Simplifying Site Management: Step-by-Step Guide to Deleting Property in Google Search Console

Understanding Google Search Console

Overview of Google Search Console

Google Search Console (GSC) is a free tool from Google that helps you keep an eye on your site’s presence in Google Search results. It’s like having a backstage pass to see how your site is doing in terms of organic search traffic, spotting indexing issues, and tweaking your content for better visibility.

Here’s what you get with Google Search Console:

• Performance Reports: See how your site is doing in search results—clicks, impressions, and average position.
• Index Coverage: Check which pages Google has indexed and find out if there are any issues stopping pages from being indexed.
• Enhancements: Get tips on improving your site’s mobile usability, structured data, and AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages).
• Links: Look at the links pointing to your site, both from within your site and from other sites.
• Manual Actions: Find out if Google has applied any manual penalties to your site.

Want more details? Check out our article on what is Google Search Console.

Why You Should Monitor Site Performance

Keeping an eye on your site’s performance with Google Search Console is a no-brainer for SEOs and digital marketers. Here’s why:

1. Spotting and Fixing Issues: Regularly checking GSC helps you catch and fix problems like broken links, crawl errors, or security issues. Need help? See our guide on how to fix crawl errors in Google Search Console.

2. Optimizing Content: GSC shows you which keywords and queries are bringing traffic to your site, so you can tweak your content for better results. Curious? Learn more about what are queries on Google Search Console.

3. Tracking SEO Efforts: Performance reports let you see how well your SEO strategies are working over time, helping you make smart, data-driven decisions. Find out what is good CTR in Google Search Console.

4. Boosting User Experience: GSC points out areas where you can improve user experience, like mobile usability and page speed, which can lead to better site performance overall.

5. Keeping Your Site Healthy: Regular monitoring ensures your site stays in good shape and follows Google’s guidelines, reducing the risk of penalties and keeping your search visibility intact.

For a step-by-step guide on using GSC to monitor and improve your site, check out our article on how to use Google Search Console.

By getting the hang of Google Search Console and using its features regularly, SEOs and digital marketers can boost their site’s organic performance and climb up the search engine rankings. Need help setting up and verifying your site in GSC? Head over to our guide on how to set up Google Search Console.

Managing Properties in Google Search Console

Keeping tabs on your website’s performance through Google Search Console is a game-changer. This guide will walk you through adding and verifying properties, tweaking settings, and deleting properties.

Adding and Verifying Properties

First things first, you need to add your site to Google Search Console. Here’s the lowdown:

1. Log in to your Google Search Console account.
2. Click on the “Add Property” button.
3. Enter your website’s URL and pick the property type (Domain or URL prefix).
4. Verify ownership using one of these methods:

• HTML file upload
• HTML tag
• Domain name provider
• Google Analytics account
• Google Tag Manager account
• Google Sites/Blogger account
• Google Domains account

Need more help? Check out our guide on how to set up Google Search Console.

Editing Property Settings

Once your property is in, you might need to tweak a few things. Here’s how:

1. Select the property from your dashboard.
2. Head to the “Settings” section.
3. Adjust settings like preferred domain, crawl rate, and URL parameters.

These tweaks can boost your site’s indexing and visibility. Got redirect issues? Our article on how to fix page with redirect in Google Search Console has you covered.

Deleting a Property

Thinking about deleting a property? It’s simple but think twice—this impacts your site’s tracking and analysis. Here’s the process:

1. Log in to your Google Search Console account.
2. Pick the property you want to delete.
3. Go to the “Settings” section.
4. Click on “Remove Property” at the bottom of the page.

For more on what happens when you delete a property, check out Quora.

To remove a verified owner, all owners must be removed, which means everyone loses access to the property. Data will still be collected but can only be accessed once ownership is reverified by another user. For a step-by-step guide, see our article on how to verify ownership in Google Search Console.

By managing properties effectively in Google Search Console, SEOs and digital marketers can keep their sites in top shape. For more tips, check out our articles on how to add a sitemap to Google Search Console and how to remove a page from Google Search Console.

Roles and Permissions in Google Search Console

Keeping tabs on who can do what in Google Search Console is key to keeping your website’s data safe and sound. Let’s break down the editor role and how to kick out owners and users when needed.

Editor Role in Google Search Console

The editor role is for those who need to tweak property settings but don’t need the keys to the kingdom. Editors can:

• Peek at site performance data
• Tinker with property settings
• Submit sitemaps
• Ask for URL indexing

But they can’t add or boot users or mess with user permissions. For a step-by-step on sharing access, check out our guide on how to share Google Search Console access.

Removing Owners and Users

Owners have the top-level access in Google Search Console and can manage everything, including users and settings. Here’s how to remove them:

Removing an Owner

To boot a verified owner, you have to remove all verified owners from the property. Once that’s done, all other users lose access too. The data keeps rolling in, but no one can see it until someone else verifies ownership (Webmasters Stack Exchange).

Removing a User

To remove a user:

1. Go to the property in Google Search Console.
2. Click “Settings” on the left.
3. Choose “Users and permissions.”
4. Find the user you want to remove and click the three-dot menu next to their name.
5. Select “Remove access.”

If you’re dealing with Google Tag Manager, you might need to switch accounts or change the person’s permissions in the Google Tag Manager account (Webmasters Stack Exchange).

For more on setting up and managing properties, visit our guide on how to set up Google Search Console.

Managing roles and permissions is a big part of keeping your site running smoothly in Google Search Console. For more on verification methods and ownership, see our article on how to verify ownership in Google Search Console.

Verifying Ownership in Google Search Console

Verifying your site in Google Search Console is a must for anyone serious about SEO and digital marketing. It lets you keep an eye on your site’s performance and make tweaks to boost your rankings. Here’s a quick rundown on how to verify your site and how to remove those verification tokens when needed.

How to Verify Your Site

Google Search Console gives you a bunch of ways to prove you own your site. Here’s the lowdown:

1. HTML File Upload: Google gives you a special HTML file. Just upload it to your site’s root directory.
2. HTML Tag: Add a meta tag with a verification code to the <head> section of your homepage.
3. Domain Name Provider: Add a TXT record to your DNS settings.
4. Google Analytics Account: If you’re already using Google Analytics, you can verify with your tracking code.
5. Google Tag Manager Account: Use a Google Tag Manager container snippet for verification.
6. Google Sites/Blogger Account: If your site’s on Google Sites or Blogger, you can verify through those accounts.
7. Google Domains Account: If you registered your domain with Google Domains, verify through your Google Domains account.

Need more details? Check out our guide on how to verify ownership in Google Search Console.

How to Remove Verification Tokens

Sometimes you need to revoke or change ownership. Here’s how to do it based on the method you used:

1. HTML File Upload:

   • Find the HTML file in your site’s root directory.
   • Delete the file with “google-site-verification” in its name.
   • This removes the verification for that user.

2. HTML Tag:

   • Go to your homepage’s source code.
   • Find and delete the meta tag with the “google-site-verification” code.
   • This revokes the verification.

3. Domain Name Provider:

   • Access your domain’s DNS settings.
   • Find and delete the TXT record you added for verification.
   • This removes the verification.

4. Google Analytics Account:

   • Identify the Google Analytics account used for verification.
   • Revoke edit rights from the user in Google Analytics or switch to a different account.
   • This disables the verification.

5. Google Tag Manager Account:

   • Identify the Google Tag Manager container snippet used for verification.
   • Remove or update the container snippet.
   • This revokes the verification.

6. Google Sites/Blogger Account:

   • Access the Google Sites or Blogger account linked to your site.
   • Remove the site from the account.
   • This revokes the verification.

7. Google Domains Account:

   • Access your Google Domains account.
   • Remove the domain from the account.
   • This revokes the verification.

For more tips on managing your Google Search Console properties, check out our articles on how to share Google Search Console access and how to add Google Search Console to WordPress.

By mastering these verification methods and knowing how to remove tokens, you can keep tight control over who has access to your site’s data. This way, you can make smarter decisions to boost your site’s organic performance.

Deleting Stuff in Google Search Console

When you’re managing your site in Google Search Console, knowing how to delete things properly is a big deal. Let’s break down the difference between deleting a whole property and just a data stream, and what happens when you permanently remove data.

Deleting a Property vs. Deleting a Data Stream

Deleting a property in Google Search Console means you’re wiping out everything related to that domain or URL prefix. No more tracking, no more indexing updates, nada. This means you lose all the juicy data about your site’s performance, pages, and links (Quora).

Deleting a data stream, though, is like cutting off one branch of a tree. Data streams are specific sources like web, iOS, or Android. When you delete one, you stop getting data from that source, but the rest of the property stays intact.

To delete a property, you need to have the Editor role. Once you move it to the Trash Can, all the views go there too (Google Analytics Support).

For more tips on managing properties, check out our guide on how to use Google Search Console.

Permanently Removing Data Associated with a Property

When you permanently remove a property from Google Search Console, you’re erasing all the data tied to it. This includes search appearance, crawl errors, and security issues. Make sure to back up any important info before you hit delete (Quora).

Also, if you remove a verified owner from a property, everyone else loses access too. The data keeps getting collected, but no one can see it until someone else verifies ownership (Webmasters Stack Exchange).

Instead of deleting URLs, think about setting up a 301 redirect to a related page. This keeps the SEO value of the original URL intact (Quora). For more on handling outdated URLs, check out our article on how to fix page with redirect in Google Search Console.

By getting a handle on these details, SEOs and digital marketers can make smarter choices when managing properties in Google Search Console. For more help, see our resource on how to verify ownership in Google Search Console.

Best Practices for Property Management

Managing your website through Google Search Console is like being the captain of a ship—you need to make smart choices about your content to keep everything sailing smoothly. Let’s break down some best practices for handling your content, focusing on whether to archive or delete it, and how to manage those pesky outdated URLs.

Archiving vs. Deleting Content

When you’re running a website, deciding whether to archive or delete content can make a big difference in how well your site performs in search engines. Deleting old or irrelevant content can hurt your SEO by creating broken links, increasing bounce rates, and making your site look less reliable (Get Found Quick).

Benefits of Archiving Content

1. Keeps SEO Juice: Archiving content keeps its SEO value and avoids broken backlinks.
2. Reuse Later: Switching a page or blog post to draft status means you can easily republish it later, which is handy for seasonal or recurring content.
3. Smooth Sailing for Users: Using 301 redirects when archiving helps maintain your site’s credibility and gives users a seamless experience by redirecting them to relevant pages.

Want more tips on managing your content? Check out our article on how to remove a page from Google Search Console.

Handling Outdated URLs and Content

Outdated URLs and content need careful handling to keep your site running smoothly and your users happy. Here are some strategies:

1. 301 Redirects: When you delete pages, use 301 redirects to send any incoming links to a relevant page. This prevents broken backlinks and keeps your SEO intact (Get Found Quick).
2. Update Instead of Delete: Instead of deleting outdated content, update it with fresh information to keep it useful and relevant for your users.
3. Switch to Draft: For content that comes around seasonally or periodically, switch outdated posts to draft status so you can easily republish them when needed (Get Found Quick).

For more detailed steps on managing outdated content, check out our guide on how to fix 404 errors in Google Search Console.

By following these best practices, you’ll keep your website in tip-top shape, improve user experience, and make sure your site stays strong in search engine rankings. For more insights on managing your site with Google Search Console, explore our articles on how to use Google Search Console and how to add a sitemap to Google Search Console.

About The Author

Brandon Lazovic

As the Assistant Vice President of SEO at U.S. Bank, I oversee the strategy and execution of SEO initiatives for the Business Banking division, driving organic growth and lead generation. I have over eight years of experience in SEO, working with various industries and platforms, serving as a SEO lead consultant at BrightEdge and the SEO manager at Rocket Companies.

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