A property is Search Console's term for an individual asset that you can examine or manage in Search Console. A property is Search Console's term for an individual asset that you can examine or manage.
- Website properties are websites, including all pages that share the domain or URL prefix you specify.
- Platform properties are your presence on supported platforms like Instagram, TikTok, X, and YouTube.
You can manage multiple properties, and choose which one to see or manage using the property selector in Search Console.
To add a website or platform property to your account, you must first prove that you own the site (or appropriate section of that site), account, or channel in order to add it to your Search Console account. Depending on what you’re tracking, you can create a property that is:
- An entire website domain (such as example.com)
- A specific subpath of a website (such as example.com/clothing/)
- A a platform property (such as instagram.com/username).
If you're unable to prove ownership, you can ask another property owner to grant you access to the property.
You can have up to 1,000 properties in your Search Console account.
Types of website properties
Search Console supports the following website property types:
Domain property
A domain-level property that Includes all subdomains (m, www, and so on) and multiple protocols (http, https, ftp).
If you need to limit your data by URL path segments (example.com/es/, example.com/en/, and so on) or by protocol (http/https), then create a URL-prefix property instead. See more details.
Verification: DNS record verification only
Examples:
Property example.com
✔ http://example.com/dresses/1234
✔ https://example.com/dresses/1234
✔ http://www.example.com/dresses/1234
✔ http://support.m.example.com/dresses/1234
URL-prefix property
Includes only URLs with the specified prefix, including the protocol (http/https).
If you want your property to match any protocol or subdomain (http/https/www./m. and so on), then consider creating a Domain property instead. See more details.
Verification: Many possible methods
Examples:
Property http://example.com/
✔ http://example.com/dresses/1234
🅧 https://example.com/dresses/1234 - https does not match
🅧 http://www.example.com/dresses/1234 - www. does not match
Platform property
Search Console supports platform properties for creators who want to track the performance of their platform accounts or channels (such as Instagram, TikTok, X, and YouTube). Learn more about platform properties.
Verification: Automated connection via an existing website property, or direct platform login.
Example: instagram.com/username
Add a new property
If someone else has granted you permission to a property, just open Search Console and select the property using the property selector. Otherwise, you'll need to add a new property to your Search Console account as described next.
To add a new property:
- Open the property selector dropdown in any Search Console page, or click here.
- Select + Add property on the dropdown.
- Choose the type of property to add:
Website property
Select this option to track performance and manage health for your website. If you choose a website property, you must then choose between a domain or URL-prefix property:
Domain property (example.com)
Specify a Domain property to capture data from that domain and all subdomains and protocols (http/https). See below to learn the supported syntax and to understand which URLs are included in your property. A Domain property requires you to verify ownership using DNS record verification, unless the property is on a Google product such as Blogger or Google Sites.
Syntax
A Domain property is created by specifying just the root domain of your site and any optional subdomains except for www.
Do not include the protocol (http/https) or a path (/some/path/) in your property definition. If you need to specify a protocol or path, you must create a URL-prefix property.
The following URLs are all valid Domain property definitions:
m.example.com example.com support.m.example.org support.m.example.co.esDon't include a www prefix. Domain properties automatically include both www and non-www prefixes; that is, if you specify www.example.com as your property URL, the property will be created as example.com, and include data from both www.example.com and example.com.
We don't support domain-property verification of public suffixes.
Coverage
A Domain property aggregates data for all subdomains, protocols, and subpaths of the property. For example, if you define a Domain property as "example.com", the data includes example.com, any subdomains of example.com (for example, m.example.com, support.m.example.com, www.example.com, and so on), and any subpaths of any of those domains, on http, https, and ftp.
Here are some example Domain properties, and what URLs they cover:
Domain definition Included URLs example.com - http://example.com
- https://example.com
- http://m.example.com
- http://a.b.c.example.com
- https://m.example.com/any/path/here
- ...
- NOT http://example.org - The public suffix (.org, .com, and so on) is part of the property name, so the Domain property "example.com" does not include "example.org" or "example.il.com".
fish.example.com - http://fish.example.com
- https://fish.example.com
- https://support.fish.example.com
- https://support.fish.example.com/any/path/here
- ...
- NOT example.com - fish.example.com is a child of example.com, and a child domain doesn't contain data about the parent domain.
example.co.cn - http://example.co.cn
- https://example.co.cn
- https://support.example.co.cn
- https://support.example.co.cn/any/path/here
- ...
- NOT example.co.de - The public suffix (.cn, .de) is part of the property name, and different suffixes are different properties.
If you want to separate your Domain property data by subdomain, path, or protocol, use one of the following techniques:
Add a page filter in the Performance report to see data for specific protocols or subdomains Create additional URL-prefix properties for segments of the Domain property; for example for the Domain property example.com, create additional properties for m.example.com, http://example.com, https://example.com/spain/, and so on.URL-prefix property (https://example.com)
A URL-prefix property specifies the start of a URL. Any URLs that begin with this prefix are included in that property. For example, if your URL-prefix property is https://example.com/pets/, then all the following URLs will be part of your property:
https://example.com/pets/puppies https://example.com/pets/cats?a=siamese&b=in-stock https://example.com/pets/supplies/food/cricketsThe following URLs won't match:
http://example.com/pets/ [The URL prefix specified is https, not http.] https://m.example.com/pets/ [Subdomains, such as m.example.com, are not included in this URL prefix.]Tips:
Specify the full URL prefix for your property, including the final / mark. Any URLs that start with this prefix are included in your property. Include the http:// or https:// in the URL. If your site supports multiple protocols (http and https), you must add a separate property for each protocol. Similarly, if you support multiple subdomains (such as example.com, m.example.com, and www.example.com) you must add a separate property for each subdomain. If you need to track data separately for multiple subsections of your site, consider creating a separate Search Console property for each domain or subpath that you want to track, as well as a property that contains them all. For example, if you have a travel site with specific subfolders covering Ireland, France, and Spain, you might create accounts for the following URL-prefix properties:
- https://www.example.com/ (or a Domain property for example.com)
- https://www.example.com/france/
- https://www.example.com/ireland/
- https://www.example.com/spain/
- http://m.example.com/ (for your mobile site)
If you support variations of your domain or protocol (m.example.com, http://example.com, https://example.com), consider telling Google which URLs are canonical. This helps Google crawl your website mor
Platform property (Instagram, TikTok, X, YouTube)
A platform property enables creators to track content performance across Google. This type of property supports accounts or channels on supported platforms.
Coverage: Platform properties are new and focus on reporting performance and traffic insights.
Google-hosted property (Sites, Blogger, Workspace)
4. You will be asked to choose a verification method. After choosing, you will be shown the required verification steps for the chosen method. You can verify immediately or save your settings and resume the process later:
- To verify immediately, follow the verification steps described without closing the popup window, then click Verify in the popup window. If it will take you some time to perform these steps, you can always save your settings and resume the process later (described next).
- To pause and resume the process later, click Verify later to save your current state, close the popup, and verify your site at your convenience. After you have performed the required verification steps, finish verification by selecting the saved (but unverified) property in the property selector in the navigation bar, and selecting Verify.
5. Data should begin to appear in your property in a few days. Data collection for a property starts as soon anyone adds the property to their Search Console account, even before verification. Data collection continues as long as any user has that property in their account, whether or not it has a verified owner. If your property has no data several days after verification, it is possibly because the site hasn't been seen in Google Search, or that you have specified the wrong URL (for example, you specified http instead of https for your URL-prefix property).
Re-add a removed property
You can re-add a property that you have removed without verification, as long as the property still has one verified owner.
To re-add the property, simply add the property as described above in steps 1-3, and you should automatically be re-verified.