Introducing Google’s Webmaster Tools |
Google’s Webmaster Tools is a valuable resource for both new and experienced webmasters and webloggers alike. It has a variety of features which allow users to analyze how Google search results rank your page, learn more about generating traffic and ask questions about search engine optimization and visitor trends. The following are some the essential tools and services Google lays out for you.
Once you’ve set up your Google Account (having a gmail account will work), you can submit your website or blog to Webmaster Tools by simply inserting its URL into the Webmaster Tools Dashboard. After you verify your site (by either uploading a HTML file to Google or inserting a Google metatag into your site’s source code), you can take a look at your blog through Google’s eyes.
Webmaster Overview and Dashboard
Under the Webmaster Overview Tab, you can see Google’s Crawl Info to make sure that GoogleBots are indexing your site (it will show the latest update time). It will also report on any errors in your URLs and files that might be preventing crawlers from indexing your pages.
Indexing Stats will show you how your website or blog is being indexed and which pages have been included. Again, this feature will show you any coding in your pages that prohibit Google’s crawlers so you can tailor it to suit Google.
View Links Data allows you to view internal and external links to your site that Google has indexed.
Top Queries show you what search terms are leading visitors to your website/blog and how your site ranks among those respective search results.
Page Analysis allows you to see which keywords other sites are using to link to you.
Sitemaps You can also give Google more information about your blog so it can be more visible for its crawlers. You can submit a blog Sitemap (General, Mobile, Code or Video) that tells Google which pages are most important or most frequently updated, cuing Google to index those ones more often. You can also remove pages from Google’s indexing if you don’t want them to be tracked.
Crawl Rate Control basically allows you to change how slow or how fast Google indexes your blog pages.
Other Services
- Check out Google’s Webmaster Tools Blog for more information regarding the services as well as more detailed advice and FAQS. A
- Use Webmaster Tools to add Google Gadgets to your site by selecting one from the directory and pasting the code into your own. Some popular gadgets include Pac Mac, mp3 players, calendars, clocks, weather forecasts and news feeds.
- Go through Webmaster Tools Central to learn more about Google’s AdWords and AdSense programs and other means of generating revenue through your website or blog. Ads tailored to your content appear on your site and you can earn money every time someone clicks on them.
So there is a quick overview of Google’s Webmaster Tools and related features. Be sure to check out Google’s page itself for detailed information regarding ads, accounts and indexing.
At Apollo Media, we wish you all the best in your company website strategy and blogging endeavors. And we ask you to use our company blog as a resource for effective strategies and reviews. Subscribe to our feed and stay tuned for more!
May 9th, 2008 at 12:03 am
[…] you’ll want to see what’s going on with your traffic. Google has regular analytics and new Webmaster Tools that will help you know who’s finding you, how and other essential information that will […]