Verify Google Webmaster Tool/ How To Verify Google Search Console
Monitoring the development of the health of a blog is something you must do as an owner. This time I will share with you how to how to verify Google Webmaster Tool.
Broadly speaking the role of Webmaster tools is to monitor the internal conditions of the blog, such as getting information about the crawling time of Googlebot, notifying various problems that arise, and more.
Some Google Search Console functions include:
- Knowing your blog’s backlink list.
- Know the status of your article index.
- Monitor errors that occur on your blog.
- Remove negative backlinks (disavow tool).
- Remove URLs that are broken.
- And much more.
Steps To Verify Google Webmaster Tool:
The first thing you have to do is go to the Google Webmaster Tools page. The newest appearance will look like in the picture below. Directly click Start Now.
You will be asked to log in to Gmail. My advice, use the same Gmail for blogs, Google Analytics, Webmasters, and other services related to your blog. That way you will not be confused about managing an account.
Add Domain:
In the second step, now you will face 2 choices on how to register Google Webmaster (previously only one option), namely, add Domain and add URL Prefix.
In the Add Domain method, you only need to enter your domain name, you don’t need to use the HTTP, HTTPS or Www append because later everything will be automatically integrated.
In the URL method, the prefix must be entered one by one. For example https://www.Bloggerconcept.com, https://www.Bloggerconcept.com, http://www.Bloggerconcept.com, and http://Bloggerconcept.com. All four are entered and verified one by one.
New Method:
In the left column (Domain) just enter your domain without any frills like the example image above. After entering the domain name please click Continue.
You will be taken to a new page like the image below. Verification can only be done via DNS Manager. If you add URL Prefix, it can be done via HTML, Tag Manager, Google Analytics, and other options. Please click Copy to copy the verification code.
In the third step, you must enter the code into your domain provider’s DNS Manager. So you have to open the Client Area dashboard where you buy the domain.
Because it may be different in different domains and how to access the DNS Manager is also different. So the shortcut is to ask for CS help. I can’t explain it here.
I will only explain how to enter the code into Cloudflare. With a note that your blog has been integrated with Cloudflare. If not, please read the first article to register a blog to Cloudflare ( coming soon ).
Please log in to Cloudflare, click on your active website, then enter the DNS menu. Enter the code in the format as I marked the red box. See the image below. If so, click Add Record.
Enter the verification code:
You come back to the Webmaster page and please click Verify at the bottom right. Then your domain property should have been verified, like the example image below.
Verified domain
Add URL Prefix:
The second Google Webmaster listing method is an old method that was there from the beginning. Do you still need it? I don’t think so, in the first method all the URLs have been integrated.
This second method is more suitable for alternatives if you have trouble verifying via DNS Manager. In the second method namely URL Prefix you can choose many verification options.
Okay, we continue. Enter the full URL of your blog in the field provided in the right column like the image below. This is the step to register your blog in Search Console.
Click Continue.
Old method:
In the second step, you are asked to verify web ownership. There are many options. This time I will give an example of how to use HTML tags. Copy the code in quotation marks (see image below), then enter the Yoast SEO plugin in your blog.
Verification method:
In the Yoast SEO settings go to the General >> Webmaster Tools menu and then enter the code in the ” Google verification code ” field. Click Save Changes.
Verification via Yoast
For example, if you don’t use the Yoast plugin, you can choose other verification options, such as HTML files, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, and also Domain name providers.
Verification method selection
HTML File:
If you use this method, please download the HTML file, then upload it to the public_html folder of your blog. The trick is to log in cPanel >> find and click File Manager.
You will enter the File Manager page. Open the public_html folder, then upload the HTML file that you downloaded earlier. Click the upload button in the top menu options.
Analytics / Tag Manager:
If you use this method, make sure you have created an Analytics / Tag Manager account for your blog, and installed the tracker code in the header.php of your blog. So in the Webmaster section, just click verification.
Domain Name Provider
This verification process is exactly the way to verify the Add Domain method (point number 1 above). Please scroll and read again.
It’s up to you which verification method you choose. The easiest and most recommended is to use HTML tags, as I demonstrated at the beginning.
If so, return to the Webmaster page, click Verify, then click Go to Property. Now your blog is integrated with Webmaster, and in 24 – 48 Hours, the data will start to appear.
The next step is also important which is to submit your blog’s Sitemap into Webmaster tools, to speed up and make it easier for Googlebot to crawl your blog.
Webmaster Tools Features:
Finished listing your website in Google Webmaster, I will try to discuss some of the basic functions of Webmaster tools that you need to know. By the way, all the images in this article use the latest Google Search Console.
So do not be confused if there are differences in appearance.
Overview:
This is the first menu from Google Search Console that I will discuss. This section is a summary of all the features that will be discussed below. In this section, Performance, Coverage & Enhancements graphics are displayed.
Performance:
The first feature is Performance, which displays the overall performance of your blog. The parameters consist of Total Clicks, Impressions, Average CTR, and Average Position.
- Total Clicks shows the total number of clicks to your blog that visitors make on the search engine.
- Total Impressions show how many of your articles appear in search engines.
- Average CTR is the average value of the comparison between the total views of your article in search engines, compared with the total clicks that occur.
- Average Position shows the average position of all your articles in search engines.
The data displayed is taken from the results of the last 3 months.
Blog Performance
At the bottom, there are several tabs namely Queries, Pages, Countries, Devices, and Search Appearance. Each tab displays data sorted by most.
- Queries display any keywords that contribute the most traffic to your blog.
- Pages show which article pages are the most accessed by visitors.
- Countries indicate which country the visitor is from.
- Devices show the devices visitors use when accessing your blog.
From this data, you can clearly see, what keywords enter your blog most often, which pages you visit the most, which countries your majority of visitors are from, and more.
Search queries:
URL Inspection:
As the name suggests, this feature is useful for analyzing the URL that you entered in the URL Inspection field. You can find out whether the URL is indexed or not, appears in the search or not, and more.
URL inspection
Index Coverage
Webmaster coverage will analyze the pages and article posts that are in your blog. There are 4 main parameters namely Error, Valid with Warning, Valid, and Excluded.
With this feature, it will be easy for you to monitor if there are pages that have errors, or just see which pages are excluded (excluded) from Google search.
Coverage
Sitemaps:
A sitemap is a page that lists the URLs of your article posts. You must submit your blog’s Sitemap page in the “Add a new sitemap ” section.
By submitting a sitemap, articles on your blog will be more easily found by Googlebot and indexed in search engines. If you use Yoast, the default Sitemap is domain.com/sitemap_index.xml.
Sitemap
If you click on the Sitemap name, you will be taken to a new page. There is one new feature, namely the option to delete a Sitemap (previously this feature only existed in the old version of Webmaster). The method is quite easy, as below:
Sitemap delete feature
Removals
Perhaps you have old content on the blog that you want to delete, or for other reasons that the content you want to be removed from the blog, you can easily delete.
The problem is, content that has been removed is usually still left in Google’s index, and causes a 404 error when Googlebot crawls your blog.
So the removal tools feature is provided by Google so that you can submit the deleted URL so that Google can immediately find out and update your blog page index in search engines.
Feature to delete URL
ALSO READ: How To Setup Yoast SEO Plugin Settings- Best Methods 2024
Enhancements
Speed (Experimental)
In this new menu, you can see the speed report of all pages on your blog if accessed via desktop and mobile.
This report is based on Google Chrome browser user experience report data, so it is considered sufficient to reflect the real situation when your blog is opened by the user.
Desktop speed reports
Mobile speed reports
If you click “open report” then you will find a more detailed report, which pages are fast, average, and slow.
Mobile speed issue
Mobile Usability
Mobile usability in webmasters will let you know if there are article pages that are not mobile-friendly. Usually, this is due to the theme you use is not mobile-friendly.
These days, a mobile-friendly page is very important as far as Google is concerned, because the majority of users access your website more from mobile phones.
Mobile usability
Breadcrumbs
This section provides reports on the pages of your blog that use Breadcrumbs. Generally the article page. Here you can see if there’s an error with your Breadcrumbs structure.
Breadcrumbs structure report
Searchbox Sitelinks
This is the latest Google Search Console feature. The point is to see valid articles indexed and enter the search box/search box in your blog site link. Examples like Pinterest.
Sitelink search box
See the picture above. When you type “pizza” and click search, a new search page will appear that displays thousands of content about pizza only from the Pinterest website.
This list of thousands of content will display data in the Sitelink Searchbox menu in the latest version of Webmaster. If your blog hasn’t got the Sitelink feature, for the moment ignore this feature.
FAQ
It also features the latest schema from Webmasters, specifically for articles that have FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions in them). If you use the Yoast plugin the feature is already available in the Gutenberg editor:
How to create a FAQ schema
Later the results in the search engine will be like this:
Display in search engines
Cool, right? Hehe. Besides good in the eyes of Google, of course, will increase the potential of clicks by visitors, because one article can appear quite elongated because there are additional FAQs.
In addition to the Sitelink Searchbox and FAQ, there are many more Schema features provided by Google, adjusting the type of article. For example for recipes, available Schema Carousels.
Security & Manual Actions
Manual Actions
There is a review team (humans) from Google that reviews your blog manually and discovers there are problems, then the problem will appear in this section. But it rarely happens. You can see the types of action manuals on this page.
Security Issues
If there are security issues with your blog, notifications will appear in this section. For example, your blog is hacked, or compromised by malware due to (for example) the use of pirated themes or plugins.
Legacy Tools & Reports
This section contains features that have existed since the old version of Google Search Console. I do not understand why this old feature is displayed again. Maybe there are still many who use it, so there are many who request it.
International Targeting
In this section, you can determine the target audience settings for your blog. This feature makes it easy for Google to optimize your content for searches in your targeted country.
The example below is for the Bloggerconcept.com blog.
Target visitor country settings
Crawl Stats
In this section, you can see several reports of Googlebot’s movement activity on your blog for the past 90 days.
The size of the blog page that Googlebot downloads
The number of pages of your blog that Googlebot visited
The duration of time that Googlebot downloads the blog page
Messages
Here you can see incoming messages regarding errors and all activities that you do in Google Search Console. Like the picture below, I received several report messages after submitting a garbage link that led to the blog Bloggerconcept.com
Message feature in Search Console
Parameters URL
I do not understand this feature. But Googlebot said there was no problem with the reach of my blog in the search engine, so I don’t need to mind this.
Because setting errors in this section can cause the ranking of your blog pages to plunge freely in the Google search engine. So it is highly recommended that you don’t use this feature unless it’s absolutely necessary.
Feature URL parameters
Web Tools
The last feature of the old version of the Search Console that is displayed on the latest dashboard is Web Tools. It contains several features, I don’t think it’s too important. Not a common feature too. So you just explore and understand yourself. Because I also don’t understand, hahaha.
Links
Webmaster links will give you a list of internal links and external links (backlinks) that point to your website. There is also a list of domains that provide backlinks.
- Top linked pages tell you which pages get the most links (both internal and external links).
- Top linking sites show other website domain names that provide links to certain pages on your blog.
- The top linking text shows words/sentences that other websites use as anchor text links that point to certain pages in your blog.
Through this feature, you can analyze from any website that provides a link to your blog. The more quality backlinks that come in, the better your blog’s performance will be in search engines.
Internal & external links
Settings
The last is Webmaster settings, to verify account ownership, and also set a list of users who can access your Webmaster account, along with their respective access rights.
Google Webmaster Settings
Also, there is a feature to notify Google that your blog changes domain. And at the bottom there is a description, Googlebot which is currently crawling your blog is still a desktop version or a mobile version.
If your blog is new, the results will be as above. But if it’s been a long time, it will usually turn into Googlebot Smartphones, because Google prioritizes mobile indexing. After all, more Google users are accessing it via smartphones.
Submit Feedback
Have problems using the latest Google Webmaster dashboard? You can address the problem in this section. Considering it’s still new, there may still be some bugs.
About New Version
Here you can read all information and documentation about the latest version of Google Search Console. Maybe it needs.
Closing
Thus a short article about how to register Google Webmaster tools and all the features you need to know. This way, your blog is easier to analyze if a problem occurs.
In the guide to creating a blog, using Webmaster tools is a mandatory thing to do. The combination of Google Analytics and Google Search Console will create a complete set of data.
