About the GSC Site Readiness API

The GSC API manages a site's presence in Google Search Console: it verifies the site with Google, adds it as a Search Console property, submits its sitemap, requests indexing, and reads inspection and search performance data. It acts through the Google account linked to the site with the GSC Connection API.

By default, every method works on the Wix site the call is made on, and everything needed is derived from that site. Most methods also accept a siteUrl for a site that isn't hosted on Wix. See Sites not hosted on Wix.

With the GSC Site Readiness API, you can:

• Check how far along the site is in Google Search Console setup, and which step is still missing.
• Complete the setup steps: verify site ownership, add the site to Search Console, submit its sitemap, and request indexing.
• Retrieve the site's search performance data: clicks, impressions, click-through rate, and position.
• Inspect the site's pages with Google's URL inspection, and read the results.
• List the connected account's Search Console properties and their submitted sitemaps.
• Review the history of setup events for the site.

How Google Search Console setup works

A site becomes fully set up in Google Search Console in this order:

1. Connect a Google account, with the GSC Connection API.
2. Verify Site: the site's ownership is proven to Google. For Wix sites this needs nothing from the Wix user, because the google-site-verification meta tag is placed on every page automatically.
3. Add Site: the site becomes a property in the connected account's Search Console.
4. Submit Sitemap: the sitemap, which is generated and hosted by Wix, is submitted to the property.
5. Request Site Indexing: asks Google to crawl and index the site.

Get Site Readiness reports whether the site's Google connection and ownership verification are in place, and if not, the first step that's still blocking. It covers steps 1 and 2 above; call the property steps that follow in order yourself.

Sites not hosted on Wix

Most methods accept an optional siteUrl: the URL of a URL-prefix property in the connected Google account, for example https://example.com/. When it's set, the call works on that property instead of the Wix site the call is made on, through the same Google connection. Nothing is placed on or generated for a site that isn't hosted on Wix, so place the meta tag from Get Verification Token in the site's <head> before calling Verify Site, and specify sitemapUrl when calling Submit Sitemap. The points under Before you begin still apply to the site the call is made on.

Domain properties (sc-domain:example.com) aren't accepted. Setting siteUrl on a call made for a Wix site fails with INVALID_ARGUMENT, and a property the connected Google account doesn't own fails with FAILED_PRECONDITION (SITE_PROPERTY_NOT_OWNED). Inspect URLs, Get Inspection, and Clear Verification work on the Wix site only.

URL inspection

Inspecting pages is a two-step, asynchronous operation. Inspect URLs starts the inspection and returns the first batch of results synchronously. When pages remain, the remaining pages are inspected server-side, and you poll Get Inspection until the inspection completes.

To inspect a single URL, call Inspect URL instead. It runs synchronously, stores nothing, and works for any URL of the site. Google's URL inspection takes several seconds per URL, so allow a request budget above 10 seconds.

Each inspected page consumes the connected account's Google URL-inspection quota. Google allows up to 2,000 page inspections a day per property, so an inspection can finish with pages left uninspected when the quota runs out, and sites with more than 2,000 pages can't be inspected through this API at all.

Before you begin

It's important to note the following points before starting to code:

• A Google account must be connected to the site first, with the GSC Connection API. Methods that reach Google Search Console fail with FAILED_PRECONDITION (MISSING_TOKEN) until the connection's status is VALID.
• The setup methods that write to Google Search Console (Verify Site, Add Site, Submit Sitemap) require the site the call is made on to be published, have a connected domain, and allow search-engine indexing. Otherwise they fail with FAILED_PRECONDITION.
• Calls that reach Google are subject to the property's Google API quotas. A RESOURCE_EXHAUSTED (GOOGLE_QUOTA_EXCEEDED) error is safe to retry after the quota window resets, and an UNAVAILABLE (GOOGLE_UNAVAILABLE) error is a temporary Google failure that's safe to retry with backoff.
• Search performance and inspection data come from Google Search Console, so their freshness and history range follow Google.

Use cases

• Set up a site in Google Search Console
• Show the site's search performance
• Inspect the site's pages
• Inspect a single URL

Terminology

• Search Console property: The representation of a site in Google Search Console. Add Site creates it in the connected account. A URL-prefix property is identified by its full URL, such as https://example.com/; a domain property (sc-domain:example.com) covers every protocol and subdomain and can't be used as siteUrl.
• Site readiness: The site's standing in Google Search Console setup, as a computed status: READY when setup is complete, or NOT_READY with the first blocking step.
• URL inspection: Google's per-page report of index status and issues, as returned by Google's URL Inspection API.
• Verification token: The value of the google-site-verification meta tag that proves ownership of a site to Google. It's placed automatically on Wix sites. For a site that isn't hosted on Wix, Get Verification Token returns it for you to place.