How do you set up Google Search Console?
Setting up Google Search Console takes under an hour: add a domain property, verify it with a DNS record, submit your XML sitemap, make sure the business owns the property, and then check it every few weeks.
Google Search Console is Google's free window into how its search engine sees your site: which pages it has found and indexed, which queries showed your pages in results, how often people clicked, and whether anything is broken, unsafe or penalised.
It is not an analytics tool. It knows nothing about what visitors do once they land, whether they tapped WhatsApp or left after five seconds. That is the job of Google Analytics, and our separate guide to GA4 setup for small business covers it; the two can be linked once both exist. Search Console is also not a place to "submit your site to Google" in the old sense. Google finds sites without it. What you gain is visibility into problems you would otherwise never see.
Domain or URL-prefix property: which should you choose?
Search Console offers two property types. For a normal business site, choose the domain property. It collects everything under the domain in one place: http and https, with and without www, any subdomain, and every language folder. A bilingual site with English pages at the root and Thai pages under /th/ needs only this one property. You can add URL-prefix properties later if you want a filtered view of one section.
| Domain property | URL-prefix property | |
|---|---|---|
| What it covers | All protocols, www and non-www, all subdomains and paths | Only URLs starting with the exact address entered |
| Verification | DNS record only | Several methods: HTML file, meta tag, Google Analytics, Tag Manager or DNS |
| Best for | The main property of any business site | A single section, such as /th/, or when you cannot edit DNS |
| Common mistake | None serious; needs DNS access | Adding https://www and missing data from the non-www version |
Verify with a DNS record
Verification proves to Google that you control the domain. For a domain property, the only route is a DNS record, usually a TXT record, added where your DNS is managed. That may be the registrar, your web host, or a service such as Cloudflare; the nameservers in a WHOIS lookup tell you which. Leave the record in place permanently: if it is removed, you lose verified access.
- Step 1
Start the property
In Search Console, choose Add property, select Domain, and type the bare domain without https or www.
- Step 2
Copy the TXT value
Google shows a record beginning google-site-verification=. Copy it exactly.
- Step 3
Add the record in DNS
In your DNS panel, create a TXT record for the root (often written @) and paste the value. Keep any existing TXT records such as SPF.
- Step 4
Wait, then verify
Changes often appear within minutes but can take longer. Click Verify; if it fails, wait an hour and try again.
- Step 5
Confirm access
Once verified, the property opens. On a brand-new site the reports stay nearly empty for the first days; that is expected.
Submit your sitemap
An XML sitemap lists the pages you want Google to know about. WordPress creates one automatically at /wp-sitemap.xml, and SEO plugins such as Yoast or Rank Math replace it with their own, usually at /sitemap_index.xml. Shopify generates /sitemap.xml. Open the address in a browser first: you should see a list of links, not an error page.
In Search Console, open Sitemaps, paste the path and submit. A status of Success means Google could read the file, not that every URL in it will be indexed. The report also shows how many URLs were discovered. If that number is far lower than your page count, or the sitemap includes pages you do not want found, such as thank-you pages or test posts, fix the sitemap before worrying about anything else. For a bilingual site, one sitemap index covering both languages is fine.
Owners, users and access
Search Console has three levels of access. A verified owner has full control and can add or remove anyone. A full user can see all data and take most actions. A restricted user can only view most data.
The rule we follow: the business is the verified owner, using a company Google account, and the agency or developer gets full user access. A common problem on older sites is that the only verified owner is a freelancer who has moved on. If that is your situation, the fix is simple, as long as you control DNS. Verify the domain again from your own account, which makes you an owner too, and then remove any owners you no longer recognise. The Settings, Users and permissions screen lists everyone who has access. Review it whenever a staff member or supplier changes.
Check pages with URL Inspection
The search bar at the top of Search Console is the URL Inspection tool. Paste any address from your site and it tells you whether that page is in Google's index, when it was last crawled, which canonical URL Google chose, and whether it found structured data. For mobile problems, test the page in PageSpeed Insights or Lighthouse and on a real phone; Google retired the mobile usability checks in December 2023.
Use Test live URL after you change a page, to see what Google's crawler gets right now rather than the stored version. If the live test passes and the page is new or important, click Request indexing. It puts the URL in a priority queue; it does not guarantee indexing, and there is a daily limit, so use it for your key service pages and new articles, not for every URL on launch day. For the rest, the sitemap does the job.
Where the inspection shows structured data, such as the details from LocalBusiness schema markup for Bangkok businesses, note that Search Console only has rich result reports for some types, such as breadcrumbs, products and review snippets. LocalBusiness has no report of its own at the time of writing, so check it with the Rich Results Test instead.
Read the Page indexing report
The Page indexing report splits your URLs into indexed and not indexed, with a reason for each group. "Not indexed" is not automatically a problem; many entries are expected. The statuses you will meet most on a small site:
- Page with redirect and Alternate page with proper canonical tag: normal. Google found an old address or a duplicate and is indexing the correct one.
- Excluded by 'noindex' tag: fine for thank-you pages; a problem if it lists service pages. A "discourage search engines" setting left on after launch causes this.
- Not found (404): check whether the URLs were ever real pages. Old pages from a previous site need redirects.
- Discovered, currently not indexed: Google knows the URL but has not crawled it yet. Common on new sites; usually clears with time and internal links.
- Crawled, currently not indexed: Google read the page and decided not to include it for now. Often a sign of thin or duplicate content, such as near-identical location pages.
Two other reports deserve a glance. Core Web Vitals groups pages by real-user speed; our guide on how to read a website speed test explains the metrics. Under Security and manual actions, both lists should say no issues detected. If either shows something, deal with it before anything else.
What should you expect in the first three months?
Expect very little data in the first two weeks, impressions for your brand name and long, specific queries from weeks three to six, and a broader spread of queries by weeks seven to twelve. New owners often panic in week two, so a rough picture of what normal looks like helps.
Weeks 1 to 2
The property is verified and the sitemap submitted. The Performance report shows few or no impressions. The indexing report may take days to fill. Check the HTTPS report later on: it should show your pages served over https, and any http pages there usually point to a missing redirect.
Weeks 3 to 6
Impressions start to appear, mostly for your brand name and long, specific queries. Average position is low and jumps around. Read the Performance report by Queries and by Pages, and switch on the Country filter to separate Thailand from visitors abroad.
Weeks 7 to 12
Indexed pages should roughly match the pages you care about. Queries broaden, and you can see which service pages Google associates with which searches. Track clicks from search next to the other website KPIs worth measuring. If important pages are still "Discovered" or "Crawled, currently not indexed", improve and link them rather than requesting indexing over and over.
Search Console reports problems; it does not fix them. Many issues it shows trace back to build decisions, which is why we run a technical SEO checklist for new websites before launch. More reading sits under SEO, speed and analytics. If your site needs a rebuild rather than a tune-up, see our approach to web design and development in Bangkok, and see what each package includes, from Starter at THB 10,000.
Who reviewed this guide
Who builds your site
Litesh Dhir
Builds and ranks the websites: the systems behind the 17 client sites whose Search Console numbers we publish.
More about usMore on SEO and analytics
Sources
- Search Console Help: Add a website property
- Search Console Help: Verify your site ownership
- Search Console Help: Sitemaps report
- Search Console Help: Page indexing report
- Search Console Help: Managing owners, users and permissions
- Search Console Help: Rich result status reports