The Google Search Console has a number of tools that can help you understand your site's Search performance. We're going to go over some of the most useful tools to use in your daily optimization.
If you haven't yet started using Search Console, now's a great time! The more data you have about your website's organic Search traffic, along with other performance metrics, the easier it will be for you to proactively optimize for success.
It helps you optimize your website such as how many links you have pointing to it and using the URL parameters that you can use to create more relevant content. The first step after getting started with the interface is verifying your property in the search console, which will help improve rank and make sure your website doesn't get removed from Google's index for any reason.
It's important to note that this doesn't mean your website will instantly rank higher or show up on searches; it just gives you a head-start.
Domain properties show data for all URLS under the domain name, including different subdomains, paths and protocols. This will give you a complete view of your entire website, Google Analytics will also do this as well but you will need to create that separately.
There are two different ways of verifying your website on Google Search Console: by your domain or URL prefix. You should try to go the domain route because you will be able to put one url like "domain.com" but you will have to go through your DNS record verification. This can be an issue for some people as Google does not provide you with great information in Google Search Console.
That being said, here are 3 main tips for the most common issues that I have experienced in the past while working on my client's websites.
Tip #1: When you are trying to verify a domain-level property, use the instructions for the correct DNS website and Webmaster Central.
You will see the small list they have with different instructions, if you don't see your hosting website you should use Webmaster Central as they have a longer list of instructions.
Tip #2: Still can't find the domain hosting website you purchased your domain on? Check out this master list
This works very similarly as the first tip but it will have more specific instructions on the verification process through multiple website platforms. This article will help you figure out how to verify your domain on google. If you don't find your website domain, maybe you should buy another domain.
No, just kidding, you will have to go through the harder version though. If you domain is new, you might want to look into purchasing your domain on the website's listed. You might have a hard time ranking the domain. Google is pretty on top of things so if they don't know the domain website than perhaps there's a reason.
Tip #3: It might take some time to see the DNS verification
It might take up to 24 hours for the DNS record to propagate so wait. The more records you have on your DNS record will take more time to pop up. Also if you are changing the CNAME or TXT records you will want to change the run rate to the lowest time. If you want to start fresh, you can clear the cache of your DNS records.
