STUDENTS
arnold on Nov 12, 2018
***Updated 6/7/2023***
One of the most powerful analytics type programs that is available to us is called Google Search Console. Google Search Console is essentially analytics for how well your website ranks in search engines. (At the end of this tutorial I will include a video that shows you some Search Engine Console data for a hair salon and some managerial implication you might take away based on the data).
Google Search Console seamlessly links with Analytics so that we can get some really impressive insights. This tutorial will show you how to set up Google Search Console and link it to your Google Analytics.
One plugins that we may use to install Google Search Console is Yoast. Let’s go ahead and get that installed first. Go to plugins in your WordPress dashboard and click Add New
Then search for YOAST and install and activate the YOAST SEO Plugin. After that continue to the steps below.
How To Install Google Search Console Into A WordPress Website
Before doing this make sure you have Google Analytics installed into your WordPress website as it will make this process much easier.
Next, go to the following URL:
https://search.google.com/search-console/about
You should see a screen that looks something like this:
Click START NOW
You will need to enter your URL and click “Add a property.” Copy the URL from the address bar of your browser and enter it where it says Site URL. If you type the URL in manually then it sometimes does not register without the http://
If you are logged into your Google Analytics, when you click “Add Property” it should auto verify as shown below:
If that does not work then you will have to verify the property manually in your WordPress dashboard.
There are multiple ways to do this but we will do it the easiest way which is copying a piece of meta data from GSC and then pasting it into our Yoast program.
YOU ONLY NEED TO DO THE NEXT STEP IF GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE DOES NOT AUTO VERIFY YOUR WEBSITE. IF IT AUTO-VERIFIES THEN YOU CAN SKIP TO THE SECTION WHERE IT SAYS “Connecting Google Search Console To Your Google Analytics”
The image below shows you how to get the meta tag. Click on the “HTML tag” in the “Other Verification Methods” and then copy the tag.
In Yoast click “General” then click on “Webmaster Tools” at the top. Here you need to enter your meta tag from Google Search Console. You can paste the entire line and Yoast will pull the information it needs. One you enter it click “Save Changes”
Go back to your Search console page and click verify. If you did everything correctly you will see this page:
You can “Go To Property” and look around or close out your GSC. There won’t be any data yet but Google will start to collect information about your website and there should be some information there in a few weeks.
Connecting Google Search Console To Your Google Analytics
Once you have your Google Search Console set up you can connect it to your Google analytics account.
To do this sign into you analytics and go into your Admin section.
Click On Search Console Links:
Then Click Link
Find your property and check the box next to it. Then click Confirm.
When you see your property click NEXT.
Then Click SELECT
Next Click CHOOSE
Then click NEXT again.
You can finally link your Google Analytics to Search Console. Click SUBMIT to finalize the link.
You can click the X to exit out. Then you should see that the search console is connected. If I ask for a screenshot then something like the screenshot below would suffice.
