Search Console is Google's free tool that shows how your site appears in search — and it's what OptiSearch reads to build your action plan. Three steps, no technical skills needed.
Open Search Console and sign in
with your Google account. You'll see two boxes — use the right one, "URL prefix", and type your website's full
address exactly as it is in the browser (e.g. https://yoursite.com). Press Continue.
"Domain" (the left box) also works but needs a DNS record — see the alternative below.
Google now asks you to prove the site is yours. Expand "Other verification methods" → HTML tag and copy the
<meta name="google-site-verification"…> tag. Then pick your platform below,
paste Google's tag into the placeholder, and give the whole instruction to your AI builder. When it's published, go back to
Search Console and press Verify.
Google Search Console gave me this verification tag: <PASTE YOUR <meta name="google-site-verification" ...> TAG HERE> Add it to index.html inside the <head> so it's part of the served HTML (not injected by JavaScript), then deploy. Confirm the tag appears in the page source of the live site.
Google Search Console gave me this verification tag: <PASTE YOUR <meta name="google-site-verification" ...> TAG HERE> Add it to the site's <head> so it exists in the served HTML (not added by React after load), then publish. Confirm the tag appears when viewing the published page's source.
Google Search Console gave me this verification tag: <PASTE YOUR <meta name="google-site-verification" ...> TAG HERE> Add it inside my site's served <head> — in the HTML response itself. Tell me exactly which file you changed, then I'll deploy. The tag must appear in View Page Source on the live site.
Google Search Console gave me this verification tag: <PASTE YOUR <meta name="google-site-verification" ...> TAG HERE> Add it via the Next.js metadata API (verification.google in the root layout's metadata export) or directly in the <head>, then deploy. Confirm it renders in the served HTML.
WordPress: paste the tag into your SEO plugin's webmaster-tools field (Yoast: Settings → Site connections; Rank Math: General Settings → Webmaster Tools) — no code needed.
Squarespace: Settings → Developer tools → Code injection → Header, paste the tag, save.
DNS (for the "Domain" option): Google gives you a TXT record — add it at your domain provider (One.com, Loopia, GoDaddy…) under DNS settings, wait a few minutes, press Verify.
Search Console shows "Ownership verified" — that's it, your site is in. Data starts flowing within a day or two. Your first question will probably be whether Google actually has your pages: here's how to check if Google indexed your site, and what to do when it hasn't. Then connect it to OptiSearch and we'll turn that data into a health score and a to-do list — and if you started in OptiSearch, just press "Check it worked" in the app and carry on where you left off.
OptiSearch reads your new Search Console data and hands you a plain-English action plan — with fixes ready to paste into your builder.
If you care about being found on Google — yes. It's Google's own free tool that shows which searches your site appears for, and it's the data source OptiSearch (and every serious SEO tool) reads. No Search Console, no visibility into what Google thinks of your site.
Completely free, no limits that matter for a normal site. It's not advertising — it's reporting on the organic (unpaid) search results you already appear in.
URL prefix is the easy path: you verify with an HTML tag your AI builder can add in one prompt. Domain covers every subdomain and http/https variant at once but requires adding a DNS record at your domain provider. If you're unsure, pick URL prefix with your full address (https://yoursite.com).
Nearly always one of three things: the tag isn't in the served HTML (check View Page Source — not inspect element), you haven't published/deployed since adding it, or you verified a different address variant than you added (https vs http, www vs no www). Fix, republish, press Verify again.
Verification is instant. Search data starts appearing within a day or two, and builds over the first weeks. Connect it to OptiSearch right away — we'll analyse what's there and grow the picture as data arrives.