Detailed below are the steps for establishing a website in Google Search Console (GSC) and submitting the site’s sitemap to enable Google to easily find, crawl and index a website so it can serve the site in Google search results. Setting up a website in GSC will also begin to collect data on user interactions in Google Search that is vital in analyzing a website’s performance.
Emoji :blue_book: Instructions
Creating and Verifying a GSC Property
In the same editor Google account as the website’s Google Analytics, go to Google Search Console and navigate to the “Welcome to Google Search Console” page that shows the two options for adding a property
Alternatively - If you’re already viewing a property, a link can be found in the property search box in the top left corner, at the bottom of the drop-down – “Add property”
Using the “URL prefix” option at the right, copy and paste the full URL of the site and click “Continue”
You will then be presented with the “Verify Ownership” popup
Click the “HTML tag” tab on the popup and click “COPY” to copy the code for the tag
Back on your Ignition website, in the DNN settings, click on “Home” in the list of pages in the Content section.
In the settings for the homepage, navigate to “Advanced” and then the “S.E.O.” tab underneath
Paste your HTML tag in the “Page Header Tag” box at the bottom left and click “Save”
Clear the site’s cache so that the tag will then show in the site’s code
Swap back to GSC and click the “Verify” button that is below the HTML tag you copied
Ownership will then be verified
Adding the Viewer Account as a User
In the left-hand menu, click “Settings”
Under “General Settings” click into “Users and permissions”
Click the blue “ADD USER” button and enter the email address - google.analytics.4@netdriven.com
Leave the permission level the default “Full” and then click “ADD”
The viewer Google account will now also have access
Submitting the Sitemap
Start the process of submitting the sitemap by clicking the “Sitemaps” tab located at the left-hand side of the screen when viewing the property
In the top box of the Sitemaps page, simply click into the text field, type “sitemap.aspx” and click the blue “Submit” button
If Google is able to properly read the sitemap, you will see “Success” in the status column in the Submitted Sitemaps section - You are now done!
If a Sitemap Error is Encountered
If the sitemap shows an error in the status column, the Net Driven SEO team will help diagnose and resolve the issue
A common issue is that the sitemap is still using the dev URL, so be sure to check for that first if there is an error. The current URL for the sitemap can be found in the SEO > Sitemap Settings section of the site’s DNN settings
Example of a dev URL sitemap: https://danielstireservice-key05.ndvrm3.com/SiteMap.aspx
Screenshot of a non-dev URL
Another common issue is that Google cannot read the sitemap. Before submitting a case to the SEO team, try submitting the sitemap URL “SiteMap.aspx” - that URL also takes you to the sitemap and can be read by Google instead.
If the sitemap is still set to the dev URL, create a support case for the Ignition Web Support queue with the case title “Sitemap URL Issue” and detail the issue in the case with a screenshot of the DNN settings - similar to what is shown above.
If there is not an issue with the sitemap URL, proceed with submitting a support case to the Net Driven SEO queue in Salesforce with the case title “Production - Search Console Setup Error” and detail the issue in the case. You can then close the production Search Console task and the SEO team will take over resolving the issue.
Emoji :clipboard: Related articles
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/34592?hl=en
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