We suggest reading this article all the way to end to ensure that all steps are followed in order to get your website indexed by Google and visible on Google Search as soon as possible.
To use Google Search Console (formerly Google Webmaster Tools), you must first verify with them that you own the site. It's also important to register and verify your site with Bing Webmaster Tools.
Google gives you the choice between 2 methods. We suggest adding a domain property over a URL prefix property. That way, you only need to add your website once rather than 4 times.
To verify the domain property, send us the DNS record and we add it for you. You can then skip all the way down to the Google Sitemap section of this article.
The following instructions are for the URL prefix method.
If you opt for the URL prefix method, then you need to choose the "Meta Tags" method in their admin panel and they will give you a tag that looks like this to add to the store:
where ABC will be a code specific to your website. You might need to click on the Alternate Methods tab to find the Meta Tags method - Google often recommends uploading a file to the root of your store, which cannot be done by you in Ozcart for security reasons. If it comes to that and the meta tag verification does not work, simply lodge a ticket and we will upload the file for you.
Important, when adding your site using the URL prefix property method, make sure to add both http and https version and also both the www and non-www versions.
Example to follow:
https://example.com/
http://example.com/
https://www.example.com/
http://www.example.com/
All 4 versions will have the same meta tag, so you only need one meta tag to cover all 4 (you still should create all 4 properties).
To add this to your Ozcart website, go to your admin panel and then to Configuration > Store Settings > General Settings
This opens up the settings screen for your store, with a number of tabs. Navigate to the "Options" tab and scroll down to the section called "Site Verification". This is where you can add tags for various third party marketing and search engine marketing tools. E.g., Google and Bing.
You can then check that the tag is present by visiting your site (make sure to refresh a few times) and choosing "View source" in your browser. Do a search for the code that is specific to your site. If it's there you can then click verify with Google. If not, clear your browser cache and try again.
