How to submit your website to Google Search Console
Step by step: add your site to Google Search Console, verify your domain with a DNS TXT record, submit your sitemap, request indexing, and understand the reports and indexing messages.
You've bought a domain and put a website on it. Now you want Google to find it. Google Search Console is Google's free tool for telling Google your site exists, checking which pages are in its search results, and seeing what people searched to find you. Setting it up takes about 15 minutes.
The quick answer
- Go to Google Search Console and sign in with a Google account.
- Add your site as a Domain property.
- Verify you own it by adding a TXT record to your domain's DNS.
- Submit your sitemap.
- Use URL Inspection to request indexing for your most important pages.
Step 1: Choose your property type
| Type | What it covers | How you verify |
|---|---|---|
| Domain property (recommended) | Everything: http and https, www and non-www, and all subdomains | A TXT record in your DNS |
| URL-prefix property | Only the exact address you enter, like https://www.example.com | An HTML file, a meta tag, Google Analytics, Tag Manager or DNS |
Choose Domain if you can edit your DNS. It covers every version of your site in one place.
Step 2: Verify that you own the domain
- Type your domain without https or www, for example
yourbusiness.com, and click Continue. - Google shows a TXT record that starts with
google-site-verification=. Copy it. - Open your DNS settings. On Cloudflare that's your domain, then DNS → Records → Add record.
- Choose type TXT, name @ (meaning the root domain), paste the value, and save.
- Go back to Search Console and click Verify.
If your DNS is with certain providers, Google may offer to add the record for you after you sign in to that provider. If verification fails at first, wait a few minutes and try again, because DNS changes can take time to appear. Leave the TXT record in place afterwards. Deleting it can remove your access.
Step 3: Submit your sitemap
A sitemap is a file listing the pages on your site, usually at yourbusiness.com/sitemap.xml. Many site builders and static sites create one automatically.
- In Search Console, open Sitemaps from the left menu.
- Type
sitemap.xmlin the box and click Submit. - Check back later. The status should say Success and show how many pages were found.
Step 4: Request indexing for key pages
- Paste a page's full address into the URL Inspection bar at the top.
- If it says the URL isn't on Google, click Request indexing.
- Do this for your homepage and your most important pages. There's a daily limit, so don't do every page.
Requesting indexing asks Google to crawl the page sooner. It doesn't guarantee the page will be indexed or ranked.
Step 5: Learn the reports that matter
- Performance: clicks, impressions, click-through rate and average position, plus the exact searches that showed your site. Data usually starts appearing within a few days.
- Pages (under Indexing): which pages are indexed and why others aren't.
- Experience and Core Web Vitals: speed and usability issues Google has found.
- Links: which sites link to you.
What the indexing messages mean
| Message | What it means |
|---|---|
| Discovered, currently not indexed | Google knows the page exists but hasn't crawled it yet. Common on new sites. Give it time. |
| Crawled, currently not indexed | Google looked at the page and chose not to include it for now. Improve the content and link to it from other pages. |
| Page with redirect | The address redirects elsewhere, such as http to https. Usually normal. |
| Excluded by noindex tag | The page tells Google not to index it. Normal for pages you've hidden on purpose. |
| Not found (404) | The page doesn't exist. Fix the link or ignore it if the page was removed on purpose. |
How long until I show up on Google?
A new site can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks to appear, and ranking well for competitive searches takes months of useful content and links from other sites. Search Console doesn't make you rank. It lets you see what Google sees, so you can fix problems and track progress.
Bonus: Bing Webmaster Tools
Bing has its own version, Bing Webmaster Tools, which can import your verified sites straight from Google Search Console. It takes a minute and covers Bing and the search engines that use Bing's results.
Common mistakes
- Adding a URL-prefix property for only one version (like http without www) and wondering where your data is.
- Deleting the verification TXT record after verifying.
- Leaving a "noindex" tag on the whole site after launch.
- Requesting indexing for hundreds of pages instead of fixing the sitemap.
- Expecting rankings in days. Indexing comes first. Rankings take time.
Still need a domain? Start with how to buy a domain name, then set up a professional email address.
Questions
Is Google Search Console free?
Yes. It's a free tool from Google for website owners.
Do I need Search Console for my site to appear on Google?
No, Google can find sites on its own, but Search Console helps it find yours faster and shows you what's indexed and how people find you.
How long does Search Console verification take?
Usually minutes once the TXT record is added, though DNS changes can sometimes take longer to appear.
Why isn't my page indexed?
New pages often take time. Check the Pages report for the reason, make sure the page isn't blocked by noindex or robots.txt, link to it from other pages, and make the content genuinely useful.