Your site is live, but you have no idea whether Google has even found it. You don’t know which pages are in Google’s index, what people search before they land on you, or whether something broke last week. Google Search Console answers all of that for free, straight from Google’s own data. Setting it up takes one sitting.
The short answer: Google Search Console is Google’s free tool that shows how your site appears in Google Search. To set it up, sign in at Search Console with a Google account your business controls, add your site as a Domain property, verify it with a DNS record at your domain provider, submit your sitemap, and inspect your homepage. Data starts to appear within a few days. Then check it about once a month.
What is Google Search Console?
Search Console is a free tool from Google that shows how your website performs in Google Search. Google describes it as a tool that can help anyone with a website. It shows which searches bring people to your site, which of your pages Google has indexed, and which problems stop pages from showing up.
You don’t need Search Console for Google to find your site. Google discovers pages by following links, as our guide on how Google Search works explains. What Search Console gives you is visibility: you see your site the way Google sees it, and Google can email you when it finds a problem.
It is different from Google Analytics. Analytics tells you what visitors do once they are on your site. Search Console tells you what happens before the click: how often your pages appear in Google, for which searches, and how often people click.
Domain property or URL-prefix property?
When you add a site, Search Console asks you to choose a property type. A property is simply the part of your site that Search Console will report on. There are two kinds, and Google’s help page on adding a property explains the difference:
| Domain property | URL-prefix property | |
|---|---|---|
| Example | example.com | https://www.example.com/ |
| What it covers | All subdomains (www, m and others) and both http and https. | Only URLs that start with that exact address, including the protocol. |
| How you verify | A DNS record at your domain provider only. | Several methods: HTML file, HTML tag, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager or DNS. |
| Best for | Most business websites. | A section of a site, or when you can’t edit DNS. |
If you can reach your domain’s DNS settings, choose a Domain property. It gives you the whole site in one report.
A URL-prefix property for https://example.com/ does not include https://www.example.com/ or http://example.com/. Many site owners set one up, see almost no data, and think something is wrong. The data is going to a version of the address they didn’t add. A Domain property avoids that problem.
How do you set up Search Console step by step?
Here is the full setup, in order. Have your domain provider login ready before you start.
- Pick the right Google account. Use a Google account that belongs to the business, not a personal account of an employee or a freelancer who may leave. Whoever owns this account owns your Search Console data.
- Open Search Console and add a property. Go to Search Console, open the property selector and choose to add a property. Choose Domain and type your domain without https or www, for example example.com.
- Copy the TXT record. Search Console shows a DNS TXT record that starts with “google-site-verification=”. Copy it.
- Add the record at your domain provider. Log in where you bought or manage your domain, open the DNS settings and add a new TXT record with that value. If your DNS is managed somewhere else, such as your hosting company, add it there.
- Click Verify. DNS changes can take time to spread. If verification fails at first, wait and try again later. You can also choose “Verify later” and come back.
- Leave the record in place. Google checks verification from time to time. Its verification help page says not to remove the DNS record, even after verification succeeds.
- Submit your sitemap. Open the Sitemaps report and enter your sitemap address. The steps are in the next section.
- Inspect your homepage. Paste your homepage address into the search bar at the top of Search Console. This runs the URL Inspection tool and tells you whether Google has indexed it.
- Add the people who need access. Give your developer, marketer or agency their own access under Settings, then Users and permissions. Never share the account password.
Google says data collection starts as soon as the property is added, even before verification, and that it takes a few days for data to appear. An empty report on day one is normal.
Which verification method should you use?
A Domain property can only be verified with a DNS record. A URL-prefix property gives you more choices. Pick the one you can keep in place for as long as you use Search Console:
- DNS record. The only option for a Domain property, and the most stable. It survives a website redesign because it lives at your domain provider, not on the site.
- HTML file. You upload a small file Google gives you to your site. Google warns that removing this file loses verification. It often disappears when a site is rebuilt.
- HTML tag. You add a meta tag to your homepage. It also disappears if a new theme or a redesign drops it.
- Google Analytics or Google Tag Manager. These work if the same Google account already manages the tracking code on your site.
Verification lasts only as long as Google can still find your token. If the token goes, Google notifies you, and after a grace period the owner loses access. If every owner loses access, every user does too.
How do you submit a sitemap?
A sitemap is a file that lists the pages on your site you want Google to know about. Most website platforms create one for you, usually at an address like example.com/sitemap.xml. Open that address in your browser first to make sure it loads.
To submit it, open the Sitemaps report in Search Console, paste the sitemap address and click Submit. Google’s Sitemaps report help page says Google fetches it right away, and the report then shows one of three statuses:
| Status | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Success | Google loaded and processed the sitemap with no errors. | Nothing. Check again after big site changes. |
| Has errors | Google fetched the sitemap, but it has one or more errors. | Open the sitemap in the report to see the errors, fix them and resubmit. |
| Couldn’t fetch | Google could not fetch the sitemap. | Check that the address is right, that it loads, and that robots.txt does not block it. |
A sitemap helps Google find pages. It does not force Google to index them.
Google is clear that a page listed in a sitemap is not guaranteed to be crawled or indexed. The sitemap is a list of suggestions. Whether a page gets indexed still depends on whether Google can reach it and whether it is worth showing.
Which reports should you check first?
Search Console has many reports. A small business only needs four of them most of the time.
Page indexing
The Page indexing report shows how many of your pages Google has indexed, and why the others are not indexed. Google says not to expect every URL on your site to be indexed. The goal is to get the main version of every important page indexed. Some reasons look alarming but are normal:
| Reason shown | What it means | Usually a problem? |
|---|---|---|
| Page with redirect | The address redirects to another page. Only the target is indexed. | No, if the redirect is intended. |
| Alternate page with proper canonical tag | A variant page that correctly points to its main version. | No. |
| Duplicate without user-selected canonical | Google chose another page as the main version. | Only if Google chose the wrong page. |
| Not found (404) | The page returns a “not found” error. | No, if you removed the page on purpose. |
| URL marked ‘noindex’ | The page tells Google not to index it. | Yes, if it is a page you want in search. |
| Crawled – currently not indexed | Google visited the page and chose not to index it for now. | Worth checking on an important page. |
| Discovered – currently not indexed | Google knows the address but hasn’t crawled it yet. | Usually wait. Common on new sites. |
Look at the reasons on your important pages first: services, locations and contact.
When you fix an issue across all affected pages, click Validate fix in that issue’s view. Google says validation typically takes up to about two weeks, and you should not click it again while it is running.
Performance
The Performance report shows how your site does in Google Search. It has four numbers. Clicks are the times someone clicked through to your site. Impressions are the times your site appeared in results. CTR is clicks divided by impressions. Average position is the average rank of your highest result. The default view covers the past three months.
The table under the chart can be grouped by queries, pages, countries, devices, search appearance and dates. The Queries tab is the most useful: it shows the real searches people used before they saw your site, which is exactly what our keyword research guide tells you to look for. Pages with many impressions and few clicks are a good place to start: a clearer title and description can help.
URL Inspection
The URL Inspection tool checks one page at a time. It shows whether the page is on Google, when it was last crawled, which version Google treats as the main one, and whether robots.txt or a noindex tag blocks it. The first result is from the last indexed version. Click Test live URL to check the page as it is right now.
After you publish or change an important page, you can click Request indexing. Google says this does not guarantee the page will appear in its index, that there is a daily limit per property, and that for many pages a sitemap is the better route.
Core Web Vitals and Generative AI performance
The Core Web Vitals report groups your pages by how fast and stable they are for real visitors. Our guide to website speed and Core Web Vitals explains what those scores mean and how to fix them.
Search Console also has a Generative AI performance report. Google says it shows impressions from AI Overviews and AI Mode in Google Search, and that as of August 31, 2026 it is available for all websites. It may not appear if your site hasn’t had enough impressions in those features yet.
How do you give your developer or agency access?
Add people as users. Don’t hand over your Google account password. Google’s permissions help page lists the levels:
- Owner. Full control, including adding and removing users. A verified owner has their own verification token. A delegated owner was added by another owner.
- Full user. Sees all the data and can take some actions, such as submitting sitemaps, but cannot add users.
- Restricted user. Sees most of the data, with limited actions.
Keep the business as the owner. Give a developer or agency full user access for day-to-day work, and owner access only if they really need to manage other users. When someone stops working with you, remove them from Users and permissions. Google also notes that a removed owner can get access back through a verification token left on the site, so remove their token too.
How often should you check Search Console?
You don’t need to open it every day. Google emails owners when it finds new issues, and its own getting-started guide suggests checking around once a month. Make sure the email address on the owner account is one someone actually reads.
A monthly check only needs four stops:
- Performance: compare clicks and impressions with the previous period, and look for new queries.
- Page indexing: check that your important pages are still indexed.
- Any messages or issues Google has sent.
- Core Web Vitals: check for new pages marked as poor.
Check sooner after a redesign, a move to a new domain or a large batch of new pages. Those are the moments when indexing problems usually start.
What mistakes do people make with Search Console?
- Setting it up under someone else’s account. A freelancer leaves and takes the access with them.
- Adding the wrong URL-prefix. Adding http:// when the site runs on https://, or leaving out www, and then seeing no data.
- Deleting the verification record. Removing the DNS record or HTML file after verifying, and losing access later.
- Panicking over “not indexed”. Redirects, alternates and removed pages are supposed to be left out.
- Requesting indexing again and again. One request is enough. Google says asking again for the same URL won’t get it crawled any faster.
- Never opening it again. Search Console only helps if someone reads it.
Frequently asked questions
Is Google Search Console free?
Yes. Search Console is free for any website. You only need a Google account and access to your site or your domain’s DNS settings to verify that you own it.
Does setting up Search Console improve my rankings?
Not by itself. Search Console shows you how Google sees your site and which problems to fix. Your rankings improve when you fix those problems and improve your pages.
How long until Search Console shows data?
Google says data collection starts when the property is added and that data takes a few days to appear. A brand-new site may show very little until Google has crawled and indexed its pages.
Should I choose a Domain property or a URL-prefix property?
Choose a Domain property if you can add a DNS record at your domain provider. It covers every subdomain and both http and https in one report. Use a URL-prefix property only if you can’t edit DNS or want to track one section separately.
Why does Search Console say some of my pages are not indexed?
Many of those pages are meant to be left out, such as redirects, duplicate versions and removed pages. Google says not to expect every URL to be indexed. Check the reason given for each of your important pages and fix those first.
The bottom line
Search Console is the only place you can see your site through Google’s own data, and it costs nothing. Set it up under a business Google account, use a Domain property verified by DNS, keep the record in place, submit your sitemap and inspect your key pages. Then give it a short check once a month.
Kyvo Media sets up and reads Search Console as part of our SEO service, and uses what it shows to fix indexing problems and improve pages in Arabic and English. Book a free audit and we’ll walk you through what your Search Console data says about your site.