Webmaster Tools (Google Search Console) is one of the most important tools for website owners to monitor site performance in general and search engines in particular.
In this article, we will learn about the optimal use of the Search console tool, and how to connect it to your WordPress site in the correct way to monitor the performance and analysis of your site.
What is Google Search Console?
Google Search Console, also known as “Google Webmaster Tools,” is a free service available to all website owners that shows you how Google indexes your site and adds it to Google search results, and also how users see your site in search results.
What you can do with Search Console:
- You can add new content for indexing, as well as add a sitemap.
- Delete or hide content from Google so that it does not appear in search results.
- Find and fix common malware and spam issues.
- Find out which search queries cause your site to appear in search results.
- Discover which queries (i.e. searches) drive the most traffic to your site.
- Find out what other sites are linking to your site.
- Shows internal and external pages linked to your site.
- Tracks total clicks, impressions, and statistics.
- Sends notifications about Google penalties and crawl errors
- Find out if your mobile site is attracting traffic to your site.
In other words, Google Search Console is a unique tool that gives you information about your site and the people who visit it.
How to add a site to Search Console?
You can add your site to Google Admin Tools by following these steps:
- First, you have to go to the Google Search Console website and start from there.
2. After that, you must log in using your account.
3- The next step is to enter your website address, and there are two ways to do this (either writing the domain name or the URL prefix).
You must pay attention to writing the site address correctly, as there is a difference, for example, between writing HTTP or HTTPS.
In order to know the correct address of your site, you must go to the WordPress control panel for your site and then to (Settings >> General)
4. Next comes the step of verifying ownership of the site and proving that it belongs to you or that you have permission to work on it and make these updates. There are several ways to do this (you can do this by manually writing the code inside the template files or by using one of the add-ons to do this
The easiest way to do this verification process is by copying the code that appears in the image and placing it on the home page of your site.
How to copy the verification code
1 – The manual method is by going to the WordPress control panel, then to ( Appearance << Template Editor ), then modify the header.php file and add the code directly above the <head/< tag.
Please note that this method may require you to reset the code again if the template is changed.
2- As for the second method of placing the code, it is by adding Insert Headers and Footers , where you need to install and activate it,
then in the WordPress control panel you will go to Settings >> Insert Headers and Footers,
then put the code as in the picture.
5. After that, you should go back to the Google Search Console settings and click Confirm
6. Google Search Console will now search for the HTML tag (the verification code you added earlier) in your website and will show you a success message.
“Your site has been successfully added to Search Console”
Here you have finished adding your site to webmaster tools, and you can go to the control panel to view and preview the performance of your site and much more.
Add an XML sitemap to Search Console
An XML sitemap is a file that contains all the contents of your website in XML format, so that search engines like Google can easily discover and index your content.
The easiest way to add a sitemap is by installing and activating the Yoast SEO plugin.
Steps to add a sitemap
1- After installing the Yoost add-on, you must go to SEO, then Features, then search for the option (XML sitemaps)
2-After that, you must click on the question mark to get the XML sitemap
3- After that, a new window will open containing the XML sitemap
4- After that, a new window will open containing the XML sitemap
5- Now that you have your XML sitemap ready, you must go to the Search Console and click on the Sitemaps menu from the left column.
6- Then you have to add the sitemap URL to Google Search Console
With this, your site has been completely added to Google Admin Tools
In the end, Google Search Console, or Webmaster Tools, are indispensable tools for any website today, to analyze and evaluate the site and manage your content in a way that contributes to improving the site’s performance.
