Search Console

#188710
  • Resolved hesamkgst470

    4 years, 7 months ago

    Rank Math free

    Hello Guys,

    I have just activated the rankmath plugin on my website and used Darrel Wilson’s setup tutorial along the way. Since I have been researching rankmath and the correct way of setting it up, I watched several videos prior to the activation and decided to have my domain verified on the google search console through the DNS zone editor.

    After the activation, however, I noticed that there is a duplicate under the search console, which I am not sure about. I remember I only had one that was labelled as “domain property”. But now I happen to have two. The new one starts with https://mydomain.com compared to the original one that only shows mydomain.com.

    I immediately checked out the settings to see the creation date, and it was today, so I assumed rankmath created it automatically and ended up choosing that property instead of “domain property” when I was setting up the google services part of the setup wizard.

    Now the performance section of the second property is completely blank as if I have just registered with google search console. I am just reaching out to see if that is normal, and I am on the right track. I watched way too many tutorials and have been researching this plugin for months. It is quite unfortunate to see something like this. I hope this duplication is something normal.

Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)
  • hesamkgst470

    4 years, 7 months ago

    Rank Math free

    To make things more clear I thought I better explain what I exactly did in the google service section of the setup wizard.

    So under the search console, there was a drop down in which I was supposed to select my domain, when I opened it I noticed that there are 2 properties in there that used to actually be 1 before the activation of the plugin. out of the two options I had:

    https://mydomain.com
    sc-domain:mydomain.com

    So I ended up selecting the first one because of two reasons, firstly because it was pre-selected by the plugin itself, secondly because all setup tutorials I watched selected the https version.

    I checked the search console page and also saw the duplicate in there. As mentioned, I checked the creation date and it was for today, I checked the creation date under settings and that was also showing today’s date. So that was when I assumed the second property was added to the search console by rankmath itself. The wired thing is that all stats and performance indicators on the second (newly added) property are zeros eventhough both properties root back to the same domain.

    Any advice on this?

    Brian

    4 years, 7 months ago

    Rank Math free

    Hello,

    Thank you for contacting Rank Math and bringing your concern to our attention.

    Usually, Google adds those when you verify the domain but it shouldn’t cause any issue for you nor your sites.

    Could you please confirm how are you verifying your site? Are you using the Rank Math tool to verify or are you verifying directly via the Google Search Console?

    Please note that with the revamped analytics module, Rank Math automatically verifies your site on Google Search Console (not as a domain property) while connecting in Rank math > Analytics. This is likely where the second domain is coming from.

    If you do confirm the case above is what is happening, you can remove the current verification and use Rank Math automatic verification which makes the process easy for your users.

    I hope that helps. Thank you, and looking forward to your update.

    hesamkgst470

    4 years, 7 months ago

    Rank Math free

    Hi Brian,

    So here is what exactly I did. I decided to take care of google search console before actually activating the plugin, So I went ahead and manually added my website to search console through TXT in DNS zone editor on my host end. That was when “domain property” kicked in.

    12 days after that, I installed the plugin and activated it using setup wizard. When I reached the google services section, I had to pick a website from the drop down there, I first saw the second domain with https://testdomain.com format in there and it was pre-selected by the plugin itself. So I left it that way and continued with setting up the rest of the plugin.

    The takeaway from your message I think is to remove the manual verification I did by DNS verification and leave the rankmath one in place. Does it not harm the website and the current positions if I remove the first one?

    Anas

    4 years, 7 months ago

    Rank Math business

    Hello,

    You can go ahead by selecting the domain property from the drop-down as your domain property has existing statistics inside the Google Search Console and the newly created one does not have any data.

    If you want to use the property created by Rank Math, you can delete the first one, this would not affect your website rankings.

    I hope this helps. Looking forward to helping you.

    hesamkgst470

    4 years, 7 months ago

    Rank Math free

    Thank you for your detailed replies, can I just make sure about a couple other things?

    – Would it cause any problems if I keep both properties under my search console?

    – Generally speaking, would these properties and their removals affect the rankings at all?

    Like if in 2-3 years, I decide to switch to another SEO plugin leading to the creation of a new separate property under the same domain, would the removal of rankmath’s version affect the current rankings or not? This is just a general question I am asking. I could not get an answer for it online.

    Kind Regards

    Anas

    4 years, 7 months ago

    Rank Math business

    Hello,

    1. You can keep both the properties of your domain in the Search Console without any issues.

    2. No, removing properties from GSC will not cause any difference in rankings, but make sure you have at least one verified property, where the sitemaps are submitted so that Google can crawl your website efficiently.

    I hope this clarifies your doubts.

    If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask.

    We are here to help.

    hesamkgst470

    4 years, 7 months ago

    Rank Math free

    Thanks a lot for clearing things up!

    Anas

    4 years, 7 months ago

    Rank Math business

    Hello,

    We are glad we could address your concern. If you have any other questions in the future, know that we are here to help you.

    If you don’t mind me asking, could you please leave us a review (if you haven’t already) on https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/seo-by-rank-math/reviews/#new-post about your overall experience with Rank Math? We appreciate your time and patience.

    If you do have another question in the future, please feel free to create a new forum topic, and it will be our pleasure to assist you again.

    Thank you.

Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)

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