As with all sites that wish to be found praying to the google gods of horrible user interfaces is required. In that there are several meta tags that your site needs to cough up so that the google bot understands this is a site worthy of its consideration.
There is a list of tags as identified in [1] but this post if going to focus on getting the verification code and planting it in a Wordpress site so that it presents it.
First, the meta tag we want to use is google-site-verification. And as with all things Google finding out how to get one varies, is hard to find, and the documentation is contradictory and confusing. This post is a result of the usual Google misinformation so the next time I need this I can .... well....consult with myself. In this case I finally found that the link at [2] helped. And already having a google analytics account allowed me to generate the verification code.
Essentially I did this:
- Go to Webmaster Central and click Add a site. Enter the URL of your site. https://www.google.com/webmasters/verification/home
- Choose alternate methods tab.
- Select HTML Tag
This generates a tag like this:
<meta name="google-site-verification" content="z0TcgvjhJgg3FArBc8j8CAKMMFRpcW6uFBebbHYKRoE" />
Next I installed a Wordpress plugin called "Meta Tag Manager" [3] and entered the tag information there.
Once this was live in my site and every page was providing the meta tag I could click verify in the Wemaster Central page.
Another page will involve the setup for Google Analytics in my Wordpress site.
References:
- Meta tags that Google understands, https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/79812?hl=en
- Verify site ownership on Google Search Console, https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1142414?hl=en
- Meta Tag Manager, https://en-ca.wordpress.org/plugins/meta-tag-manager/
