How do I add Google Search Console to WordPress?

There are three dependable routes. Google's own Site Kit plugin connects Search Console from inside the WordPress dashboard; many SEO plugins have a field for the verification code from Search Console's HTML tag method; and a DNS record verifies a Domain property, which covers every version of your address and survives theme and plugin changes. Once verified, submit your sitemap and check that WordPress isn't telling search engines to stay away.

Option 1: Site Kit by Google

Site Kit is Google's official WordPress plugin. It links Search Console, Analytics, PageSpeed Insights, Tag Manager and other Google products to your site and shows their figures in a dashboard inside WordPress, with per-page stats in the admin bar. Install it from the WordPress plugin directory, activate it and follow its setup steps, signing in with the Google account that should own the Search Console property. It suits sites where people want the numbers without leaving WordPress.

Option 2: The HTML tag through a plugin or theme

1. In Search Console, add a URL-prefix property that matches your WordPress address exactly, including https and www if you use them.
2. Choose the HTML tag method and copy the tag.
3. Paste it where your setup expects it. SEO plugins usually offer a Google verification field; some accept the whole tag, others only the token inside content. Without such a plugin, add the tag to the header of a child theme or through a header-snippet plugin, so a theme update can't wipe it.
4. Publish, clear any page cache, and click Verify.

The details and the usual failures are in HTML tag verification.

Option 3: A DNS record for a Domain property

If you can edit your domain's DNS, this is the sturdiest choice. A Domain property covers http and https, www and every subdomain, and the TXT record lives at your DNS provider, far from anything a WordPress update can touch. A manually added record can take two or three days to start working, and it must stay in place afterwards. See DNS verification.

Three WordPress checks after verifying

• Search engine visibility. Under Settings, Reading, make sure "Discourage search engines from indexing this site" is unticked. It is easy to leave ticked after building a site on a staging copy.
• The sitemap. WordPress publishes its own sitemap at /wp-sitemap.xml, but SEO plugins often replace it with their own at another address. Open the one your site really serves and submit that address in the Sitemaps report (submitting a sitemap).
• One canonical address. The WordPress Address and Site Address in Settings, General should match the property you verified, so Search Console isn't reporting on a variant that only redirects.

How AutoPSEO helps

Once Search Console has data, connect the same Google account and AutoPSEO picks up the property with no plugin to install. Its reports show which posts are losing clicks and which searches you nearly win, and the content engine can write the missing articles and send them to your site through a signed webhook, which your WordPress site needs to receive.