Google loves WordPress websites and show special recommendations on all their tools for WordPress users. For example, if you check your speed in Google PageSpeed, you can get special recommendations for WordPress. Google will automatically detect the site using WordPress and offer useful recommendations. This is the same case with AdSense account as well. However, there is no singe place Google show all recommendations for WordPress users. This problem was solved by Google by offering Site Kit plugin for WordPress. In this article, we will explain how to setup Google Site Kit plugin and activate all modules in the plugin.
What Google Site Kit Offers?
Google Site Kit is an all in one plugin for WordPress users to access all useful services inside WordPress dashboard. There are four services you can access :
- Search Console
- Analytics
- AdSense
- PageSpeed Insights
Earlier Google was offering AdSense publisher plugin which was discontinued and removed from the repository. So, Site Kit is the next official plugin available from Google for AdSense users.
Installing and Activating the Plugin
Login to your WordPress admin panel and navigate to “Plugins > Add New” section. Search for “Site Kit” and locate the plugin.
Click on the “Install” and then “Activate” buttons to install the plugin on your site. After installing and activating the plugin, navigate to the newly created menu item “Site Kit > Dashboard”. Make sure Google can crawl your page to successfully use Site Kit plugin. You should see the screen like below without any errors before proceeding further.
Setup Google Site Kit Plugin
The plugin setup is a length process needs three steps.
- Connecting your Search Console account to verify ownership
- Allow access to Google account data
- Setup Search Console
1. Verifying Ownership
Click on “Start Setup” button to proceed further setting up the plugin. This will take you to Google Site Kit website outside of your WordPress installation. Click on the “Sign in with Google” button to login to your Google account. This is required to verify the ownership of your Search Console property.
Enter you Google email and password to and sign into your account.
On the next two pop-ups, click on “Allow” to grant permission for Google Site Kit plugin to access your Search Console and domains in your account.
Finally, click on another “Allow” button to accept the risk and grant permission. Note, Google Site Kit plugin was having a security vulnerability and targeted by hackers to access user’s Search Console data. Therefore, Google mention it is a risk to grant access to plugins accessing your personal account details. You can read more about the security problem in the blog post published by Wordfence threat intelligence team.
After granting the access, you will be taken back to Site Kit webpage.
Click on “Proceed” button so that the plugin will add HTML verification code to your site. After successful verification, you will see the first step is completed.
2. Allow Access to Google Data
This is an easy step as you have already granted access in the first step. Simply click on “Allow” button to complete this step.
3. Setup Search Console
This is also a quick step. Click on the “Add site” button to add your site to Search Console property. Once done, you will see a success message like below:
Click on the “Go to my Dashboard” button to go back to your WordPress dashboard.
Activating Other Google Services
The above way of activating will only connect your site to Google Search Console. You have to activate the remaining services like Analytics, AdSense and PageSpeed Insights from the dashboard.
Click on the “Connect Service” link under each option or go to “Site Kit > Settings” to activate the required modules.
Again, you need to grant permission for the plugin to access your AdSense account.
Using Site Kit Plugin
Using Site Kit plugin pretty much simple. You can view the data from Search Console, Analytics and AdSense accounts under the dashboard section. The plugin also allows you to check individual URL performance in Google Search.
Deleting Site Kit Plugin from Your Site
At any point of time, if you decided to delete the plugin first click on the “Disconnect” option available under your email id.
Confirm disconnecting the plugin from your account to remove the granted permissions. You should see the message like below showing, you have revoked the access.
Alternatively, you can click on the “Reset Site Kit” option to disable the connection to your account.
After disconnecting from your account, you can deactivate and delete the plugin under “Plugins > Installed Plugins” section.
Problems with Site Kit Plugin
As with any Google services, you may face many issues when installing the plugin.
Too Many Verifications
You have to verify and grant permission for each service. This is a lengthy and time taking process before you completely setup the plugin for usage.
Deactivate Caching Plugin
You will see a warning message showing the site is using a caching plugin. Deactivate the caching plugin on your site. Surprisingly, Google Site Kit plugin will still show the message even after deactivating the caching plugin.
In case, if you are using maintenance or coming soon mode disable all those options.
Disable Ad Blocker
If you have connected Site Kit with AdSense account, then the dashboard will not show the updated earnings when you use ad blocker in the browser. You have to disable ad blocker and refresh the page to get the latest AdSense data from your account.
Failed Verification Process
In our case, verification failed multiple times and we need to follow the entire process starting from the beginning.
Incomplete Setup Error
After connecting to AdSense, we still see the error message under “Site Kit > Settings” that the setup is not completed for AdSense module. It took lot of time to locate your AdSense account and connect to Site Kit plugin.
Final Words
This has been a problem with Google offering plugin and then removing without maintenance. Earlier, Google discontinued AdSense plugin including the iOS / Android mobile apps. As such there are no official plugins for PageSpeed, Search Console and Analytics. At times we are hoping Google to manage this Site Kit plugin properly, it was hit with security hacking issue. In our opinion, if you are looking for integrating Search Console and Analytics, check other simple plugins. You can always use the official websites to get reports and check gathered data.
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