What is Google Search Console and why does it matter?
Google Search Console (GSC) is a free tool from Google that lets you see your website the way Google sees it. It tells you which of your pages have been indexed, which have errors, what search queries bring people to your site, and how often your pages appear in search results.
Without Search Console, you are flying blind. You might publish twenty articles and assume Google is indexing them — but have no way to verify it. GSC closes that gap.
What Google Search Console is not: It is not a ranking tool that lets you manipulate your position. It is a diagnostic and communication tool. You submit information to Google, and Google reports back on what it has done with your site.
There are three specific things GSC does that matter most when launching a new site:
- Confirms which pages Google has indexed — just because a page exists doesn't mean Google has found or stored it
- Lets you submit a sitemap — a file that tells Google exactly which pages exist and how often they change
- Lets you request indexing for individual pages — instead of waiting weeks for Google to find a page on its own, you can ask Google to crawl it immediately
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Step 1 — Add your site to Google Search Console
1.1 Open Search Console
Go to search.google.com/search-console and sign in with the Google account you want to use to manage the site. This should ideally be the same account you use for Google Analytics and Google AdSense if you have them.
1.2 Choose property type
You will be asked to choose between two property types:
| Type | What it covers | When to use |
|---|---|---|
| Domain property | All URLs under the domain, including all subdomains (www, blog, app) and both http and https | Recommended — covers everything |
| URL prefix property | Only the exact URL prefix you enter (e.g. https://yourdomain.com) | Use if you only want to track one specific version |
Choose Domain property. Enter your domain without any prefix — for example, promptplan.app not https://promptplan.app. This gives you a complete picture of your entire site.
1.3 Verify ownership
Google needs to confirm you own the site before it shows you data. For a Domain property, the only verification method is DNS record verification.
How DNS verification works:
Google gives you a TXT record — a short string of text that looks like google-site-verification=abc123xyz. You add this to your domain's DNS settings at your domain registrar (where you bought the domain — Namecheap, GoDaddy, Cloudflare, etc.).
The steps:
- Copy the TXT record value Google gives you
- Log in to your domain registrar
- Go to DNS settings for your domain
- Add a new TXT record with:
- Host / Name:
@(meaning the root domain) - Value: the string Google gave you
- TTL: leave as default
- Save, then return to Search Console and click Verify
DNS propagation takes time. DNS changes can take anywhere from a few minutes to 48 hours to propagate globally. If verification fails immediately, wait 15–30 minutes and try again. It almost always works within an hour.
If you prefer not to touch DNS, and you are using URL prefix property instead, Google offers alternative verification methods:
- Uploading an HTML file to your server
- Adding a
<meta>tag to your homepage - Using your Google Analytics or Google Tag Manager account
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Step 2 — Submit your sitemap
What a sitemap is
A sitemap is an XML file that lists every URL on your site along with metadata about each page — when it was last updated, how often it changes, and its relative priority. It is the most direct way to tell Google exactly what pages exist on your site.
Without a sitemap, Google discovers your pages by following links. This works eventually, but it is slow and unreliable for new sites with few external links pointing at them.
Where your sitemap lives
If your site is built with Next.js App Router and has a sitemap.ts file in src/app/, your sitemap is automatically generated and available at:
https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xmlYou can verify it exists by opening that URL in your browser. You should see an XML file listing your pages. If you do not see it, the sitemap has not been set up yet.
How to submit the sitemap in Search Console
- In your Search Console property, find Sitemaps in the left sidebar (under the Index section)
- In the "Add a new sitemap" field, enter
sitemap.xml - Click Submit
Google will show the sitemap status:
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Success | Google received and parsed your sitemap |
| Couldn't fetch | Google couldn't access the URL — check the sitemap is publicly accessible |
| Has errors | Google found the sitemap but some URLs have issues |
After a successful submission, Google will begin crawling the URLs in your sitemap. How quickly this happens depends on your site's crawl budget — new sites with no authority are crawled slowly at first. Do not expect all pages to be indexed within hours.
Submitting a sitemap does not guarantee indexing. It guarantees Google knows the pages exist. Google then decides independently which pages are worth indexing based on content quality, uniqueness, and relevance. Pages with thin, duplicate, or low-quality content may be discovered but not indexed.
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Step 3 — Request indexing for your most important pages
While the sitemap submission tells Google about all your pages, you can also request immediate crawling for specific high-priority pages. This is useful for your homepage, key landing pages, and your most important articles.
How to use URL Inspection
- In Search Console, click URL Inspection in the left sidebar
- Paste the full URL of a page (e.g.
https://promptplan.app/learn/articles/how-google-finds-and-indexes-your-website) - Press Enter
Search Console will check whether Google has indexed that URL and show you:
- URL is on Google — the page is indexed and can appear in search results
- URL is not on Google — the page has not been indexed yet
Requesting indexing
If the page is not indexed, or if you have recently updated it and want Google to re-crawl it:
- Click Request Indexing
- Google will run a live test of the URL
- If it passes, the request is queued
Indexing requests are rate-limited. You can only submit a limited number of requests per day (typically around 10–12). Prioritise your most important pages: homepage, core content pages, and recently published articles you want indexed quickly.
Prioritise these URLs for manual indexing requests:
- Your homepage (
/) /learn(the learn hub)- Your 3–5 most important articles
/pricingand/about-project
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Step 4 — Understand the key reports
Once Google starts crawling and indexing your site, Search Console fills with useful data. These are the reports you should check regularly.
Pages report (formerly Coverage)
Found in Indexing → Pages in the left sidebar.
This report shows the status of every URL Google knows about on your site:
| Status | Meaning | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Indexed | Page is in Google's index and can appear in search | Nothing needed |
| Crawled – currently not indexed | Google visited the page but decided not to index it | Improve content quality |
| Discovered – currently not indexed | Google knows the page exists but hasn't crawled it yet | Wait, or request indexing |
| Page with redirect | URL redirects to another URL | Check redirect is correct |
| Not found (404) | URL returns 404 error | Fix broken links or add redirect |
| Soft 404 | Page returns 200 but appears to have no content | Add real content |
"Crawled – currently not indexed" is the most important status to watch. It means Google actively chose not to index your page. Common reasons: content is too thin, very similar to another page, or Google thinks it has low value. The fix is always to improve the content, not to resubmit.
Performance report
Found at the top of the left sidebar as Search results.
This is the most useful long-term report. It shows:
- Total clicks — how many people clicked through to your site from Google
- Total impressions — how many times your pages appeared in search results
- Average CTR — click-through rate (clicks ÷ impressions)
- Average position — where your pages rank on average
You can filter by page, query, country, and date range. The most useful view is filtering by Query — this shows you what search terms are bringing people to your site.
Look for queries where you have high impressions but low CTR. This means your page is appearing in search results but people are not clicking. Often the fix is improving your page title or meta description to be more compelling and match what the user is actually looking for.
Sitemaps report
Found in Indexing → Sitemaps.
Shows the status of submitted sitemaps, when Google last read them, and how many URLs were discovered. Check this after submitting your sitemap to confirm it was read successfully.
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What to expect after setup
Search Console results do not appear instantly. Here is a realistic timeline:
| Timeframe | What happens |
|---|---|
| 0–24 hours | Sitemap submitted, verification complete |
| 1–7 days | Google begins crawling pages from sitemap; first pages appear in Pages report |
| 2–4 weeks | Most pages crawled; Performance report begins showing impressions |
| 4–12 weeks | Meaningful ranking data appears; you can see which queries drive traffic |
New sites with no existing authority or backlinks are crawled slowly. This is normal. The data in Search Console becomes much more useful after 2–3 months when Google has had time to assess your content.
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Quick reference checklist
□ Created Search Console property (Domain type recommended)
□ Verified ownership via DNS TXT record
□ Sitemap submitted at /sitemap.xml
□ Sitemap status shows "Success"
□ Requested indexing for homepage
□ Requested indexing for /learn
□ Requested indexing for 3–5 key articles
□ Bookmarked Pages report to check weekly
□ Bookmarked Performance report to check weekly