Connect Anansi SEO to Google Search Console and YouTube

Anansi SEO can show your Google Search Console numbers inside WordPress and add real video details to your schema. Both need a short setup in Google Cloud. This guide walks through each step in order.

What you need before you start

• Anansi SEO 0.5.0 or newer, installed and active. You can get it from the Anansi SEO page.
• A Google account that can see your site in Search Console.
• About 15 minutes.

Everything on the WordPress side happens on one screen: Anansi SEO → Google. You can set up the YouTube key, the Search Console connection, or both. They do not depend on each other.

Part 1: Add a YouTube Data API key (optional)

When a post has a YouTube video, Anansi adds video schema to it. Without a key, that schema uses the video’s title and thumbnail and your post’s date, and it still works. A key lets Anansi read the real length, upload date and view count from YouTube.

1. Open console.cloud.google.com and sign in. Create a project, or pick one you already use.
2. Go to APIs & Services → Library. Search for YouTube Data API v3 and click Enable.
3. Go to APIs & Services → Credentials. Click Create credentials, then API key.
4. Open the new key. Under API restrictions, choose Restrict key, tick YouTube Data API v3 and click Save.
5. Copy the key. It starts with AIza.
6. In WordPress, go to Anansi SEO → Google. Paste the key into YouTube Data API key and click Save settings.

Keep the key restricted to the YouTube Data API. If it ever leaks, nobody can use it for other Google services. The free daily quota is plenty for a normal site. Anansi only asks YouTube about a video when you save a post that has one, and it keeps each answer for 12 hours.

Older posts get the new details the next time you save them. If you use WP-CLI, wp anansi videos adds video schema to older posts in one go.

Part 2: Connect Google Search Console

Anansi connects to Search Console through your own Google Cloud app. Your data goes straight from Google to your site and never passes through Uwawp or anyone else. The setup has four stages.

Step 1: Turn on the Search Console API

1. In Google Cloud, use the same project as for the YouTube key, or create a new one.
2. Go to APIs & Services → Library, search for Google Search Console API and click Enable.

Step 2: Set up the Google Auth Platform

1. Open Google Auth Platform → Overview and click Get started.
2. Enter an app name, such as your site’s name, and pick your support email.
3. For Audience, choose External.
4. Add a contact email, agree to Google’s user data policy and click Create.
5. Go to Audience. Under Test users, add the Google account that can see your site in Search Console.

The app stays in testing mode. That is fine, because you are the only person who will use it.

Step 3: Create the OAuth client

1. In WordPress, open Anansi SEO → Google. In the Search Console connection box, copy the address under “Authorized redirect URIs”. It looks like https://yoursite.com/wp-admin/admin.php?page=anansi-google.
2. Back in Google Cloud, go to Google Auth Platform → Clients and click Create client.
3. For Application type, choose Web application.
4. Under Authorized redirect URIs, click Add URI and paste the address from Anansi.
5. Click Create. Google shows a Client ID and a Client secret. Copy both and keep them somewhere safe.

The redirect address must match exactly. To Google, http and https are different addresses, and so are www and non-www. Copy it from Anansi instead of typing it.

Step 4: Connect from WordPress

1. In Anansi SEO → Google, paste the Client ID into OAuth client ID and the secret into Client secret. Click Save settings.
2. Click Connect Google and pick the Google account you added as a test user.
3. Google shows a warning that says “Google hasn’t verified this app”. This is expected, since it is your own app in testing mode. Click Continue.
4. Allow read-only access to your Search Console data.
5. Google sends you back to WordPress, and Anansi says “Google is connected.” If one of your Search Console properties matches your site, Anansi picks it for you. If not, choose one under Search Console property and save.

The Google screen now shows clicks, impressions, CTR and average position, with your top pages and top queries. You can pick a date range from the last 7 days up to 16 months. Each post also gets a Search performance panel in the editor, and URL Inspection tells you whether Google has indexed an address and when it last crawled it.

Read-only by default

Anansi asks Google for read-only access. It can read your Search Console data, but it cannot change anything in your account.

One switch changes that. Sitemap submit lets Anansi send your sitemap to Search Console from WordPress, which needs full Search Console access. After you turn it on and save, disconnect and connect again so Google can ask you for the new permission. A sitemap only needs submitting once, so you can also do it in Search Console yourself and leave the switch off.

If something goes wrong

Error 400: redirect_uri_mismatch

The redirect address in Google Cloud does not match the one Anansi shows. Copy it again from the Google screen in Anansi and paste it into the client’s Authorized redirect URIs. Check http against https, and www against non-www. Google can take a few minutes to apply a change to a client.

Error 403: access_denied

The Google account you picked is not on the test user list. Add it under Google Auth Platform → Audience → Test users, then click Connect Google again.

No properties listed

Anansi says “This Google account has no verified Search Console properties.” The account you connected cannot see your site in Search Console. Add it as a user on the property in Search Console, or connect with the account that owns the property.

It worked, then stopped after a week

Google gives apps in testing mode access that expires after 7 days. When that happens, Anansi shows a notice that Google ended its access. Click Connect Google to renew it.

What comes next

A one-click Google sign-in is planned, so you will not need your own Google Cloud app. Until then, the steps above are a one-time job.

New to Anansi? The Anansi SEO page covers what it does, how preview mode works and how to install it. You can also download the latest version there.