How to Verify a WordPress Website in Google Search Console

How to Verify a WordPress Website in Google Search Console

Last Updated on by Michael Brockbank

Submitting your site to Google is the first step to marketing. Once you claim your site, you can submit the sitemap and have the search engine crawl your content. To verify your site in Google, you need to do so through Search Console.

The Search Console for Google is a free system that is connected to your overall Google account, as is many of the other tools you’ll use to manage your site. From this tool, you can get an idea of how your website performs in terms of search results.
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Using the Search Console to Verify Your Site

The Search Console is part of Google’s Webmasters Tools. You’ll need to set up an account before you can add a website.

Verifying you own a certain website is more than just submitting the URL to the Google search engine. It comes with a variety of tools that will help you create a nice website that attracts visitors.

Google Webmasters Tools

Adding Your Site Property

Once you’re signed into Search Console, click the “Add A Property” button on the right side.
Add Property

Input the URL of your website. For example, here is where you would put: “http://www.yourwebsite.com
Website URL

Click the “Add” button on the screen. This will immediately take you to the Search Console verification page.
Add URL

Using an HTML File to Verify Ownership

The verification process is to prove to Google that you own the website. After all, you don’t want someone else laying claim to your content, right?

You have several ways to do the verification. For this tutorial, I’m just going to demonstrate how to upload the Google verification file to WordPress.

Click the link, “this HTML verification file” and download it. It’s probably easier if you save it to your desktop. Otherwise, the file should save into your default “Downloads” folder on the computer.
Download Verify

Leave this browser tab open and start another tab for WordPress.

Uploading the Verification File to WordPress

You can upload to your WordPress website in a variety of ways. For this tutorial, I’m going to demonstrate the File Manager plugin. It’s a very useful tool that I wind up using quite often for making changes or troubleshooting.

In this instance, I am going to add an HTML file to WordPress.

From your WordPress dashboard, go to Plugins and click, “Add New.”
Add New

Search for “File Manager” in the search bar, install and activate. Make sure you install the right plugin. You’ll see several with similar names. I am using the one by “mndpsingh287.”
File Manager

Click the “WP File Manager” option in the left panel.
WP File Manager

You’ll come across a subscription form the first time your run the plugin. You can sign up if you want, but I’ll just click the “X” icon on the top right.
Close Popup

The important thing to remember about this plugin is that it only shows the WordPress website. You don’t have access to the root folder of your web hosting account. This is a great security precaution considering you don’t want other users making modifications in the root folder.

Click the “Upload Files” icon in the File Manager tool. It’s the one that looks like a disk with a green arrow on it.
Upload Files

Click the “Select Files” button and choose the verification file.
Choose Verification File

The verification file will upload immediately to your site.
Upload Verification File

Verifying the Site in Google

Go back to your Google Search Console screen and click the “I’m not a robot” box for reCAPTCHA.
Not A Robot

Click the “Verify” button as soon as it is bright red.
Verify Site

You will see a congratulations screen when the process is successful. Click the “Continue” link to go back to Search Console.
Continue Link

Now, you can submit your sitemap and start showing up in Google search results. Well, that is after you write some amazing content.

Of course, this is all probably going to change once Google’s new Search Console system comes into play. It’s currently in beta stages right now, but I will be sure to update this tutorial as soon as it goes live.

Alternative Methods to Verify a Site

You don’t have to upload the file for this verification process, though. In fact, there are four other Alternative methods you can use.

To access these, click the “Alternate methods” tab when you’re verifying your site.
Alternate Methods

In these methods you can use:

  • HTML Tags
    This is where you add a line of code to your site’s home page meta information. This isn’t difficult, but you do need to know the basics of site design and coding. Plus, it’s more difficult when you use systems like WordPress.
  • Your Domain Name Provider
    Essentially, you log into your registrar account directly from Google. This information isn’t readily available for everyone and could be more confusing for those who are new to site design.
  • A Google Analytics Account
    If you already have a Google Analytics account, you can add the tracking code to your website. This is easy if you have the Analytics plugin installed in WordPress, but it takes a few additional steps than uploading the file.
  • The Google Tag Manager
    The Tag Manager helps identify tracking information and is often useful. Using the container snippet from this tool, you can connect your WordPress site to Google. It’s a bit more convoluted than the other methods.

Get the Most from Google

Once you submit your site to Google, you have access to a variety of tools to help you succeed. From Analytics to the Search Console, you can monitor how people interact with your site and how well your content is showing up in search.

Now all you have to do is master creating content perfect for search engine optimization.

Michael Brockbank
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