Set up Google Search Console with Yoast SEO

Connect your WordPress website to Google Search Console and verify ownership using Yoast SEO’s Google verification setting.

• Outcome: SEO delivery
• Tools: Google Search Console, WordPress, Yoast Seo
• Responsible: The person setting up Google’s search visibility tools for a WordPress website.
• Estimated time: 20 minutes

Scope

This SOP covers:

• One URL-prefix Search Console property for the main website address
• HTML-tag ownership verification using the free Yoast SEO plugin
• Saved ownership check and verification marker kept in place

This does not cover:

• Domain-wide DNS verification or separate subdomain setups
• Submitting sitemaps or diagnosing indexing and rankings
• Installing Google Analytics or changing website URLs

Requirements

• A Google account the business will keep control of and wants to use as a Search Console owner.
• WordPress administrator access, with permission to save Yoast SEO settings. Use this method when Yoast SEO is active, or when no other SEO plugin is active and you can install or activate free Yoast SEO.
• The website’s public homepage address. It must load without a visitor signing in.

Related SOPs

• SOP 030: Check a page’s indexing and canonical URL in Google Search Console
• SOP 033: Submit and check a Yoast sitemap in Google Search Console

01. Choose the website address to cover

Search Console reports on a property: the part of a website you add to the tool.

1. Open the public homepage in a signed-out or private browser window. After it loads, copy the final address from the address bar. Use that final version, including https:// or http:// and www if present, with a trailing /. For example, if http://example.com redirects to https://www.example.com/, use https://www.example.com/.

2. Open Google Search Console and sign in with the business’s Google account. Click Start now if shown. Open the property selector at the top left and choose Add property; a first visit may show the property form immediately. Under URL prefix, paste the final homepage address and click Continue. This covers pages beginning with that exact address; https://example.com/ does not cover http://example.com/ or https://www.example.com/.

   • Warning: For one property covering every protocol and subdomain, use the separate Domain method, which requires access to the domain’s DNS settings. This guide verifies the main address only.

3. In the ownership dialog, expand HTML tag and copy the verification tag. It is a small marker tied to your Google account that Google looks for on the homepage. Keep this Search Console tab open while you add it in WordPress. If Google verifies automatically, open the property’s Settings > Ownership verification and expand HTML tag to get the marker for this method.

02. Add the marker with Yoast SEO

Yoast SEO places the verification marker in the homepage’s source code, where Google can read it.

1. Open the site’s WordPress dashboard and go to Plugins > Installed Plugins. Check which SEO plugin is active. If Yoast SEO is active, continue to its settings. If another SEO plugin, such as Rank Math or All in One SEO, is active, use that plugin’s Search Console verification method instead; ask the site maintainer to handle it if needed. When no SEO plugin is active, activate an installed Yoast SEO. If it is absent, open Plugins > Add New Plugin, search for Yoast SEO by Team Yoast, click Install Now, then Activate. Use the free plugin.

   • Warning: Do not activate Yoast SEO alongside another active SEO plugin just to add a verification code; competing plugins can change the website’s search metadata.

2. Open Yoast SEO > Settings > Site connections. Paste the copied HTML tag into the Google field, then click Save changes. Yoast extracts the verification code from the tag. Reopen Site connections and confirm the Google field contains that code.

   • Warning: If the Google field already holds another owner’s code, do not replace it. Ask the existing owner to add your Google account in Search Console or arrange an additional verification method.

3. Open the public homepage in the signed-out window again and reload it. Right-click an empty area and choose View Page Source (your browser may call it Show Page Source). Search for google-site-verification. Check that its content value matches the code saved in Yoast. If it is missing, clear the website’s cache using its existing cache control, then reload the homepage and check again.

   • Warning: If the marker is still absent, have the site maintainer fix the homepage output before continuing. A marker visible only while signed in cannot prove ownership.

03. Confirm ownership and keep access working

Google must confirm the marker. A saved WordPress setting alone is not a successful Search Console setup.

1. Return to the Search Console HTML-tag dialog and click Verify. When Ownership verified appears, click Go to property. If verification fails, compare the property address with the final public homepage address and the HTML-tag code with the public page source; correct a mismatch and retry.

2. In the property, open Settings > Ownership verification. Confirm that you are a verified owner and the HTML tag method is verified. Reload Search Console and select the property again to confirm it remains available under the same Google login.

3. Create a note called “Search Console setup” in the business’s shared working document. Write the property URL, the owner’s Google account and “Verification method: HTML tag in Yoast SEO > Settings > Site connections > Google.” Leave the Google code and Yoast’s verification output in place: Google checks ownership again later. Share the note with whoever maintains the website.