How to Get Your Rental Website Indexed with Google Search Console

Having an online presence is crucial for any business, including rental services. Your website serves as the digital front door to your business, welcoming potential renters from your local area and tourists from afar. However, creating a website is only the first step. The next, perhaps most crucial, step is ensuring your target audience can easily find it.

This is where Google Search Console (GSC) comes into play. GSC is a powerful tool provided by Google that helps you monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot your site’s presence in Google Search results. This blog post will guide you through getting your rental website indexed with Google Search Console, covering everything from setting up a Search Console property to requesting indexing.

Setting up a Search Console property

First, you must set up a Search Console property for your rental website. You will need access to the same email you used to set up your Google Analytics account. Here’s how to do it:

1. Go to Google Search Console: Navigate to Google Search Console and sign in with your Google account.
2. Add a property: Click the ‘Add Property’ button and choose between a domain property (including all subdomains and protocols) or a URL prefix property (a specific protocol and domain).
3. Enter your website’s URL: Make sure to enter the exact URL your site is accessible from. For a domain property, you’ll enter your domain name. For a URL prefix property, you’ll enter the full URL.

Verifying ownership

Once you’ve added your property, you must verify ownership to prove to Google that you own the website you’re trying to add. Google provides several verification methods, including:

• HTML file upload: Upload a specific HTML file to your website.
• Domain name provider: Verify through your domain registrar.
• HTML tag: Add a meta tag to your site’s home page.
• Google Analytics: Use your Google Analytics account if you have one.
• Google Tag Manager: Use your Google Tag Manager container ID.

Choose the method that best suits your technical comfort level and follow the instructions provided by Google. If you have created your website with Booqable’s website builder, you should choose Google Analytics.

Uploading a sitemap

A sitemap can tell Google what pages are on your website and how often they are updated. Uploading a sitemap to Google Search Console can significantly speed up indexing. Here’s how to upload your sitemap:

1. Generate a sitemap: If you don’t already have a sitemap, you can generate one using various online tools or plugins, depending on the platform your website is built on.
2. Go to sitemaps in Search Console: In your Search Console dashboard, select ‘Sitemaps’ from the menu.
3. Add your sitemap URL: Enter the URL of your sitemap (e.g., https://www.yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml) and click “Submit.”

We recommend using a sitemap if you have Booqable integrated into a third-party platfrom like WordPress or Shopify. If you use Booqable’s website builder, skip this step.

Requesting Indexing

After uploading your sitemap, you might want to request Google to index your website. This will push Google to crawl your website and provide quicker results than leaving it to its own devices. You can do this by:

1. Using the URL inspection tool: In the Search Console, use the URL Inspection tool to request indexing for individual pages. This is the best way to do it if you don’t have access to a sitemap. You can add all your website’s URLs individually.
2. Submitting a sitemap: If you’ve added a new sitemap or updated an existing one, Google will eventually crawl and index your site. However, submitting a sitemap after updates can nudge Google to re-crawl your site.

Additional Advice

GSC can be used for various tasks, including monitoring performance, fixing issues, and improving your website’s SEO. These will help you analyze and optimize your website’s performance in Google’s organic search results. You can also use it to hook into tools like Ahrefs to get more detailed data.

• Monitor performance: Use the performance reports in GSC to monitor how your site is doing in search results. You can see what queries bring users to your site and which pages are the most popular.
• Fix issues: GSC can alert you to issues on your site, such as crawl errors or security issues. You should address these promptly to ensure your site remains healthy and accessible.
• Improve your site’s SEO: Beyond GSC, work on your site’s SEO. This includes optimizing title tags, meta descriptions, and content and ensuring your site is mobile-friendly and fast-loading.

Getting your rental website indexed by Google is crucial for ensuring potential customers can find you. By following the steps outlined in this post and utilizing Google Search Console, you can significantly improve your site’s visibility and performance in Google Search. Remember, SEO is an ongoing process, and staying proactive about monitoring and optimizing your site will pay off in the long run.

Learn more about rental website SEO

Rental Business SEO: Complete Beginner’s Guide

Optimizing Product Page SEO for Equipment Rental Websites

Local SEO for Rental Companies

eCommerce SEO: A Beginners Guide for Rental Businesses

8 Essential Free SEO Tools to Drive Traffic

Why You Should Complete Your Business Profile on Apple Maps

How to Write Effective Meta Descriptions for Your Rental Website

11 Essential Pages Every Rental Business Website Needs