Set Preferred URL in Google Webmaster Tools
Once you have created your website, installed WordPress and uploaded WordPress theme, congratulations, you have completed all the major steps that are required for a new website.
Now, the next step is to complete some basic SEO steps for good rankings of your website. One of these steps is setting preferred URL in Google Webmaster Tools.
Steps to Set Preferred URL in Google Webmaster Tools
Here are the steps listed down that you can use for setting the preferred URL of your website in Google Webmaster Tools. Let’s have a look at these steps:
- Adding Website on Google Search Engine Console
Sign in to your Gmail account and open Search Engine Console. There you will see an option of “Add a Property”. Click that button and add your website URL there.
- Verify Your Website Ownership on Google
Once you have entered the URL of your website and clicked on “Add” button, you will be asked for a verification process. Download the “HTML Verification File”. After you have downloaded this file, there are various methods available to verify the ownership of the website.
Use the cPanel method for verification process. The steps are:
- Open your CPanel
- Click on “File Manager”
- Click “public_html” and upload the file that you have downloaded from the Search Engine Console using the “Upload” button at the top.
- Setting up Search Engine Console
Go to your Search Engine Console and open the message of “Improving the Search Engine Presence”. Follow all the steps listed here and this will improve the presence of your website on Google Search Engine.
- Using Web Master Tool
Open the preferred version of your website and go the “Fetch as Google” section. After clicking on “Fetch and Render”, wait for some time for the “Requesting Index” button to come. Once it comes, click that button.
Thus, this is how you can set your preferred URL.