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How do you set up Google Search Console for your business website?

The short answer

Add your site as a Domain property, which covers every subdomain and both http and https, and verify it with a DNS record at your domain provider. Make sure someone in your business is a verified owner, then add your team and your agency as users. Submit your sitemap, check your key pages with the URL Inspection tool, and read the Performance report for clicks, impressions and position.

For
Business owners who want their website set up and checked in Google Search Console
You leave with
The five setup steps, who should own the property, and what to check once data arrives
Time
5 min read

By Rahul Bansal,

On this page
  1. Step 1: add a Domain property and verify it with DNS
  2. Step 2: make the business an owner, then add everyone else
  3. Step 3: submit your sitemap
  4. Step 4: check your important pages are indexed
  5. Step 5: read the Performance report
  6. A short check once it is running
  7. How we can help
  8. Questions people ask
  9. Sources

Google Search Console shows how your website does in Google Search: which searches show it, which pages Google has indexed, and what problems it found. One part of setting it up is not technical at all: deciding who owns the property.

Step 1: add a Domain property and verify it with DNS

Search Console offers two kinds of website property. A Domain property (example.com) includes all subdomains, such as www and m, and both http and https. A URL-prefix property (https://example.com/) includes only URLs that start with that exact prefix. For most businesses the Domain property is the one to have.

  1. In Search Console, open the property selector and choose Add property.
  2. Pick Domain and type your domain without https:// or www (Google includes www automatically).
  3. Search Console usually gives you a TXT record. Add it to your DNS records at the company you bought your domain from. If your provider is in Search Console's list, it can walk you through this.
  4. Click Verify.

Google's verification help says a manually added record can take up to two or three days to start working, so if verification fails, wait a day or two and try again. Keep the record afterwards: removing it loses your verification.

Step 2: make the business an owner, then add everyone else

Search Console has three main roles:

RoleWhat Google says it can do
OwnerFull control: add and remove users, change settings, see all data, use all tools
Full userView all data and take some actions
Restricted userSimple view rights on most data

Only owners can add users. A property must have at least one verified owner, or nobody has access. If all verified owners are removed, everyone else loses access after a grace period.

Our advice: the business should be the verified owner, using a Google Account the business controls, not an agency's or a former employee's. Then add your agency or developer as a full user, or as an owner if they need to manage users. When someone leaves, remove them in Settings > Users and permissions, and also delete their verification token. Google says that while a removed owner's token stays on your site or DNS, they can re-verify and get back in. Google also warns that an owner you do not recognise may mean your site has been hacked.

Step 3: submit your sitemap

A sitemap is a file on your site that tells Google which pages it should know about. Ask your developer or platform for its address; Google says hosts such as Squarespace and Wix probably manage it for you.

Open the Sitemaps report, paste the full sitemap URL and click Submit. The Sitemaps help page says this needs owner permissions; without them you can list the sitemap in your robots.txt file instead. Check back that the status says Success.

Google Search Central calls a sitemap "merely a hint": it does not guarantee Google will use it. The Sitemaps help page adds that not all URLs in a sitemap may be crawled.

Step 4: check your important pages are indexed

Type a page's full address into the search bar at the top of Search Console. URL Inspection tells you whether Google has indexed it, which pages Google may have used to discover it, and which version Google treats as the main (canonical) one.

For a new site, Google says the best first step is to request indexing of your homepage. Indexing usually takes a day or so but can take much longer, a request does not guarantee indexing, and there is a daily limit.

The Page indexing report shows indexed and not indexed pages across the site. Google says most sites have a few unindexed pages, which is fine for reasons such as duplicates, a noindex tag or a removed page, but your important pages should be indexed. If your site has fewer than 500 pages, Google suggests searching site:yourdomain.com instead of studying this report.

Step 5: read the Performance report

The Performance report shows the past three months by default:

  • Clicks: how many times someone clicked through to your site from Google Search.
  • Impressions: how many times your site appeared in results.
  • CTR: clicks divided by impressions.
  • Average position: the average position of your site's topmost result.

Switch the table to Queries to see what people searched, or Pages to see which pages they found. Google notes that you may not see your site when you run the same search yourself, because results depend on time, place, device and history.

A short check once it is running

  • Who is a verified owner, and is one of them someone in your business?
  • Is anyone listed who no longer works with you?
  • Does the sitemap status say Success?
  • Are your homepage and main service or product pages indexed?

If you are about to redesign or move your site, read how to redesign without losing your Google rankings first.

How we can help

  • A one-time search foundation setup: Google Analytics measurement, Google Search Console ownership, sitemap submission and index coverage, and core on-page SEO foundations. SEO and analytics.
  • Ongoing SEO and reporting: we monitor search performance, catch indexing issues and turn changing data into a useful improvement plan. SEO and analytics.
  • Brand sites, portals and online stores, built from your design or ours, with content your team can edit. Websites and e-commerce.

Questions people ask

Should we choose a Domain property or a URL-prefix property?

Google's help says a Domain property includes all subdomains and protocols, while a URL-prefix property includes only URLs that start with the exact prefix, including http or https. If you cannot change DNS, a URL-prefix property can be verified in other ways, such as an HTML file or tag.

How soon will we see data?

Google says data collection starts as soon as anyone adds the property, even before verification, and data should begin to appear in a few days.

Does a small site need a sitemap?

Google says a site of about 500 pages or fewer, where every page can be reached by links from the homepage, probably does not need one. If Squarespace or Wix hosts your site, they probably manage the sitemap for you.

Can you set up Search Console on a website you did not build?

Yes. We begin with a technical and measurement review, then confirm what access and changes the existing platform supports.

Sources

  1. Search Console Help: Add a website or platform property to Search ConsoleChecked 27 October 2026
  2. Search Console Help: Verify your site ownershipChecked 27 October 2026
  3. Search Console Help: Managing owners, users, and permissionsChecked 27 October 2026
  4. Search Console Help: Sitemaps reportChecked 27 October 2026
  5. Google Search Central: Build and submit a sitemapChecked 27 October 2026
  6. Search Console Help: URL Inspection toolChecked 27 October 2026
  7. Search Console Help: Page indexing reportChecked 27 October 2026
  8. Search Console Help: Performance report (Search results): Overview and basic setupChecked 27 October 2026

Other companies change their prices and fees. Check the source before you rely on a figure.

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