Configure Google Search Console

Google Search Console provides detailed information on how your site appears in Google searches. You can find out:

• which keywords (or, search terms users are typing into Google) drive traffic to your site,
• how highly your site ranks in searches of specific keywords,
• which pages within your site are attracting search attention,
• and other information that's highly useful for search engine optimization and site-maintenance tasks.

You can also submit a sitemap of your website to Google, remove certain pages from being listed on Google, and more.

1. Access Google Search Console (previously called Webmaster Tools) at https://search.google.com/search-console/welcome.

2. On this page, select the URL prefix box and enter your site URL.

   

3. You'll be prompted to verify that you are the administrator of the site you entered.

4. Under Other Verifications methods tab, and select HTML Tag.

   

5. Expand the box and copy the meta tag provided.

   

6. In Composer, under the feather menu, add the meta tag to the Themes section of your site in the External Assets field, then click Update.

   

   Troubleshoot

   - If this is grayed out, please refresh the page. Our Consultants give you access to this field at the time of launch. If still grayed out after a refresh, let your Project Management Team know.
   - If text is already in the field, go to the bottom and add a new line after the last entry, then paste the provided tag.
   - You may need to publish your homepage after adding the code for Google to see the new code in the header.

    

7. Return to Google Search Console and click the Verify button under HTML Tag to complete the process.

   

   If you no longer see this popup, click the Already started? finish verification link on the welcome page to return.

After you have set up Google Search Console/Webmaster Tools for your site, then you can submit your site's dynamic XML sitemap file. This will give Google useful context on your site's layout and content, enhancing its relevance in user searches. Refer to Submit sitemap to Google Search Console to learn more about this process.

More from Google Help is located at this link.