Google Webmaster Tools - Part 1: Getting Started
Disclaimer: I am not an SEO expert. I am a Drupal developer, so this isn’t going to cover all the areas Google's Webmaster Tools have to offer for SEO.
I've based this post on what I have found useful when monitoring Drupal websites and it is the first of a three-part series focusing on Google's Webmaster Tools.
In part one, I will explain the basics of Webmaster Tools.
About Webmaster Tools
Webmaster Tools is a free web service provided by Google that allows you to check indexing status and optimise visibility of your websites.
Setting up your site
To start, you will need to log into Google Webmaster Tools: https://www.google.com/webmasters/.
Once logged in, you can add the sites that you want to monitor, by clicking the ‘Add Site’ button.
In order to add a site to your account (in addition to the URL of the site that you want to monitor), you will need to prove that you are the webmaster for the site. Google verifies this via one of the following methods:
- HTML file upload: Google Webmaster Tools provides a file name and you have to create a blank file with this name and add it to the root of the site
- HTML tag: Google Webmaster Tools provides a meta tag for you to add to the home page of the site
- Domain name provider: Google Webmaster Tools provides a specific TXT DNS entry to add to the site's DNS
- Google Analytics: Google Webmaster Tools will use your Google Analytics account
- Google Tag Manager: Google Webmaster Tools will use your access to Google Tag Manager
Having chosen a method (and done any necessary changes to the site or DNS), you can 'verify’ the site by clicking the 'Verify' button. Once verified, you will have access to some really useful information for SEO and development of the site.
Assessing what is available
Below is an overview of the main areas that are available within Google's Webmaster Tools and briefly how they can be useful. I will go into more detail about some of these in the next post.
Search Appearance
This section helps you to understand what your site will look like within the search results, providing information on areas like problems with your site's meta descriptions and title tags, etc. This can be very handy when reviewing your site's SEO performance and planning marketing campaigns, etc.
Search Traffic
This section helps you to understand how your site is found in Google, offering you information on the most searched queries, the top clicked through pages on your site and what other sites link to your site, etc.
This can be useful to know when looking at the marketing of your site, as the most clicked through page may not be the page that you thought it would be. You can also target the most searched for keywords as well to help bring people to your site.
Google Index
This section provides details on how well your site has been indexed and also provides a way of telling Google to remove certain URLs from its index.
Crawl
This section provides details of what on the site has been crawled, with information on site errors, blocked URLs and your site's sitemap (if you have provided one).
Other Resources
This section provides useful tools for analysing your site, which can be useful depending upon the content of your site.
One really useful tool within here is the ‘PageSpeed Insights’. This analyses the speed of your site and gives you a score, whilst also suggesting how it can be improved.
In Part 2...
I will be looking at some of these in more detail to help you understand what it all means.