Google Search Console Setup, Indexing and Performance Guide

Google Search Console is a tool that shows how your site appears in Google Search. Once you add a property and verify ownership, you can submit sitemaps, request indexing and check search performance (as of October 4, 2026). To add a property, choose [Add property] in the property selector, pick either Domain or URL prefix, and then select a verification method. Below, we cover setup, ownership verification, sitemap submission, indexing requests and the performance report in order.

Set up Google Search Console by choosing a Domain or URL prefix property

In Search Console, each site is registered as a unit called a "property". The first choice when you add one is whether to use a Domain property or a URL prefix property.

1. Open the property selector in Search Console and click [+ Add property].
2. Choose Website as the type, then select either Domain or URL prefix.
3. A screen appears for choosing a verification method. You can continue right away or come back later.
4. Once verified, data starts to build up after a few days.

The difference between the two types is the scope of data they collect.

Type	Data scope	Ownership verification	When to choose it
Domain property (e.g. example.com)	Includes data for http and https and all subdomains	DNS record only	When you want to see the whole site at once
URL prefix property (e.g. https://example.com)	Only the protocol and path you enter	HTML file, meta tag, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, DNS and more	When you cannot edit DNS, or want to view only a specific subpath (e.g. /clothing/)

According to Google, you use a URL prefix property when you need to split data by URL path or protocol. If you want to see the whole site at once, use a Domain property, which has the widest scope. Note that a Domain property can only be verified with a DNS record. If you cannot edit DNS records, choose a URL prefix property, which supports other verification methods.

5 ways to verify ownership in Search Console

Ownership verification is the step where you prove to Google that you own the site. The requirements for each method are listed in the ownership verification help page.

Method	What you do	Access you need
HTML file upload	Upload the verification file you downloaded to the site's root directory. The file must open in a browser	Root directory access
HTML meta tag	Add the meta tag that Search Console gives you to your homepage HTML	Permission to edit the HTML
Google Analytics	Verify with the tracking code you have already installed	Edit permission on that Analytics account
Google Tag Manager	Verify with the installed container snippet	Publish or admin permission on the container
DNS record	Add a DNS record to your domain provider's record list to prove ownership	DNS access (the only method available for Domain properties)

Your verification stays valid as long as Search Console can confirm that the verification token exists and is valid. So do not delete the meta tag, HTML file or DNS record you used for verification.

How to submit a sitemap in Search Console

A sitemap is a file that lists the URLs of your site. Google does not consider it necessary for every site. A small site with 500 pages or fewer and good internal linking does not strictly need a sitemap. It helps if your site is new and has few external links pointing to it, or if it has many pages.

1. Create a sitemap file and upload it to your site. Write URLs as fully qualified absolute URLs (the full address starting with https://), and save the file in UTF-8.
2. Open the Sitemaps report in Search Console.
3. Paste the sitemap URL into the "Add a new sitemap" field and click [Submit].
4. Check the status in the list on the same screen.

A single sitemap can hold up to 50MB uncompressed or 50,000 URLs. If you go over, split it into several files and group them with a sitemap index file.

After you submit, the status shown in the list is one of three, based on the Sitemaps report help page.

Status	Meaning	What to do
Success	The sitemap was fetched and read without errors	Nothing
Couldn't fetch	Google could not download the file itself	Check that the sitemap URL opens, and use the live URL test to confirm Google can access it
Has errors	The file was fetched but has one or more errors	Check the errors shown in the report, fix the file and resubmit

"Success" means the file was read. It does not mean the pages were indexed. Google states that it does not guarantee that every item in a sitemap will be crawled and indexed. To check whether an individual page is indexed, use the method in the next section.

How to request indexing and use URL Inspection in Search Console

Indexing means Google stores a page so it can show it in search results. Use the URL Inspection tool to see whether a new or updated post has been indexed.

1. Paste the full URL of the page you want to check into the inspection search bar at the top of Search Console.
2. Read the status message at the top of the result. "URL is on Google" means the page is indexed, and "URL is not on Google" means it does not appear in search results.
3. If you have found and fixed the reason the page is not on Google, click [Request indexing] on the result screen.

After you request, it takes usually about a day and up to 1 to 2 weeks. There is a daily quota on requests. If you have many pages, use a sitemap instead of repeating requests. A request does not guarantee the page will appear in the index. If the same URL shows "URL is on Google" when you inspect it again, it is indexed. If nothing changes after 1 to 2 weeks, check the reason in the Page indexing report.

If several pages are not indexed, group them by reason in the Page indexing report. Common reasons and fixes are in the Page indexing report help page.

Reason not indexed	Cause	Fix
NOINDEX tag	The page has a noindex directive	Remove noindex from the tag or response header, check the live version with URL Inspection, then request indexing
Blocked by robots.txt	robots.txt blocks the page	Remove the blocking rule. Note that a page blocked by robots.txt can still be indexed through other routes, so use noindex to keep a page out of the index
Server error (5xx)	The server returns a 500-level error	Contact your hosting provider and reduce server load
Soft 404	The page shows a "not found" message but the response code is not 404	Return a 404 for pages that do not exist, or fill the page with real content
Discovered / Crawled - currently not indexed	Google has not crawled the page yet, or crawled it but chose not to index it	No special action is needed, and resubmitting is not required. Wait for Google's decision

After you fix the problem, click [Validate fix] on the details screen. Validation generally takes up to 2 weeks, so track progress on the same screen.

How to read the Search Console performance report: clicks, impressions, CTR and position

The performance report, found under [Performance] in the left menu, shows in numbers how your site appeared in Google Search. The meaning of each metric is in the Performance report help page.

Metric	Meaning
Clicks	The number of times users clicked your site in Google Search results
Impressions	The number of times your site was shown in Google Search results
CTR (click-through rate)	Clicks divided by impressions
Average position	The average position at which your site appeared in search results

You can break the data down by query (search term), page, country and device. To see how a new post is doing, filter by page and select that URL, then look at impressions by query to learn which search terms it appeared for.

Do not assume something is wrong just because you see no numbers. Collected data is usually published within 2 to 3 days, and a newly added property can take up to a week to produce data. Queries that are used very rarely or may contain personal information do not appear in the list. The most recent section of the graph is preliminary data that is still being collected, so it is shown as a dotted line.

Search Console FAQ

Will my site not appear in search if I do not register with Search Console?

No. Google explains that most sites are discovered automatically just by being published on the web. Search Console is a tool for checking indexing status and search performance.

Can I register both a Domain property and a URL prefix property?

Yes. Each property simply has a different data scope, so you can view the whole site with a Domain property and view only a specific subpath with a URL prefix property.

Are Google Search Console and Naver Search Advisor the same tool?

No. Search Console is the tool for Google Search. Visibility in Naver Search (Naver is Korea's largest search engine) is checked separately in Naver's Search Advisor.

Add your site to Search Console as a property now. Once ownership is verified, submit a sitemap, then enter the URL of one key post into URL Inspection to check whether it is indexed.