Setting up Google Search Console properly — and the one choice most people get wrong
Search Console is free, takes fifteen minutes, and is the only place Google will tell you what it actually thinks of your website. Almost everyone sets it up in a way that quietly costs them half their data. Here is how to do it once, correctly.
- Choose a domain property, not a URL-prefix property. It’s the single decision that determines whether your data is complete.
- A URL-prefix property only tracks one exact address — swap http for https, or add www, and it’s a different site as far as Search Console is concerned.
- Domain properties require DNS verification, which sounds harder than it is: one text record at your registrar.
- Submit your XML sitemap immediately. It’s usually at /sitemap_index.xml or /sitemap.xml.
- Check what’s already in there before you assume it’s empty. My account still held a sitemap submitted in October 2016 for a site that no longer exists.
Most small business websites are flying blind. Not because the owner doesn’t care, but because the one free tool that would tell them what’s wrong either was never set up, or was set up in a way that only reports on part of the site.
Search Console is where Google tells you which pages it has indexed, which searches you appeared for, how often anyone clicked, and — the useful part — precisely why it has refused to index something. Nothing else gives you that. Not your analytics, not your SEO plugin, not the agency dashboard with the traffic-light rating.
The choice that actually matters
When you add a site, Google offers two options side by side and explains the difference badly. Most people click the right-hand one because the left-hand one mentions DNS and that sounds like a job for someone else.
| Domain property | URL-prefix property | |
|---|---|---|
| What it covers | Every version of your site — http, https, www, non-www, and every subdomain | One exact address and nothing else |
| How you verify | One text record in your DNS | An HTML file, a meta tag, Analytics, or Tag Manager |
| What goes wrong | Very little | Half your traffic reported somewhere you aren’t looking |
Here’s why the second one bites. A visitor typing your address without https, or a link somewhere pointing at the www version, arrives at what Search Console treats as a separate website. Your data splits in two. One half sits in a property you check; the other half sits in a property you never created, invisible.
You then look at your numbers, conclude the site is doing worse than it is, and make decisions on half the evidence.
- Choose the left-hand box, headed Domain
- Type your address bare:
yourbusiness.com.au— nohttps://, nowww., no slash at the end. If Google shows a green tick, you’ve typed it correctly - Google gives you a TXT record to copy
- Add it in your domain registrar or host’s DNS settings
- Come back and click Verify — usually works within minutes, occasionally takes a few hours
If DNS is genuinely not something you can access, a URL-prefix property is better than nothing — but create one for each version of your address so nothing is missing. Four properties is clumsy, and it’s the reason the domain property exists.
Then submit your sitemap
An XML sitemap is a list of every page you want Google to know about. WordPress SEO plugins generate one automatically, so you almost certainly have one already.
Find yours at yourbusiness.com.au/sitemap_index.xml — that’s the Rank Math and Yoast location. If that returns nothing, try /sitemap.xml, which is WordPress’s built-in one.
In Search Console, go to Sitemaps in the left menu, enter the filename, and submit. Status should show Success within a day, along with the number of pages discovered.
Submitting a sitemap doesn’t force Google to index anything. It makes finding your pages trivial rather than dependent on stumbling across a link — which matters enormously on a new site, where nothing links to you yet.
What was already sitting in mine
I opened the Sitemaps report on my own domain expecting one entry. There were two.
The second was submitted in October 2016, for the http version with www, listing eleven pages from a site I built and abandoned years ago. Google last read it in May 2019 and had been holding it ever since.
It wasn’t doing damage. But it was telling Google about eleven URLs that return nothing, and if I hadn’t looked I’d have spent a hundred days reporting on a Search Console account with a decade-old ghost in it.
Before you assume your Search Console is empty, look. Old accounts, old agencies and old versions of your website leave things behind.
This is worth ten minutes on any site that has existed for more than a couple of years, and it’s especially worth it if someone else built it. Check the Sitemaps report, check Settings → Users and permissions for people who shouldn’t still have access, and check Security & Manual Actions for anything inherited.
What to actually look at, and when
Search Console reports on the last 16 months, but it starts collecting the day you verify. Nothing before that exists. That alone is a reason to set it up on day one of any website, even if you never open it.
| When | What to check |
|---|---|
| Day one | Verify, submit the sitemap, inspect your homepage |
| Week one | Pages report — how many indexed, and the reasons given for anything not |
| Monthly | Performance — which queries you appear for, and which ones nearly convert |
| Quarterly | Users and permissions, Security & Manual Actions, sitemap still being read |
The Performance report is the one that eventually earns its keep. It shows the searches where you appeared but nobody clicked — which is usually a page title problem rather than a ranking problem, and is the cheapest fix in search.
If you haven’t yet checked whether your pages are in the index at all, that’s the more urgent job — I covered it in yesterday’s post.
Four mistakes worth avoiding
1. Verifying with a method you’ll lose
HTML file uploads get wiped by migrations. Meta tag verification disappears when the theme changes. Verification through Analytics breaks if the tag is ever moved. DNS verification survives all three, which is another argument for the domain property.
2. Setting it up under a personal Google account
Use the business email you’ll still have in five years, not a personal address. If someone else set it up for you, make sure you hold owner access rather than being a delegated user on their account — verified ownership is not something you want to be asking a former supplier for.
3. Assuming no data means no problem
An empty Performance report on a site that’s been live for months is a finding, not an absence. It means Google isn’t showing your pages to anyone.
4. Only opening it when something goes wrong
By the time traffic has visibly dropped, the cause is usually weeks old and harder to trace. Ten minutes a month is enough to catch the important things while they’re still small.
Frequently asked questions
What is Google Search Console and do I really need it?
Google Search Console is a free tool that reports how Google sees your website — which pages are indexed, which searches you appear for, and the specific reasons any page has been excluded. It’s the only source for that information; analytics tells you about visitors who arrived, not about pages Google refused to show. Any business with a website should have it, even if they never actively use it, because it only starts collecting data from the day it’s verified.
Should I choose a domain property or a URL-prefix property?
A domain property, in almost every case. It covers every version of your address — with and without www, http and https, and all subdomains — in one place. A URL-prefix property only tracks the exact address you enter, so traffic to any other version is reported separately or not at all. The only reason to choose URL-prefix is if you genuinely cannot access your DNS settings, and even then it’s worth solving the access problem instead.
How do I verify Search Console with a DNS record?
Google gives you a TXT record when you add a domain property. Log into wherever your domain is managed — your registrar or your web host — find the DNS settings, and add a new TXT record with the value Google supplied. Leave the host or name field as the default, usually @ or blank. Save, then return to Search Console and click Verify. It usually works within a few minutes, though DNS changes can take up to 48 hours to propagate.
Where do I find my XML sitemap?
On a WordPress site using Rank Math or Yoast, it’s at yourdomain.com/sitemap_index.xml. WordPress also generates a basic one at /sitemap.xml if no SEO plugin is active. Type either address into your browser — if you see a list of URLs, that’s your sitemap. Submit the filename in the Sitemaps section of Search Console, and check back within a day to confirm the status reads Success.
Can I see data from before I set up Search Console?
No. Search Console holds 16 months of history, but only from the date the property was verified. There’s no way to backfill, which is why it’s worth verifying a site the day it goes live even if you don’t plan to look at the reports for months. If someone else previously managed your site, it’s worth asking whether an existing verified property exists that you could be granted access to, rather than starting from zero.
Want someone to look at what yours is telling you?
I build websites and fix search visibility for Australian service businesses — including the unglamorous technical work that stops a good site from ever being found. Send me your domain and I’ll tell you what I see, plainly.
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