To succeed in the competitive world of SEO, the first thing you need to do after setting up your website is to verify Google Search Console ownership. You don’t have to verify your website in GSC to show up in search results, but you need to do it to have access to all the important data the tool provides. Google Search Console is an invaluable tool for webmasters as it helps to identify site errors, get Google to index your website pages, find out if your site is mobile-friendly, what search queries people use to find it, and more.

And today, our goal is to tell you how to set up Google Search Console right.

How to add your site to Google Search Console

To add your website to GSC and verify your ownership, you need to sign in to Google Search Console, click Add New Property, choose and use one of the five available methods:

• Domain name provider
• HTML tag
• HTML file
• Google Analytics tracking code
• Google Tag Manager container snippet
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Domain property in Search Console

After selecting Add New Property, you will have to choose a property type. GSC allows verification of the two website property types: URL-prefix property and Domain property. Unlike the URL-prefix property that supports several verification types, the latter stands for DNS record verification only. A domain property includes all subdomains such as m, www, and multiple protocols: http, https, ftp.

DNS verification is one of the best methods to verify your website because you won’t have to verify your property again in case you need to switch from www to non-www in the future.