Setting up Google Search Console for a website

Pick the right property type

Search Console offers two kinds of property, and the choice changes everything that follows.

• A domain property covers every host, subdomain and protocol under your domain (example.com, www.example.com, secure.example.com, http and https in one). It is verified with a DNS TXT record.
• A URL-prefix property covers exactly one prefix you type, for example https://www.example.com/. It is verified with an HTML file or a meta tag in that exact URL.

For most sites a domain property is right. It survives later moves between hosts and protocols without re-verification, and it shows one combined picture of the whole domain. Pick a URL-prefix property only when you cannot touch DNS (a client's registrar is locked) or when you specifically want to report on one subfolder or one host.

Step 1: Add the property

Open Search Console, pick Add property, then Enter a domain. Type the domain without www and without the scheme, so example.com is correct and https://www.example.com is not. That bare form is what the domain property expects.

If you take the URL-prefix route instead, paste the full URL including https://.

Step 2: Prove you control the domain

For a domain property, verification is one DNS record at your registrar or DNS provider:

Name:  example.com
Type:  TXT
Value: google-site-verification=xxxxx

DNS changes do not apply instantly. If verification fails:

1. Wait, then check with a public DNS lookup tool whether the record has propagated. DNS changes can take from a few minutes to several hours depending on your provider's TTL. The DNS propagation guide covers this timing.
2. Re-check the record was copied exactly, including the trailing period of the FQDN, and that it is placed at the bare domain, not at a subdomain.
3. Verify again on the Search Console page.

The DNS record also has to propagate before verification succeeds. It normally applies within minutes to a couple of hours but can lag with a long TTL; the propagation timing is covered in the DNS propagation guide.

For the URL-prefix property, DNS is not required. Download the verification HTML file, upload it to the site root and fetch it via the browser, or add the provided <meta name="google-site-verification" content="..."> tag into the page head, then press Verify. The meta tag only works when the tag is in the body of the exact URL you added.

Step 3: Add your team

Verification does not automatically grant anyone else access. In Settings, Users and permissions, add people by their Google account with a role:

A good default for a freelancer is Restricted, and for a marketing employee Full. Review listed users periodically, because old access is a common source of "Search Console tied to a lost account" later.

Step 4: Confirm the machine is set up

After verification the reports are empty at first. Data from the last 90 days arrives by the next day or in a few hours; longer histories are a benefit of setting it up earlier rather than later. Two setup tasks that simulate the report:

1. Submit a sitemap into the Sitemaps section so discovered URLs are reported.
2. Use the URL inspection tool on the home page to confirm the property is responding.

That is the whole installation. From here, the request indexing and pages report articles take over.