One important step in optimizing your site for search engines is adding your WordPress site to Google Webmaster Tools. Many of our readers ask us for SEO Tips and how to increase organic search traffic on their websites. Using Google webmaster tools along with other tips that we have provided can be a huge help. In this article, we will show you how to add your WordPress site to Google Webmaster Tools.
What is Google Webmaster Tools
Google’s Webmaster tools is a set of tools offered by Google to give publishers a look at how their website is seen by the search engine. It provides reports and data that can help you understand how different pages on your website are appearing in search results. It shows you the search queries where a page from your website appears in the results and how often it is clicked. This data can help you improve your older articles, write new content, and formulate a content strategy for your website. Google webmaster tools also allows you to submit XML sitemap of your website, exclude URLs, and help Google display the most important content of your website. It also notifies you if there is a problem with your site which is stopping Google from crawling and indexing your pages.
How to Add your WordPress Site to Google Webmaster Tools
Go to Google Webmaster tools website and sign in with a Google account. After signing in, add your website’s URL and hit the add new site button.
On the next screen, you will be asked to verify the ownership of the website you are adding. You can either upload an HTML file to your website’s root directory using FTP or click on Alternate method to obtain a meta tag which you can then add to your WordPress site.
To easily add the meta tag to your website you can install and activate our Insert Headers and Footers plugin. Copy the meta tag line provided by webmaster tools which will look something like this:
<meta name="google-site-verification" content="VerificationKeyCode" />
Now go to Settings » Insert Headers and Footers and paste the meta tag line into the header field. Save your changes and go back to Google Webmaster tools website and click on Verify site button.
Alternately if you are using WordPress SEO plugin, then you can copy the verification key in content part of the meta tag and paste it in WordPress SEO plugin. Click on SEO in your WordPress admin sidebar and then scroll down to webmaster tools section to paste the unique key in the Google Webmaster Tools field. Save your changes and go back to Google Webmaster tools website to verify your website.
Once you have verified your website, the next thing you would want to do is to add your XML sitemap. Don’t have a sitemap or not sure what is a sitemap? Check out our guide on how to create XML sitemaps in WordPress. After you have finished adding your sitemap, it may take a while for Google to display your site data.
That’s all you need to do to add your WordPress site to Google webmaster tools. Once your data starts coming in, you can use it to your advantage.
We hope that you found this article helpful. For more WordPress and SEO tips, you can tweet to us @WPBeginner or join WPBeginner on Facebook. For questions and feedback about this article please leave a comment below.
Thank you so much. I was literally stuck in this step and you cleare my doubt. my website is now verified thank you soo much.
Glad our guide was helpful
How to use webmaster
At the moment we do not have a guide for Google’s webmaster tools.
hey , I have a free plan , how can i do this /
For WordPress.com you would sadly need to reach out to their support for if they allow the connection and/or how to connect
Hi,
Thank you for another informative post. I love WPBeginner!!!
One thing this post does not address which confuses me is whether I should add the domain with and without the www. I have added both as properties in the Google Webmaster tools and I don’t know if this will cause problems.
Thanks
Andreas
For our opinion on that, you would want to take a look at our article here: https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/www-vs-non-www-which-is-better-for-wordpress-seo/
I installed my website (Bluehost/WP going thru the video tutorial you sent. I finished, but did not launch it. The tutorial does not cover how I can change the picture in the header. Is there a different tutorial for that?
Also. When I am finished, just not published, I have no way to see the finished product. Do I need to publish before it shows up?
Thanks in advance
It would depend on your theme for how to change the header image but that is normally under Appearance>Customize.
For the content to appear for users not logged in, it would need to be published
Sir, It is very good article for beginners. But can you please publish a new post about Adding a website on new google search console, sitemap, and everything.
We will certainly look into updating these articles as Google updates their interface
very help full
Thank you
Thank you very much. This article helped me verify my website.
You’re welcome
Nice article…it helps me to add site to google webmaster..
Thank you
Extremely useful site.Thanks a lot for the great work!
Thank you, glad our articles can help
Thanks! Such a useful website for a beginner blogger!!!
Glad our site can help
Hi, This, as with so many tutorials, is most helpful. However I have come across something not dealt with. On pasting the meta line into the Insert Headers and Footers widget and hit save, the system takes to me to my site with an “oops we cannot find this page” message. So annoying. As a result I get a verification failure.
Any suggestions as I always seem to have issues installing the google apps.
regards
Gerry
You would want to reach out to your hosting provider to see if they have any errors on their end that could be causing the message.
Thank you this was easy and helpful. If I need any help I’ll hire you!!!
While we don’t have a service for hire at the moment, we’re glad you found our article useful
In both plugin
Verification failed. We couldn’t find the verification meta tag.
Thanks for the excellent info on this site in general! I am the subcontract for a person who wants us both to have individual access to Google Console.
My question: I have used various plugins for Google verification and there is one space only for the code. I know I can also add an HTML file to the root of the site or insert an HTML code into the header. If she generates a new code through Google Console and I insert it, will that nullify my data views/ownership?
I have added her as a full user in Google Console but it is still asking her to verify her ownership via one of the code.HTML file methods.
Thanks for your help!
Ronna
Thanks for that
really helpful
As a new WordPress site owner your tutorials have been extremely helpful! They are up-to-date, simple, use visuals, and just make things easy to do. Thank you!
Anna
Hi Anna,
We are glad you found WPBeginner articles helpful. Don’t forget to join us on Twitter for more WordPress tips and tutorials.
how to add verification file in root directory
Thank you so much!!! I was trying to get my site verified for a couple days now…trying so many different options – this worked on the first try! Thank you!
Quite handy… THANKS A MILLION
can I register my domain in Google search console if I’m using wordpress hosted version for my own domain not the free version. And yes, one more point, I’m not using the Business plan for wordpress hosted version. I am using the Pro one. Please reply.
Hi Prashant,
Yes, you can.
no matter what i can it says cannot connect to server
This was very helpful. Thank you!
How to put my wordpress post on google?
And find on google with title
Hi Shazad,
Please see our article on how to get your WordPress site listed on Google.
hi
i wanna to know that is it necessary for site to submit Y WebSite To Google Search Engines to approve ad sense account?
please must answer?
Hi Ehsan,
No it is not.
Am really grateful for this guide, thanks and keep it up!
Thank you for the info, couldn’t find a way to validate my WP site !
i did use your Header and footer tool.
Thank you for the very helpful video/instructions. One suggestion would be to let people know about the option to use Yoast (which is even called out that “you probably already have”) first instead of second. This would avoid needing a completely different/new plug-in. I did in fact already have Yoast but went forward with the header/footer plug-in not knowing I could use Yoast.
Thanks SO much. I couldn’t figure out how to put in that code and these two methods are very easy.
Hi, I am trying to verify my WP site but really struggling. I have placed the code in the header but it then appeared on the public facing site.
It is not the only code in the head section but no matter where I put it, it does not verify.
Help please!
I’ve been frequenting your site because it has been really helpful in building my blog. I just can’t seem to verify it thru google search console. I tried all the alternatives listed in this page. What am I doing wrong? HELP!
Hi Mai Taup,
Do you see an error when trying to verify your blog? Make sure that you have added the correct address of your website in Google Search Console. Google treats https and http, www and non-www URLs differently.
Thank you! Thank you! I have finally verified my site. awesome tips.
Thanks very much – your step-by-step description was so easy to follow & it worked a treat!
Thank you! Inserting the meta tag via the insert header plugin worked for me. Grateful
It was helpful .. I had been messing up for long and this article solved my problems in a minute .. keep up the good work
it keeps telling me “we were unable to verify your property” Any thoughts on what i am doing wrong? thanks!
I keep getting an error when I follow the tips in this video. It says – “The Google XML Sitemaps plugin might cause issues when used in conjunction with Yoast SEO.” Any idea what I should do now?
I used the insert headers footers and copied and pasted the code over and it still wouldn’t verify the site.
What led me to this video was I initially watched your video on how to install Google maps to wordpress with your provided plugin. The result was Javascript console prohibiting complete map loading.
I have done everything stated in this video tutorial, but I “do not receive the green check mark” allocating Google found my tag? Could one of these be why:
1. Domain was on another platform and I recently brought it over to Dreamhost (2 days ago)
2. New platform, theme, and wordpress are still under construction – could this hinder the tag from being found?
3. Google is stating verification failed, unable to connect to the server – Why is server not allowing connection?
Great to the point videos, Thanks for your time.
Hi Jared,
If your website is in maintenance mode and not publicly accessible, then Google webmaster tools cannot verify the tag.
Thank you! This is the issue I was having, so I’m glad someone asked and you responded!
Excellent video. I struggled for a couple of hours before I found your short, informative, step by step instruction. Bravo.
if we have verified our analytics account with insert header and footer plugin, how to verify with web masters ??
What about setting up different versions of the website name on google’s search console?
i.e.
http://www.wpbeginner.com
wpbeginner.com
https:// etc etc etc
What is the purpose of that and how do you do it>
Hi Tina,
Google considers them different websites. You will need to pick one to submit to Google webmaster tools.
Thanks! Very helpful video.
I just verified by site with the plugin from WpBeginner
Thank you for an excellent tutorial! After struggling to figure the domain verification process for some time, this tutorial helped me to resolve the issue in minutes! Thank you!
I am trying to verify the https versions of my site via ftp but cannot find those versions to upload the HTML verification file to. Any ideas where to find them?
Hello,
none of those methods worked for my website, I have followed the steps in the video and but it says it can not find the verification meta tag. Also uploading the html file did not work. What should I do now?
Thank you!
Thank you very much for sharing such an important info especially the “Insert Headers and Footers Plugin” which is going to help me a lot. Is it OK to uninstall and delete “Insert Headers and Footers Plugin” after including meta tag in the header?
Eagerly waiting for reply…
Thanks again………
Hi Prathmesh,
You will need to keep the plugin installed. Uninstalling the plugin will disable the code you added into header or footer using the plugin’s settings.
Thanks.
That helped…
This is really helpful and I would hope my blog gets visitors too.
I was going around and around trying to get this to work and couldn’t.
I’m so happy I finally got the “green checkmark” after following your instructions. Thx a bunch
Thanks for this video. Was going round in circles tying to verify my site and all done now. Thanks