✅ Search Console Link to heading

This is a checkpoint post. The goal is not growth. The goal is proof that Google can see your site and that indexing signals are visible.

If the site is not live on your custom domain yet, complete Connect Domain + Deploy first. Only do this when the site is public. If the site is password‑protected or otherwise blocked, Search Console verification and indexing won’t work the way you want.

🧭 Goal Link to heading

Verify the site in Google Search Console and submit the sitemap.

🧱 Inputs Link to heading

  • Live site on the custom domain
  • Access to Route 53 (or your DNS provider)
  • Sitemap URL

🧩 Steps Link to heading

  1. Create a domain property in Search Console.
  2. Add the TXT record Google gives you to your DNS (Route 53 hosted zone).
  3. Verify ownership.
  4. Submit the sitemap.
  5. Confirm the property shows basic coverage data.

🧭 Why This Matters Link to heading

Search Console is your first visibility into how Google sees your site. It tells you:

  • Whether Google can crawl the domain
  • Which pages are being discovered
  • What queries are leading to impressions

This matters for two reasons:

  • Free traffic: search is the only channel that can bring visitors without ongoing spend.
  • Feedback: impressions and clicks show which terms people use, which ones lead to clicks, and where your page ranks.

That feedback feeds your iteration step later. It tells you whether your message resonates and how people describe the problem in their own words.

You do not need high traffic yet. You need signals.

🧪 What to Watch Link to heading

  • Is the property verified?
  • Does the sitemap submit cleanly?
  • Do you see impressions/coverage after a few days?
  • Which pages are indexed, and which are not
  • If pages are not indexed, what reason is given

If impressions stay at zero for a long time, something is blocking discovery (robots, noindex, or broken links).

🧾 Sitemap Example Link to heading

The sitemap is a machine‑readable list of pages you want indexed. It helps Google discover new pages faster and understand which URLs are canonical. It should list your canonical URLs and be reachable at https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml.

Example:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
  <url>
    <loc>https://yourdomain.com/</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-02-01T00:00:00+00:00</lastmod>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://yourdomain.com/posts/example-post/</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-02-01T00:00:00+00:00</lastmod>
  </url>
</urlset>

Make sure the sitemap only includes pages you want indexed and that it matches your canonical domain. If the sitemap points to the non‑www domain while your canonical URLs use www (or vice‑versa), you are telling Google two different stories. You do not benefit from trying to promote both yourdomain.com and www.yourdomain.com — pick one and redirect the other.

Sitemaps can be generated or static. A generated sitemap only matters if you have dynamic pages (for example, content coming from a database). For a static site, a static sitemap is usually best.

🤖 robots.txt Example Link to heading

robots.txt tells crawlers what they can access and where the sitemap lives. It matters because it is often the first thing crawlers check. A permissive file helps discovery, while a restrictive file can silently block indexing.

User-agent: *
Allow: /

Sitemap: https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml

If you intentionally block sections (like tag pages), do it with noindex meta tags or exclusions in your sitemap, not broad disallow rules.

In most cases, keep robots.txt static. It rarely needs to change because you can exclude specific pages with noindex on the page itself.

🚀 Deploy Note Link to heading

After you add or change sitemap.xml or robots.txt, redeploy the site and wait for the Amplify build to finish before verifying in Search Console.

✅ Common Issues Link to heading

  • Wrong property type: Use a domain property, not a URL‑prefix property.
  • TXT records: If you already have a TXT record at the root, append Google’s value to the existing record instead of creating a second record.
  • DNS delay: TXT records can take time to propagate.
  • Sitemap errors: Make sure the sitemap URL is reachable from the live domain.

✅ Done Means Link to heading

  • Property is verified
  • Sitemap is accepted
  • You can see basic coverage signals