How to Register WordPress with Google Search Console (Beginner Guide)

After finishing your WordPress blog setup, the very first thing you should do is register your site with search engines. Without this step, no matter how great your content is, people won’t find you. Today, let’s walk through how to register your WordPress blog with Google Search Console, the most important of the search engines.

I try to be as accurate as possible when writing blog posts, but sometimes there are errors in the information. If you find one, please comment and I’ll correct it. If you make a purchase using a link on this blog, I may earn a small commission.

What is Google Search Console?

Google Search Console is a free tool provided by Google that helps you monitor search traffic and manage your website or blog’s performance in Google Search. It allows you to see how your homepage or blog posts appear in search results and diagnose the overall health of your site.

Personally, I believe Google Search Console is a tool every WordPress user should always keep close by. How well you use Search Console can directly impact your Google rankings. But to use it properly, you first need to connect your blog to it. So let’s dive into how to register your site on Google Search Console!

How to Register with Google Search Console

To register your blog with Google Search Console, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Google Search Console site and click the Start now button to get started.
2. After selecting Register a domain, put in your own site address.
3. Go to the domain registration site, insert the given TXT record, wait, and press the Verify button.

Below, I’ll explain each step in more detail with screenshots.

1. Go to the Google Search Console site and get started

When you visit the Google Search Console website, you’ll see a screen like the one below. Click the “Start now” button to begin.

After clicking the Start now button, you’ll see the following screen where you can choose a verification method.

Choosing the Domain Registration Method

On the left side of the screen, enter your website domain without including the “https” part, just like in the image below.

After entering your domain, click the Continue button, and you’ll be guided through the domain verification process.

It might look complicated, but in reality, there’s only one key thing you need to do: prove that you own the domain.

To do that, you’re asked to add a TXT record (shown in step 3 of the Google Search Console setup) to your domain’s DNS settings. This record acts as proof of ownership. Once it’s added, Google is basically saying, “Okay, we see the record — we’ll consider you the owner of this domain!”

Now, head over to the site where you registered your domain. For this guide, I’ll be using Namecheap as the example.

Namecheap is a domain registrar (a site where you can buy domain names), which I also mentioned in my WordPress blog setup guide. It’s even officially supported by Google — you can see it listed in the dropdown when verifying domains (as shown in the underlined section of the earlier image).

If you’ve bought domains elsewhere before, I recommend considering Namecheap for future purchases — it’s easy to use and works well with tools like Google Search Console.

3. Add a Record to Your Domain Information

Let me explain how to add a record to your domain information.

1. If you can modify your own domain information in Namecheap
2. If you’ve handed over your domain’s nameservers to your hosting, like in WPlaybook’s WordPress initialization video (update in cPanel)

This will be divided into two cases. For the second case, I will explain using ChemiCloud, which is the WordPress hosting recommended by WPlaybook.

If You Are Using Namecheap’s Basic Nameservers

Log in to Namecheap and click on the Domain List. Then, to modify the information for the domain you want to register, click the MANAGE button on the right side of the corresponding domain.

Since we need to enter new information into the area where the domain’s details are stored, click on Advanced DNS to access it.

Next, click the Add New Record button (in red) to add a new TXT record. In the second input field, enter the @ symbol, and in the fourth field, paste the value you copied from Google Search Console. Finally, click the check mark (second from the right) to save and add the record!

2. When Using Custom Nameservers (Adding TXT Records via cPanel)

If your Namecheap domain’s nameservers have been pointed to your hosting provider, you’ll need to modify the domain records through your hosting account to add the TXT record.

For domains pointed to ChemiCloud, you can edit them via the Domains section under the Tools menu in cPanel.

Select Zone Editor, then click Manage next to the relevant domain to proceed to the record management page.

On the record management page, click the button on the right to select Add TXT Record.

In the input fields that appear next, enter your domain address in the first field. In the last field, paste the value copied from Google Search Console, and then click Save.

Verify Domain Update Information and Authentication

Once you check the box, the information you entered will be uploaded to the domain’s DNS. Afterward, return to Google Search Console and click the Verify button to complete the process. However, if you click Verify immediately after updating, it might not work. This is because the DNS update needs to propagate across all global servers before verification can be successful.

To check if your DNS information has been fully updated, you can use a site like DNS Checker. Enter your domain information, select TXT, and click Search. Once you see green checkmarks in almost all regions, you can click the Verify button to complete the authentication.

If you successfully completed all the steps, you should see a confirmation screen like this! From now on, Google will start recording the data related to your site.

Watching your blog grow on Google Search Console can be motivating, and it helps you identify which posts are performing the best.

Submitting a Sitemap

Once you’ve registered your blog in Google Search Console, the next step is to submit your sitemap. Think of the sitemap as a map that shows how your blog posts are structured and spread out across your site.

The sitemap is what tells Google that our blog has the following posts on it~!

Submitting a sitemap is easy. Simply enter the sitemap URL in the Sitemaps section on the left side of the Search Console dashboard, then click the SUBMIT button (see the image below).

In the box in the middle, input your sitemap URL. Typically, the format of the URL looks something like this with a .xml extension if your domain is .com.

https://yourblogdomain.com/sitemap_index.xml

Most SEO plugins for WordPress, like Rank Math, support this type of URL structure. The sitemap URL for the site you are looking at (the WPlaybook blog) follows this format.

• https://wplaybook.com/sitemap_index.xml

If you’re using Rank Math, after clicking the link, you should see a blue page that says XML Sitemap, which confirms that the sitemap is working correctly.

Once you’ve entered the sitemap and everything is fine, you will see a Success message in green text, like in the image. At this point, Google will start regularly fetching your posts according to a set schedule.

Requesting Indexing for Individual Posts in Google Search Console

Even after submitting your sitemap, sometimes Google might not fetch your posts right away. Additionally, if you’ve made changes to an already indexed post, you may want to request Google to fetch the updated information. In such cases, it’s helpful to know how to request re-indexing for individual posts in Google Search Console.

Requesting Indexing for Posts That Have Never Been Crawled by Google

To request indexing for a post that has never been crawled by Google, enter the target URL in the search bar at the top of Google Search Console (magnifying glass icon).

Next, click the “Request Indexing” button on the following screen.

Once the request is completed, you will see the confirmation screen. Note that just because the request is finished, it doesn’t mean it will be indexed right away. It’s merely a request for Google to crawl the content, and Googlebot will fetch it according to its schedule.

Reindexing a Blog Post Already Indexed by Google

What if you’ve already indexed a blog post using the method above, but later you modify it? Simply request Google to crawl it again.

For example, in this post, I am editing an article I wrote about how to register a site on Google Search Console, which Google has already indexed.

As seen in the image above, if you enter the URL in the URL Inspection tool, it will show as already registered with Google (green check mark). In this case, click the “Request Indexing” button located at the bottom right if the page has been updated.

Just like with the initial indexing, wait a while, and you will eventually see the updated content reflected in Google’s search results.

Conclusion – Next Steps

Today, we learned how to register your WordPress blog on Google Search Console. Google Search Console is one of the most important tools when managing a blog. It allows you to see how your blog is growing and which content is helping to drive its success. You’ll be using it often, so it’s a good idea to get familiar with it as soon as possible.

Once you’ve registered on Google Search Console, consider registering with other search engines as well. If you’ve completed your blog registration, then it’s time to focus on writing more content to get AdSense approva l!

Thanks for sharing that! It sounds like a great service for people who need assistance with setting up and optimizing their WordPress blogs. If you’d like any help with blog-related content or have any questions, feel free to ask!