[This post is part of the Ultimate Guide to Launching a WordPress-Powered Blog and Bloggers Guide to Google Webmaster Tools.]
Setting up Google Webmasters is quite simple and I hope that this will be the easiest walk-through that you’ve ever seen!
What’s fascinating is that despite the simplicity and small amount of time required to setup the value is enormous!
What does this mean? Make sure that you set aside the time the do this! Ready? Here we go:
1. Sign Up for Google Webmasters
Go visit Google Webmasters and begin the signup process!
2. Sign In with Your Google Account
3. Add Your First Site
Go ahead and click that big “Add a site” button!
4. Add Your Specific Site URL
5. Verify Ownership of Site
Please note that Google takes privacy really importantly. Verification, in and of itself, doesn’t affect your SEO or Page Rank, or anything else like that but it can impact how your the Google bots parse the content of your site (depending on your choice of verification).
You have 4 choices:
- Add a DNS record
- Link to your Google Analytics Account
- Upload an HTML file
- Add a meta tag to your site
A common question is which one is the best to do and I always use option #4, adding a meta tag to my site. This is simply because by adding a meta tag it helps the Google bots parse the content on your site and provides additional information that you can leverage for increasing traffic to your blog and more.
The other options though can do just fine but some of them are more complicated than others. If you can, I’d add the meta tag and if you can’t do that then I’d link your Google Analytics (only if you have asynchronous tracking enabled – you can see the 10 step process of adding Google Analytics here), and then doing an upload of an HTML file if you must.
The last choice, especially for those on shared hosting providers (most people), is DNS since your IP address can be changed in those types of hosting environments, sometimes without you knowing! So just don’t do it unless you have a dedicated service and know how to do all that fancy jazz!
6. Copy Meta Tag Info and Paste it Into Your Site
Grab this code that Google provides you and paste it into your WordPress-Powered blog, in your header.php file (or your index.php file). This, of course, depends on your WordPress Theme that you use.
For my purposes, I’m editing the Default Twenty Ten theme in the WordPress editor:
I’m looking at the header.php file and I’m adding this code here in the space just below the first <meta> tag:
1 | <meta name="google-site-verification" content="qMBiZjc2dBuFnjsL7mPfZfzvPi1z2elSrDdNaxLWhvw" /> |
Here’s what it looks like:
Then hit “Update File”!
7. Go Back to Google Webmasters and Click “Verify”
Hit “Verify” and then…
8. Success! View Dashboard!
If it worked then you should be instantly directed into the dashboard itself! It’ll now take some time to start pulling in data so that you can start investigating traffic sources, patterns, keywords, and more!
Rejoice, as you now have equipped yourself to be even a more effective (and successful) blogger!
We’ll go through some ways to use this data in some upcoming posts.
[This post is part of the Ultimate Guide to Launching a WordPress-Powered Blog and Bloggers Guide to Google Webmaster Tools.]
Whoa. That’s all.
John, this is interesting stuff. Didn’t know it was available. Thanks!
sure thing dustin!
Thanks John. The post was quite helpful.
sure thing sean!
I guess I set this up a while ago, because when I went to Google webmaster tools, it was all set up and ready to go. But thanks for the reminder. Checking my back links and keyword search is helpful. I found a few sites that link to me and I have no clue how they heard about me or who they even are. They have never even commented. But now, with webmaster tools, I know who they are, and can maybe send some blog post love back their way.
Found the same thing on my site, I think I set it up w/ google analytics some time ago.
you should do meta instead.
switched.
did you use META though?
I’ve been wondering how to do this for awhile now. Thank you for showing us in detail how to!
Yay! Something I’ve actually done already!
did you use META?
Done.
That was easy.
Thanks John.
sweet!
Mine is not verifying with the meta tag. Doing it right, I believe. Could All in One SEO plugin be causing an issue?
Nevermind. I had typed in http://www.danieldecker.net instead of http://www.danieldecker.net which apparently created an issue. When I re-did it with the http:// in front, it worked.
done and done.
I set this up a while ago but I’m not really sure what to do with it! Looking forward to the posts that tell how to use this data for keyword search, etc.
Thanks for the posts! I’ve learned so much!!
did you do META?
Yeah, I did and it’s working. I just don’t know what to do with the tools. Extreme noob!
Hey John. for some reason it’s not working for me with the newest release of Standard Theme?!? When I click verify i get this message:
Verification failed. We couldn’t find the verification meta tag.
…and I’ve followed all the directions properly. ???
i’d have to see a pic of wht you’re doing. do you have cacheing?
Hey John…I had already verified with the analytics link. Is there a way to go back and do the meta tag? I tried deleting the website and adding it again and it was still already verified when I added it back.
it should be fine. just add the meta and you’re good!
done. finally. Thanks John!
sure thing jonathan!
A post on how to correct crawl errors would be a great extension to this post.
crawl errors? like broken links?
http://tentblogger.com/fix-broken-links/
John, once again you have come to the rescue in answering a simple question where neither Google or WordPress can! Thank you!
For some reason, I cannot get any of the search engines to validate. I have put the meta tags in both the header and the index exactly as you’ve shown above and they still don’t work. I’m at a loss now as to what to do.I am using the 2010 Weaver theme and I have a custom header?
Blessings,
Mel
Please feel free to stop by: Trailing After God
hmm.. perhaps. is it showing up in the source code? do you have caching?
I’m using a free version of a theme and I’m warned about customizing theme files: either it will get overwritten with updates or I’ll be prevented from updating. So I used the HTML method, though I’ll be missing out on all those benefits of the meta tag that you mention!
that’s true! use meta! and just don’t forget it if you change themes…!
I’ve just added my new blog to Google Webmaster Tools, along with your my sitemap generated by your Sitemap Plugin for WP. Looking forward to following along.
awesome! great work!
Great series John, can’t wait to follow it all the way through. I had validated my site using the DNS method. Any tips on how to get the code to add to META once I have already validated (or will I have to delete and re add? Thanks again!
you can just add it an it’ll take effect.
John, thanks for this. I’m trying to figure it out. I verified my site using google analytics. It says it is verified. Should I change it and use the meta tag? I’m a bit unclear whether I messed up by not using the meta tag. Another reason I’m wondering is because when I go to settings and preferred domain and choose one and click save, it gives me a message saying I need to verify, but when I go to verify, it says I already verified. Any help here? I’m trying to make captivatingcappadocia.com the preferred. It won’t let me.
thanks, Duke
i’d use meta. you can use both, but having meta there will help.
Hi John,
I added Google Webmaster tools to my site over 2 years ago when I was still on WordPress.com. Now that I’m on HostGator and using Standard, I’m going through your WordPress series and trying to do everything the right way. When I logged in Google Webmaster and clicked verify all my site info instantly came up. There was no choice about how to verify or even the code to install. I’m sure this is because of my prior usage. Should I delete my Webmaster account and start over? I can’t see any options for transferring. Is the code going to be the same as what I used last time? Wish I wasn’t so clueless w/ this stuff.
deleting and starting over i believe.
oophf, I am just now figuring out the importance of google webmaster tools a year into blogging (quite uncessfully I might add)
As far as learning how to make the blog interesting and the html, I have become quite masterful, but for some reason the SEO aspects are all Greek to me, try as i might I’m too right brain to figure it out.
Not 10 seconds into reading your article I hit a snag. I’m trying to optimize my comic blog on blogger using the webmaster tool. But since I already added the site, I cannot add the meta tag during the initial process of adding a site. I appreciate this walkthru and maybe you can suggest how I do this.
i think removing the site and starting over…?
John:
This guide rocks! I set up my humor blog almost a year ago with google analytics and google webmaster using your guide, but this isn’t something I do every day, so now that I’m helping friends with a few other blogs, I remembered I can turn to dear old Tentblogger for guidance!
Awesome, seamless advice. THANKS SO MUCH!