The easiest method: copy the HTML meta tag Google provides and paste it into the <head> section of your website. If you use WordPress, the Yoast or RankMath plugin can do this for you. Click Verify.
4.Submit your sitemap
In the left sidebar, go to Indexing → Sitemaps. Enter your sitemap URL — usually yoursite.com/sitemap.xml — and click Submit. This tells Google to crawl your pages faster.
5.Wait 24–48 hours
Data starts populating within a day or two. Then head to Performance → Search results to see which keywords are driving clicks to your site.
Tip: Check the Coverage report (Indexing → Pages) regularly. It shows any pages Google can't index — fixing those issues directly improves your search rankings.
Already have Search Console set up but not sure what to do with the data? Get in touch →