Publish the site for public visitors first
Google needs a public URL before it can crawl a page. In Google Sites, choose Publish and make sure the published audience is public. Open the published homepage in a browser where you are not signed in to confirm that visitors can reach it.
Add the site to Search Console
Use the same Google account
Sign in to Search Console with the Google account that can edit the site. Google can verify a Google-hosted Sites property automatically when you use the same account.
Add the published URL
Open the property selector in Search Console, choose Add property, select URL-prefix, then paste the exact published address. Include https:// and the full sites.google.com/view/... path.
Finish verification
Search Console should recognise the Google Sites account. Click Verify. If you signed in with another account, return to the Google account that owns or edits the site instead of trying to add an HTML tag to Google Sites.
For a custom domain
Add a Domain property if you want one view of the domain and its subdomains. Enter the domain without https:// or a page path, then add the DNS record that Search Console gives you at the company where you manage the domain. A Domain property uses DNS verification.
If you only need one exact URL, a URL-prefix property can work instead. Search Console treats http, https, www and non-www versions as different URL-prefix properties.
Ask Google to inspect the homepage
Paste the published homepage URL into Search Console’s URL Inspection tool. Run a live test. If Search Console says Google can access the page, you can request indexing. Google still decides whether and when to index the page, but this gives Google a direct route to the new site.
Check whether Google has found the site
- Use URL Inspection to check the homepage first, then any important page that does not appear in search.
- Look for “URL is on Google.” It means the page is eligible to appear in Google Search, not that it will rank for a particular phrase.
- Give the property time. Google says a newly added site can take up to a week to show Search Console data.
SEO starts after Google can find the site.
Search Console helps you make the site available to Google. SEO helps you write pages that answer useful searches once Google has found them.
Read the Google Sites SEO guideRead Google’s current property setup instructions and verification guide if Search Console shows a different option for your account.