You don't install Google Search Console like software—it's a web-based tool you set up by verifying ownership of your website. Sign in at search.google.com/search-console with any Google account. Click 'Add property' and choose between Domain property (covers all subdomains and protocols) or URL prefix property (covers only the exact URL pattern you specify). Domain verification requires adding a TXT record to your DNS settings, which most site owners find cleanest long-term. URL prefix offers more verification options: uploading an HTML file to your root directory, adding a meta tag to your homepage, using your existing Google Analytics tracking code, or connecting through Google Tag Manager. The HTML file method works in about two minutes if you have FTP or cPanel access—just download the file Google provides, upload it to your site's root folder, and click verify. DNS verification takes longer because records can take 10 minutes to 48 hours to propagate, but it's permanent and doesn't require touching your site files. At Ottawa SEO, we default to Domain properties verified via DNS for client sites because it captures www and non-www traffic automatically and survives site migrations or CMS changes without re-verification. After verification, data starts populating within 24–48 hours, though you won't see historical data from before setup. You'll immediately get access to submit sitemaps, check indexing status, and request URL inspections. Within a week, you'll have enough data to spot crawl errors and search query performance. Add all relevant users with appropriate permissions—Owner for your developer, Full access for your SEO team, Restricted for stakeholders who just need to view reports. Verification doesn't affect your site's ranking or visibility—it just proves to Google you control the property so they can share diagnostic data with you.