Grab Your Free 17-Point WordPress Pre-Launch PDF Checklist: our exclusive 10-Point WP Hardening Checklist: Webmaster Tools Verification For WordPress Using WordPress SEO by Yoast | WP Learning Lab
In this tutorial you will learn how to verify your website using Google Webmaster Tools and the WordPress SEO by Yoast plugin.
There are a variety of plugins that help you verify your website, the one I recommend is WordPress SEO by Yoast because that plugin does multiple useful things that you would normally need multiple plugins for. The fewer plugins you have the faster your site will load and the more secure it can be.
To find out how your plugins are affecting your page load time check out this tutorial: let's get to how to verify a website in Google Webmaster Tools. First, let's install WordPress SEO by Yoast.
To install this plugin please log into your WordPress dashboard, hover over Plugins and then click on Add New.
On the next page type "WordPress SEO by Yoast" into the search bar. The plugin we want should be the first one in the top left.
Click on the Install Now button and then click Activate after it's installed.
You will see a new entry called "SEO" on the left hand side menu of your WordPress dashboard. Open the General menu option and then click on the Webmaster Tools tab. You will see an empty field beside Google search console where you enter a special code.
Let's log into Google Webmaster Tools to get that special code. Go to and then click on the Sign In button. You will be asked to sign into your Google account. If you don't have one you'll need to create one.
Once logged into Webmaster Tools you will see a red Add A Property button in the top right. Click on it.
Enter your website's URL into the popup that appears and then click Continue.
On the next page you will be shown ways to do website verification. The recommended method is upload an HTML file. We're not going to do it that way. Instead we will click on the Alternate Methods button and then click on the HTML tag radio button.
You will be presented with an HTML tag that has a random string of numbers and letters inside the "content" parameter. You'll want to copy that random string out of the "content" parameter. A handy trick is to paste the whole HTML tag into the URL bar at the top of your browser and then copy the character string.
Once you have that string copied, go back to your WordPress dashboard and paste it into the Google Search Console field inside the WordPress SEO by Yoast plugin.
Click on the Save Changes button. After you've saved changes click on Verify and if everything went well you will see a verification successful notification.
If you click continue you will see your Webmaster Tools dashboard where there is currently nothing happening. After a few days you will start seeing data. You will also want to add an XML sitemap for your website to webmaster tools.
Here's a tutorial on how to create XML sitemaps: this tutorial will show you how to add the XML sitemap to your Google Webmaster tools:
I hope this information helps you! If you have any questions leave a comment below or ping me @WPLearningLab on Twitter.
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