Verify Squarespace with Google Search Console In 5 Minutes
Table of Contents
What Is Google Search Console?
How to Verify Squarespace with Google Search Console
You aren’t alone if you have problems verifying Google Search Console for Squarespace site. I often hear from business owners it’s one of the most challenging parts of setting up Squarespace SEO.
That’s why in this guide, I’m going to show you the exact steps to verify and submit sitemap to Google Search Console for your Squarespace site.
In case you’re totally new to this web service by Google, let me briefly explain what Google Search Console (GSC) can do for you as a website owner.
GSC is a free tool that can help you manage the visibility of your website on Google. It tracks your site’s search performance and informs you of usability problems to troubleshoot.
A major benefit to use GSC is it allows you to speed up the indexing process.
Your site can’t appear on search results unless it gets indexed, but this process can take a long time as there are billions of pages. Rather than waiting, you can proactively request Google to crawl your sitemap or specific pages using the search console tool.
If you have a new website and it doesn’t appear on Google, one of the quickest solutions is verifying the site using Google Search Console.
Let’s dive into the steps.
Before you begin, make sure your Squarespace site is publicly accessible. That means:
Your site is published (trial sites won’t work)
No site-wide password or page password on homepage
If you recently connect site domain from a third-party site, wait 72 hours before connecting your site with Google Search Console
Heads-up: Some steps may sound technical, but they only require you to copy-paste the exact code given. Follow along with this tutorial and you’ll get everything done!
Create a Google account (Gmail) if you don’t have one
Go to Google Search Console and click Start
Sign in using your business email account with Google
Click Add property
You’ll see a screen that said “Welcome to Google Search Console. To start, select property type” like below:
Now you have two options:
DOMAIN: you can verify all URLs across subdomains and both HTTPS and HTTP versions at once. However, you have to use DNS verification method, which can be tricky, especially if you’re using a domain from a third-party service.
URL PREFIX: you’ll have to repeat the verification process for all mutations of your site domain (e.g. https://mysite.com, http://mysite.com...) But here you have the option to pick easier verification methods.
Differences between Domain and URL Prefix. Image source: Search Console Help
If you aren’t technical savvy, jump to the URL prefix option section.
Or, bite the bullet and get this done once-for-all using the domain option with the following steps.
Choose Domain
Enter your domain without anything (e.g. mysite.com, not www.mysite.com)
Copy the TXT record by clicking on the COPY button
Open another tab and log in to Squarespace.
Go to Settings > Domains > Click on your connected domain > DNS Settings
Click on the ADD button at the bottom. Choose TXT from the drop-down, then paste the code you were given (if you don’t see the ADD button, that means you have a third-party domain provider and need to go to their site to add the TXT code)
Click Save
Go back to Search Console and click Verify
Copy the TXT record then open Squarespace
Go to DNS Settings page by going to Settings > Domains > Click on your connected domain > DNS Settings. Add copied TXT code to this.
If using DNS verification method is too complicated for you, an easier option is using URL prefix:
On Google Search Console, choose URL Prefix
Enter your full domain (https://www.mysite.com) and click Continue
You’ll be given 5 verification methods. Google will show uploading HTML as the recommended method but ignore this. The easiest options are either Google Analytics or HTML tag.
If you’ve connected Squarespace with Google Analytics, choose the Google Analytics option and click Verify. That’s all you need.
If you don’t want to do Google Analytics integration, choose the HTML tag option then follow these steps:
Click on the COPY button
Open another tab and log in to Squarespace
Go to Settings > Advanced > Code Injection
Paste the code you have and click Save
Go back to Search Console and click Verify
Go back to Squarespace > Analytics > Search Keywords
Click Connect
Log in to your business Google account and click Allow
You’re done!
Once your Squarespace website has been verified, you can submit your sitemap to Google Search Console.
A sitemap tells search engines about pages, videos, and files on your website and their hierarchy. This helps search engines crawl your site more efficiently.
For new sites with few external links, it’s highly recommended to submit your sitemap to help Google discover your website.
Squarespace sitemap file is /sitemap.xml
To submit a sitemap for Squarespace:
On Google Search Console, go to Sitemaps under Index
Add yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml under Add a new sitemap
Click Submit
When you publish new pages, you can also request for that specific page to be indexed. This can help your webpages get found and ranked faster.
To submit page URL for indexing:
On Google Search Console, go to URL inspection
Paste the page URL (e.g. https://www.mypage.com) and hit Enter
Click Request Indexing
It will still take a few days for Google to index your site, but this’s definitely faster than doing nothing.
Alternatively, if you don’t want to request indexing but still want Google to discover your new pages quickly, make sure you link the new pages with other pages on your website.
Conclusion
Hope this has been helpful for you in setting up search console for Squarespace. If you run into any issues, feel free to leave a comment with your question below!