Google Search Console
Also known as GSC · Search Console
A free Google tool that confirms you own a site and reports how Google crawls, indexes, and ranks it.
What it is
Google Search Console is a free platform where you prove ownership of a domain or URL prefix and then monitor indexing status, search performance, sitemaps, and crawl errors. Verification is done via DNS record, an HTML meta tag, an uploaded HTML file, Google Analytics, or Google Tag Manager.
Why it matters
Verified ownership unlocks the authoritative data Google has about your site, including which pages are indexed and which are excluded. Because Google AI Overviews and many answer engines draw on Google's index, ensuring pages are indexable and error-free is foundational to being eligible for AI-generated answers.
How to verify
Open Search Console and check that your property shows a green 'Ownership verified' status under Settings. For DNS verification, run a TXT record lookup (for example dig TXT yourdomain.com) and confirm the google-site-verification value is present.
How to fix
Add the property in Search Console and complete one verification method; DNS verification at the domain level is the most robust because it covers all subdomains and protocols. Submit your sitemap afterward and confirm pages appear under the Pages (Indexing) report.
Related terms
- Bing Webmaster ToolsMicrosoft's free tool for verifying site ownership and monitoring how Bing crawls and indexes your pages.
- XML SitemapAn XML file listing a site's canonical URLs to help search engines discover and prioritize pages for crawling.
- robots.txtA plain-text file at the site root that tells crawlers which paths they may or may not request.
- noindex TagA directive, set via meta tag or HTTP header, that tells search engines to keep a page out of their index.
Official references
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Put this into practice.
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