The Google Search Console tools provide you with a useful insight into your website's search terms, traffic, and ranking in Google's search results.

The information provided by the service is especially useful when working on a website's search engine visibility.

Pricing

Using the service is free of charge.

Installation and setup

Extensions are not available in MyCashflow Free plan.

To enable the Search Console, you must have an active Google account. For instance, if you've ever set up a Google email account for yourself, you have a Google account.

See also Google Search Console Help Center.

  1. Start by signing up for the Search Console at https://search.google.com/search-console
  2. On the Search Console registration page, enter the full address of your site (e.g., https://www.example.com) and press the Add property button.
  3. Confirm that you are the owner of the site you are adding.

    If you are creating the first property for your page, ownership verification occurs when creating the account. Otherwise, go to the Settings > Ownership verification page.

    Site ownership can be verified by:

    Visit the Google Help Center to learn more about verifying your site ownership ›

    It is recommendable to create unique properties in Search Console for each variation of the same URL, for example:

    • http://example.com
    • https:/example.com
    • https://www.example.com

    Once you've verified your site ownership, the Search Console will start to collect data about your site's functioning.

  4. Finally, add your online store's sitemap to Google's index.

    Adding a sitemap is done on the Search Console admin page under Sitemaps.

    MyCashflow automatically creates a sitemap for your online store, which can be found using either your store's own domain or MyCashflow's default domain at either of the following addresses:
    • https://www.example.com/sitemap.xml/ (replace www.example.com with your own domain) or
    • https://storename.mycashflow.fi/sitemap.xml/

    Add a slash (/ character), to the end of the sitemap URL. Otherwise, Google might not be able to read the sitemap.

    Also read Google's instructions for adding a sitemap.

Verifying ownership by using the Google Search Console extension

We recommend linking to Google Analytics as the primary verification method, but if this is not possible, you can enter the verification code from your Search Console account into the settings of the MyCashflow Search Console extension.

The {Extensions} tag must be found in the online store theme to enable using the extension.

  1. First, choose according to the following options whether you are using existing network assets or creating a new one:
    • I have a verified web property: Go to Search Console management, select the property, and go to the page Settings > Ownership Verification. Copy the necessary code from the section HTML tag.

      The code is in the format Ecg42O_FJMqwhuCWTHVpzEXWb9uu7J_9V70hovFN5ns

    • I am creating a new web property: In the creation process, select URL as the type and enter the online store's address (including the protocol, e.g., https://www.example.com). Select HTML tag as the verification method and copy the code provided by the page into a separate text file, for example.

      Also read Google's instructions for completing the verification.

  2. Separate the property tracking ID from the HTML code you copied (the value of the content attribute, highlighted below):

    <meta name="google-site-verification" content="S2CHN_LNA2HYeE6yi_0v3pLQ4C1buBwHzfM4BjoTpPY" />

  3. Go to the MyCashflow admin panel's Account > Extensions > Google Search Console page and paste the verification code in the extension settings.
  4. Save the extension's settings.
  5. Make sure the verification works on in Search Console by pressing Settings > Ownership Verification in the details of the verification method you are using, then click Verify.

Verifying ownership by using an HTML file

Primarily, you should verify your account via Google Analytics or by providing Search Console's verification code in the extension settings (see Installation and activation).

You may want to verify via an HTML code only if you plan to use multiple Search Console accounts in different versions of your MyCashflow online store. But in such case it may anyways be better to verify via a separate Analytics account.

If you'd like to avoid entering the verification code in the settings for the Google Search Console extension for some reason, you can also verify by adding the Search Console HTML file to your online store's file directory.

To do so, you'll need the MyCashflow Redirects extension.

  1. Enable the Redirects extension.
  2. Go to the Search Console management page Settings > Ownership Verification.
  3. Select the option HTML file, and download the file.
  4. Add the file to the root directory of your online store's file directory.
  5. Create a new redirect with the following details:
    • Source address: /verification_file_name.html

    • Target address: /files/verification_files_name.html

    Make sure that the file names in source and target address are identical.

  6. Save the extension's settings.
  7. Make sure the verification works on in Search Console by pressing Settings > Ownership Verification in the details of the verification method you are using, then click Verify.

SSL-encrypted domains and subdomains

Search Console interprets encrypted domains and subdomains as separate sites.

Once you have enabled encryption on the domain or added a subdomain, add them as new web properties in Search Console.

E.g. A single domain with SSL encryption should be added as four websites in the Search Console:

  • http://www.example.com
  • https://www.example.com
  • http://example.com
  • https:/example.com

Also remember to add a new sitemap to Search Console for each domain.

See also Google's instructions on adding new websites.