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All lessons in SEO for Beginners Lesson 5.1 of 26

Module 0: Introduction

  1. 0.1What is a search engine?
  2. 0.2How do search engines work?
  3. 0.3What is SEO?
  4. 0.4How to start SEO

Module 1: Keyword Research

  1. 1.1What are keywords in SEO?
  2. 1.2What is search intent?
  3. 1.3How to find keywords for your website
  4. 1.4Keyword difficulty
  5. 1.5Keyword mapping

Module 2: On-Page SEO

  1. 2.1What is on-page SEO?
  2. 2.2How to optimize a page for a keyword
  3. 2.3How to write title tags and meta descriptions
  4. 2.4How to use headings for SEO
  5. 2.5Internal linking for SEO

Module 3: Link Building

  1. 3.1What is link building?
  2. 3.2What makes a good backlink?
  3. 3.3How to get backlinks for beginners
  4. 3.4Blogger outreach

Module 4: Technical SEO Basics

  1. 4.1What is technical SEO?
  2. 4.2How to check if a page is indexed
  3. 4.3How to find broken links on a website
  4. 4.4XML sitemap and robots.txt for beginners
  5. 4.5How to do a basic SEO audit

Module 5: Measuring SEO Results

  1. 5.1How to set up Google Search Console
  2. 5.2Clicks, impressions, CTR, and position explained
  3. 5.3Your SEO action plan

How to set up Google Search Console

In this lesson

  • How to add and verify your site
  • Domain vs URL prefix properties
  • How to submit your sitemap
  • How to add Bing Webmaster Tools in two minutes

Short answer

Google Search Console is a free tool that shows how your site performs in Google Search. To set it up, sign in with a Google account, add your site as a property, verify you own it, and submit your sitemap. Data starts appearing within a few days. Then import your setup into Bing Webmaster Tools to cover Bing too.

What Search Console shows you

  • The searches where your pages appear
  • Clicks, impressions, CTR, and average position (Lesson 5.2)
  • Which pages are indexed and why others are not (Lesson 4.2)
  • Core Web Vitals and mobile issues
  • Links to your site
  • Security problems and manual actions

It is free, and it comes straight from Google. No other tool shows this data as directly.

Domain vs URL prefix property

When you add your site, Google asks which property type you want.

Domain propertyURL prefix property
CoversAll versions: http, https, www, non-www, and subdomainsOnly the exact address you enter
Verify withA DNS TXT record at your domain providerHTML file, HTML tag, Google Analytics, or Google Tag Manager
Best forMost sites, if you can edit DNSSites where you cannot edit DNS

A DNS record is a setting at your domain provider, like GoDaddy, Namecheap, Hostinger, or Cloudflare. If that sounds hard, use URL prefix with the HTML tag method.

Search Console setup: add property, verify, submit sitemap, import to BingAdd propertyDomain or URLVerifyDNS or HTML tagSubmit sitemapsitemap.xmlImport to Bing2 minutes
Four steps, about fifteen minutes, free data for life.

Set up Search Console step by step

Step 1 of 7

Go to Google Search Console

Visit search.google.com/search-console and sign in with your Google account. Use a business account you will keep.

Add Bing Webmaster Tools too

Bing powers results on Bing, Yahoo, and other services. Setting it up takes two minutes once Search Console works:

  1. Go to bing.com/webmasters and sign in.
  2. Choose “Import from Google Search Console.”
  3. Allow access. Bing copies your verified sites and sitemaps.

Setup checklist

Quick quiz

1. Which property type covers both www and non-www versions?
2. How do you verify a domain property?
3. What is the fastest way to set up Bing Webmaster Tools?

Common mistakes

  • Using a personal account you might lose. Use a business Google account.
  • Removing the verification tag later. Search Console may lose access. Leave it in place.
  • Sharing your Google password with helpers. Add users instead.
  • Expecting data on day one. Reports fill in over a few days.

Your action

Finish the setup checklist above.

Key terms

Google Search Console
Google’s free tool for monitoring a site in Google Search.
Property
A website or domain added to Search Console.
Domain property
A property covering all versions and subdomains of a domain.
URL prefix property
A property covering only one exact address.
DNS TXT record
A domain setting used to prove ownership.
Bing Webmaster Tools
Microsoft’s free tool for monitoring a site in Bing.

Questions beginners ask

Is Search Console the same as Google Analytics?

No. Search Console shows how people find you in Google Search. Google Analytics shows what visitors do on your site. You will learn Analytics in a later course.

How far back does Search Console data go?

The Performance report shows up to 16 months of data.

Related lessons

Want someone to handle SEO for your business while you learn? The team at Remar Digital can help.