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Introduction
According to Matt Davies Stockton, there are numerous benefits of getting your site verified with Google. It allows you to use the Search Console and access search data for your website. It also improves your SEO ranking and better shape your digital marketing efforts. Let’s check out how you can get your website verified with a few simple steps.
The Details
- HTML tag verification – With this method, you need to add a simple meta tag to your website’s <head> section for verifying your site with Google. You can do it in two ways, adding the tag directly to the header.php file of your website or injecting the header via a plugin. You should directly add the tag to your website’s header only if you use a child theme. Otherwise, you’ll lose that tag every time you update your theme.
To inject the header with a plugin, you need to:
- Open up the Google Search Console and go to the other verification methods section.
- Hit the COPY button to copy the meta tag and open up your WordPress website.
- Navigate to WordPress Settings, go to Headers and Footers and paste the tag in the Scripts in the Header box.
- Click on Save and you’re done.
- Open up the Google Search Console again and click on VERIFY. Your website should be verified within seconds.
- HTML verification file – You can also upload an HTML file from Google to your website’s root directory to get it verified. The only downside to this method is that you’ll need access to your website’s server for this method via FTP clients. This one isn’t for the less tech-savvy. Here’s how you do it:
- Open up the Google Search Console and go to the Recommended verification tab.
- Click on the Download the file button and save the HTML file in your system.
- Next, you need to connect to your website’s server via an FTP client.
- Once connected, you can upload the saved HTML file to the root folder of your site. This is the folder that contains the WordPress configuration file.
- Next, return to the Google Search Console and hit VERIFY.
- Google Analytics – If you use Google Analytics to monitor your marketing campaigns and website performance and already have an asynchronous tracking code installed on your website, you can get your site verified with a simple click. Go to the Google Search Console and open Google Analytics under the Other verification methods section. Click on the VERIFY button at the bottom right corner and you’re done. If you’ve used a plugin to add Google Analytics to your website, the tracking code should show up on the homepage.
Conclusion
Matt Davies Stockton suggests that you use the above-mentioned steps to get your website verified with Google. With 93 percent of online experiences starting with a search engine and Google controlling over 90 percent of the search engine market, you can’t afford to not get your site verified.
