UYal's blog

(Even without plugins or HTML uploads – here’s how I finally made it work)

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(Spent hours figuring this out… so I hope this post reaches everyone who’s stuck like I was.)

If you’re using a free WordPress.com blog, you’ve probably run into these exact questions:

• “I can’t install plugins… Can I still register with Google Search Console?”
  (I actually tried the meta tag method before I even knew plugins existed… 😅)
• “Where do I even paste the meta tag?”
• “How do I submit my sitemap?”

Yup, I struggled too.
I even kept getting verification errors because I accidentally entered the admin dashboard URL instead of my actual blog homepage… (didn’t realize until much later 😵‍💫)

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🔹 1. What limitations do free WordPress.com blogs have?

(Gotta love platform capitalism…)

• ❌ Cannot upload HTML files
• ❌ Cannot install SEO plugins
• ❌ Limited theme editing

So forget about most guides recommending file uploads or SEO plugin verification. Those just won’t work here.

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🔹 2. So what does work?

✅ The URL prefix method + HTML meta tag verification

Here’s what worked for me:

1. Go to Google Search Console
   → Add property → Choose URL prefix
   → Enter your blog address (e.g., https://b295058.wordpress.com)
   ⚠️ Be careful: Do NOT enter the admin dashboard URL like wordpress.com/home/...
   (Yes, I did that… and failed multiple times 😂)
2. Choose the HTML meta tag verification method
   → Google gives you the full tag:
   <meta name="google-site-verification" content="...">
   → In the past, people said to copy just the content value, but now you can just paste the whole tag. Super easy!
3. Go to your WordPress dashboard
   → Marketing → Traffic → Site Verification → Google
   → Paste the full meta tag into the input field provided
4. Go back to Search Console and click Verify
   ✅ Done! Site verified.

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🔹 3. Submitting your sitemap (optional but important)

After verification:

1. In Search Console, go to “Sitemaps”
2. Enter: sitemap.xml
   → For me, my full sitemap URL is:
   https://b295058.wordpress.com/sitemap.xml
3. Hit Submit

🎉 Your blog is now officially on Google!

(And yes, you can also manually submit individual post URLs via the URL Inspection tool if you’re impatient like me…)

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🔻 Common mistakes I made (you probably will too):

• ❌ Entered the admin URL (wordpress.com/home/...) instead of the actual blog homepage
  → Always register your real blog URL

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✅ Final Thoughts

I thought using a free blog would make things complicated, but it turns out the process was surprisingly straightforward — once you know where to look.

Just remember:

Marketing → Traffic → Site Verification → Paste the meta tag

If you follow this post, you’ll be just fine.

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