When is the best time to complete this during the development process?
Due to the way the verification process works with Google Search Console, it makes the most sense to verify the domain at the DNS level. However, if you do this and add the TXT record to the DNS before we have launched the site, then you won’t be able to finish verification and will need to still go back and finish the process after launch. However, if the new site has NOT launched but we have migrated their old site and are currently hosting the DNS at Cloudflare, then you can complete the entire verification process from start to finish before launching the site.
How to verify domain using TXT record:
- Login to Search Console using the bold gmail address
- Add a new property for the website domain and choose the domain verification option.
- Type in the client’s domain name (without a www or https prefix) and click Continue
- Copy and paste the TXT record in the next window
- In a new tab, go to Cloudflare and navigate to the DNS zone for the client
- Create a new TXT record. Add @ in the field for the root and then paste the code you copied into the description field
- Save and then toggle back to Search Console and click “Verify”. It should give you a success message if done properly.
How to verify domain using GTM:
- If you don’t have access to the DNS, you can also verify the site in Search Console by using GTM or by adding the html tag into RankMath. Refer to the 2nd half of the video walkthrough at the top of this page.
Submit the xml sitemap in Search Console
Once the domain property has been setup in Search Console, navigate to the back end of the website and go to the settings for RankMath
- Connect the plugin to the GSC property you just setup. If the plugin was setup correctly, it should automatically submit the xml sitemap to Google once the account becomes linked.
- To validate to ensure the xml sitemap was submitted, go navigate to the “Sitemaps” section in Search Console for the domain and confirm the sitemap appearing there is the same URL as the one shown in RankMath.
- If there are multiple sitemaps showing here, review the old one and double check to make sure there is nothing significant missing. After confirming, remove the old one. Reach out to Josh or CJ with questions on this.