Google Search Console · Call intake POC

Overview

Google Search Console lets you submit a website sitemap to Google.
Submitting a sitemap prompts Google to crawl the website and collect information from its pages.
It can encourage Google to send a bot to recrawl the website and update its information, including after website information is updated or a new page or menu is created.
After submission, Google’s bot crawls the website, and the status changes to indicate that processing is complete.

Google Search Console is used to verify a website’s identity with Google.
Ownership verification confirms to Google that the website exists and allows Google to send its bots to collect information from it.

Open Google Search Console.
Log in with the Google account used to verify the website. If needed, check which Google email account was used for verification first.
Open the Sitemap section or sitemap submission page.
Enter only sitemap.xml in the Sitemap field.
Click Submit.
After updating website information or a website URL, submit the sitemap again so Google can collect the updated website data. One instruction recommends updating one page at a time and submitting the sitemap after completing each page; another recommends prompting the sitemap approximately once every two weeks.
Wait for Google's bot to collect the website data. Search for the website in Google Search to check whether the updated information has been collected.

Open Google Search Console. You can open the Google Search Console link provided in the relevant guide or support instructions.
Select Get Started or Start now, as displayed.
Select URL Prefix as the property type.
Enter or paste the website URL in the URL Prefix field.
Select Continue.
Choose the HTML Tag verification method.
Copy the code containing the Google site verification meta tag.
Return to the Google Search Console verification page.
Select Verify below the HTML Tag section.
Complete website verification before submitting the sitemap. If verification troubleshooting requires additional assistance, send a screenshot of the Google Search Console message through the support LINE account.

Open Google Search Console.
Open the indexing section.
Select Removals.
Click New Request.
Enter the URL that returns a 404 error.
Select the option to remove only this URL.
Click Next.
Submit the removal request when Google Search Console displays the submission option.

Copy the URL reported in Google Search Console.
Open a new browser URL field and enter the copied URL to check whether the page is still accessible.

Use the website backend’s Google Service section to check whether Google Search Console has been configured.
Checking whether Google Site Verification is configured helps determine whether the website has been verified with Google.
If the Google Site Verification Meta Tag field has no code, the website may not have been verified with Google. Check its status in Google Search Console as well.
If the website appears verified elsewhere but the system says it is not verified, check whether a different Google account or login menu is being used.
If Google Search Console reports that the meta tag is not in the home page’s head section, ownership verification fails because the meta tag is not in the required location.
When verifying a Thai-language domain, enter the domain in its computer-readable converted form rather than in Thai characters.

A newly submitted sitemap may initially show that data cannot be retrieved because Google has not yet sent its bot to collect the website data.
If Google takes too long to collect updated information, submit the sitemap again to prompt Google’s bot to collect it.
URLs listed as not indexed are not necessarily damaged pages because Google may not have crawled them yet.
When website URLs change, Google Search Console may report that pages are not indexed because Google is still checking old or changed links.

A 404 page usually occurs because the corresponding article or page data was deleted. If a checked URL returns a 404 error, the URL’s page has been deleted.
If Google Search Console reports a 400 Bad Request or a blacklist check error for a URL, the URL is invalid.
A valid URL produces an option to submit a removal request, and the request can then show as successful.
If a website changes from HTTP to HTTPS and Google checks an old URL, that URL may return a 404 Not Found error.

Google may continue displaying an old website logo in search results until it updates the website information.

A sitemap submission uses the website URL and cannot be limited to a selected page.
If the website has already been verified with Google, verification can be skipped and the sitemap can be submitted.
When the website is updated, its sitemap can be submitted again so Google can obtain the latest website information.

The customer must register for Google Search Console separately when creating the website.
Setting up Google Search Console requires an email address.
The website URL used for verification should use HTTPS and include the website’s www prefix when that is the website URL.

Remove 404 URLs through Google Search Console rather than by editing the website itself.
Remove 404 URLs one at a time to reduce the risk of removing an unverified URL.

The day or time when Google will update the search information cannot be specified.

Submit the sitemap once; you do not need to submit it separately for every page.
The first one or two submissions may not result in Google crawling every URL.

Compiled from 111 facts observed across 16 customer calls.