Google Search Console (previously known as Google Webmaster Tools), is a free tool that allows anyone who has a website to monitor how Google sees their website and optimize their organic presence on search engines.

The Google Search Console interface can be a bit overwhelming and confusing. Still, it helps to understand both the micro and the macro picture of your traffic. It provides rich features such as highest traffic queries and pages, detailed search results, referring domains and mobile site performance.

Google themselves claim that everyone should use Google Search Console, from SEO specialists, CEOs, marketing people, to web developers, site administrators, and sales specialists.

The first step to using Google Search Console is adding your website to it as a property so you can begin monitoring its SEO performance.

In this article, we’ll teach you how to add your domain name to Google Search Console.

Google Webmaster Tools

Start by logging in to your Google account. If you’re managing a business website – make sure to log in to your business account and not personal (if they’re different).

Next, go to Google Webmaster Tools, and if you haven’t done this before, you’ll see a screen that allows you to add a domain or URL prefix. 

If you want all subdomains (www, m, etc.) and all protocols (https and http) to be covered, select the Domain window. On the other hand, if you want to add only URLs under the selected web address, choose the URL prefix window. 

Most website owners want their entire domain added to Google Search Console, so we’ll be using the Domain window in this tutorial.

Verify domain ownership

The next screen asks you to verify your domain via DNS method, by adding a TXT record to your domain’s DNS configuration.

DNS zone editor

On your web hosting control panel or domain name registrar, look for your DNS Zone Manager. We’ll be using the cPanel control panel in our example.

In cPanel, click on DNS Zone Editor.

Manage

On the next page, click the Manage button next to your domain name to go to the next step:

Add TXT record

Next, click the drop-down menu with Add Record label in the top-right corner of the page, and select Add TXT Record from the dropdown:

Google site record

In the first field, enter your domain name with the period (.) at the end of the record. TTL and Type fields should remain the same, and in the Record field, input the string Google provided you previously:

Once completed, click the Add Record button to save it.

Verify

Now wait a couple of minutes for the DNS changes to propagate, and go back to the Google Webmasters Tools screen, and click on the Verify button:

Complete

If everything was done properly, you should see a success message on your Google Search Console dashboard:

If it doesn’t work immediately, wait another 5-10 minutes and try again, as it takes a bit for DNS changes to update across the internet.

Go to property

Now that you’ve completed the setup, click the Go to Property button, and you’ll see a Google Search Console with a new user greeting:

Click the Start button to start an automated tour where you can learn more about the GSC features.

URL prefix

If you want to add only a certain URL to Google Search Console, select the URL prefix pane, and input the full URL in the box:

In this case, you have several different verification methods available:

1. Via DNS (as explained previously)
2. By uploading an HTML file provided by Google to your website
3. By adding an HTML tag to your website’s code
4. Via a Google Analytics account
5. Via Google Tag Manager account

We recommend doing the verification either using DNS or by uploading the HTML file to your website as those are the most reliable and easiest methods.

To upload an HTML file, log in to your web hosting control panel, for example, the cPanel control panel, and go to the File Manager.

Once inside the File Manager, go to the exact directory (folder) of the URL you’ve submitted and click the Upload button in the top menu ribbon to upload the HTML file Google provided. 

For example, if you’re doing this on your primary domain name, you would go to the public_html directory and upload the file directly there. If it’s an addon domain – make sure to go to the web directory (sub-folder) for that specific addon domain.