If you’re wondering how to submit your website to Google, I have the advice you need right here. I’ve submitted several websites to Google in the past, but I just launched a new website a few days ago, which means I need to do it again. I figured since I’m going through the process anyway, I might as well document it and share it with you. This way you can see how I personally go about making sure that my websites are visible in Google and you can follow the same process to get yours out there too!
Key Takeaways
- Even though web crawlers automatically find and index websites over time, it’s beneficial to submit your website to Google manually by using Google Search Console (GSC).
- Registering your website with GSC allows you to control how your website interacts with Google search, among other benefits.
- Creating a sitemap and submitting it to Google improves the chances that your website gets discovered faster and is mapped better.
How to check if Google has already found your site
If you are unsure whether your site has been detected and indexed by Google’s spiders, then you can check for yourself.
To do so, type site:mywebsite.com into Google search. You will now get a list of all the pages, posts, and other content types that are listed with Google.
In my case, because I just launched the site, there isn’t much for Google to index yet, but we can see that it has indexed the homepage already. In fact, it indexed it before I had a chance to add a browser tab image or replace the dummy text from the theme:
If Google doesn’t return any results, then Google hasn’t been able to find and index your site yet. In this case, it is a good idea to submit your site to Google.
The first step in this process is to register with Google Search Console.
Step 1: Register your website with Google Search Console
Registering your website with Google Search Console is a must if you want to control how your website interacts with Google Search. Here are just a few of the benefits Google Search Console provides…
- Get content indexed by Google – Once you register with Google Search Console, you can submit sitemaps and individual URLs.
- URL inspection – View detailed crawl, index, and serving information about your pages.
- View search analytics – Find out which search terms bring users to your site, analyze page positions in Google Search, and much more.
Log into Google Search Console
Registering your site with Google Search Console is free, quick and easy. To do so, open the Google Search Console page and click Start Now.
If you’re not already logged into a Google account, then you’ll be asked to log in first. If you have a custom email address through your hosting provider and you’d like to use that, then you can instead click on Create Account. This way you can make an account that will tie into the custom email address associated with your website.
I actually did it this way, but I’m not going to share the details because it’s self-explanatory. You just follow Google’s prompts for opening a new account. It takes all of two extra minutes and then you’re ready to move forward.
Add domain to ownership verification screen and get code
Once you either log in or make a new account, you’ll be prompted with the window below. Under Domain, enter your website’s domain name:
Google will now give you a list of options to verify that you own your site. If you’re already using Google Analytics, you can verify your site by using your existing Google Analytics tracking code.
Otherwise, I recommend using the DNS record method. Once you select that method, Google will display a code that you will need to enter into the DNS configuration for your website. To do this, copy and paste the code.
Log into cPanel and the Zone Editor
Next you’ll need to log into your hosting account so you can access cPanel. Some hosting companies also let you log into cPanel externally, using your credentials. If you’re unsure, check with your host’s support team. Also, note that some providers use their own custom panel instead of cPanel, in which case, you’ll also have to reach out to support.
Assuming your hosting company uses cPanel and you’re able to log in successfully, then the next step is to find and select the Zone Editor.
💡 If you’re having trouble finding it, there should also be a Search Tools bar on the top right where you can simply type it in and it’ll come up in the results.
Once you’re inside, find the domain that you’re in the process of verifying and click on the Manage button:
Add a new TXT record with the site verification code
On the next page it will show you all of the various DNS records that exist for your domain. If you want, you can filter them by record type.
This is useful in case you’re unsure if a TXT record with the Google Search Console code has already been added previously. Sometimes people own domains for a long time before they decide to do anything with them and often don’t remember what was already done (or not done) in the past. (I speak from personal experience when I say this 😂.)
If that applies to you, then click on the TXT filter button. It will show you only the TXT records so that you’ll be able to quickly identify if anything says “Google Site Verification.”
Otherwise, if the coast is clear, you can click on the small down arrow next to the Add Record button on the right. Then choose Add “TXT” Record from the drop-down menu:
The next step is where you create the actual record by adding the Google Site Verification code you copied from the Search Console. Paste it into the field below Record.
For the field below Name, you can just put yourdomain.com – not literally those words but your actual domain name. 💡 Note that if you saw an existing TXT record on the previous page that already had the same exact name that you can still make the record using that name. It might feel counterintuitive since this isn’t possible in most other situations, but here it doesn’t matter.
TTL and Type you can leave as is. When everything looks good, click Save Record.
You’ll now see the new TXT record with the Google Site Verification code on the list with the others:
Final verification step
Go back to the Google Search Console window where you copied the code from so that you can verify the connection.
Personally, I waited about five minutes before I clicked the Verify button and that seemed to work for me. However, this isn’t guaranteed. It can take all the way up to a day. I would say to give it at least a few minutes though. If everything goes well, you’ll see the following:
Step 2: Create a sitemap with Yoast SEO
A sitemap is a file that provides search engines with information on the different pages on your site. Once you have submitted a sitemap, Google can then easily retrieve your site’s pages and index them for Google Search.
Yoast SEO is a free WordPress plugin that will automatically generate XML sitemaps of various sections of your website. The sections are then combined to create a sitemap index for your site – it is this link that you submit to Google.
To create a sitemap with Yoast SEO, first install the plugin on your website. (For more information on how to do this, check out our beginners’ guide on how to install a WordPress plugin).
As soon as you activate the plugin, it will automatically create a sitemap for you. To access your sitemap, go to yoursite.com/sitemap_index.xml:
Keep this URL handy because you’ll need to submit it to Google in the next step.
Step 3: Submit a website to Google
To submit a website to Google, switch back to Google Search Console and make sure you’ve selected your website using the Search Property drop-down menu in the top left corner. If this is your first or only website then it’ll be the only choice:
Then, click on the Sitemaps tab under Indexing in the sidebar. You will be given the option to Add a New Sitemap. Type in the sitemap URL and click on Submit.
Google will confirm that the sitemap has been successfully submitted. Google will then process the sitemap and should index your website soon after:
Step 4: Use the URL Inspection tool for individual URLs
If your site only consists of a few pages, or you have added new pages that you would like indexed immediately, then you can use the Google Search Console URL Inspection tool to just submit those specific pages to Google.
To do so, select URL Inspection from the left-hand side menu. Then type a URL that you want to submit to Google into the Search function.
Google Search Console will then run a live test, fetching and examining the URL in real-time. If it has no detectable errors, you can Request Indexing.
Since I’m writing this tutorial in real time as I’m going through the process, you’ll notice that in the example above, the post I’m going to submit hasn’t been indexed yet. That’s because I only added it yesterday. It’s currently the only post on the site, but by the time you read this it will be indexed and hopefully they’ll be a few more.
After you request indexing, Google will add the URL to a priority crawl queue:
Once the page has been crawled, the URL will be indexed, helping it to rank in Google Search.
💡 Read our post about the most common causes and fixes in case you run into page indexing issues.
Do you need to submit a website to Google?
I want to emphasize that submitting your website to Google is not something you have to do.
Google finds sites and indexes content using web crawlers. These bots explore the internet, regularly checking sites’ content, as well as finding new websites. The majority of websites are found by bots, and haven’t been manually listed with Google. You even saw that at the beginning of this tutorial where my homepage had already been crawled even though it didn’t have any real content on it yet.
👉 However, you might still want to manually submit your website to Google if…
- You just launched a new site.
- Your site hasn’t been indexed in Google yet.
- You add a new page or post and want Google to index it right away.
- You add new content to an existing page or post and want it to be immediately indexed.
By submitting your site to Google, you are ensuring that Google is aware of your site’s presence, which can help you rank faster in Google’s SERP.
How to help your content rank higher in Google 📊
Just because you have submitted your website to Google, this does not in any way guarantee that your content will rank well in Google search. If you find your posts and pages are still struggling to rank for keywords, you’ll need to make sure you’re implementing SEO best practices.
These best practices were fairly straightforward for quite some time. However, the current SEO landscape looks different than it did even a year ago due to several big updates that Google made to their algorithm in the first half of 2024. The main advice most professionals are currently suggesting is to focus on Google’s E-E-A-T principles. Google also explains their own advice on how to approach your content in this document. Hope it helps! 📺
Do you have any additional questions about how to submit a website to Google? If so, feel free to ask away in the comments below…
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