December 28, 2012 E3

Beginners Guide to Google Webmaster Tools

Google Webmaster Tools is a free service that helps you do lots of things, such as checking for malware on your site, moving your site to a different domain, and even identifying what keywords are bringing you search traffic.  If you are a web designer or web developer and have lots of sites to monitor, Google Webmaster Tools can manage several sites through a single account.  This article will show you how to add a site into Google Webmaster Tools and then will provide an overview of the services available.

Beginners Guide to Google Webmaster ToolsSearch for “Google Webmaster Tools” and click the link.  You will be asked to login with your Google account (usually the same as your Gmail or YouTube account).  If you’d like to keep the management of this particular site seperate from your usual Google account, go ahead and create a new one.

Once logged in, you will see a Google Webmaster Tools welcoming page.

Google Webmaster Tools Dashboard

If you already are familiar with Google Webmaster Tools (and have added sites to the service), you will be taken directly to your pre-existing Dashboard.  For the first timers:

  1. Watch introduction video
  2. Type in URL of your website.  Click “Add A Site.”

Verify Ownership in Google Webmaster Tools

Once you’ve added your site, you will need to verify that you actually own it.  To do this, Google gives you two options.  Their “recommended” option:

Google Webmaster Tools Verify Ownership RecommendedAnd “alternate methods”:

Google Webmaster Tools Verify Ownership Alternate MethodsGo ahead and pick which method is best for you.  For WordPress users, there is an even simpler way to verify owernship with Google Webmaster Tools.

  • From your WordPress Dashboard – Install the plugin “WordPress SEO by Yoast”
  • In Google Webmaster Tools – Copy the meta tag value from the “HTML Tag” option under Alternate Methods
  • Paste the meta tag value in the Settings area of the “WordPress SEO by Yoast” plugin

There ya go!  Click Verify in Google Webmaster Tools.  It will take you the Dashboard.

Google Webmaster Tools Dashboard Screen

Overview of Google Webmaster Tools

Now since you have just added your site to Google Webmaster Tools, there won’t be much data available for you.  Additionally, the service is robust and a complete guide would take pages and pages of instruction.  However, let us briefly introduce the various areas of the Dashboard and what they do:

  • Configuration – This is where you can set whether your URL appears as “e3demo.com” or “www.e3demo.com”.  You can also configure geographical targeting, identify Sitelinks, and manage the move of a website from one domain URL to another.
  • Health – From this area you scan for and monitor malware, double check that Google is properly indexing your website, and see if there are any crawl errors or broken links anywhere on your site.
  • Traffic – Here you can see what search terms people are using to find your site and what other sites are linking to yours.
  • Optimization – This area provides tools and suggestions for improving the SEO of your site, including submitting a sitemap, removing URLs, and analyzing keywords.
  • Labs – Don’t worry too much about this, but here you could check site performance (aka site loading speed), live preview your site, and access other interesting statistics.

The above information will help you get started with Google Webmaster Tools.  While a complete guide to using this service is the topic for another post, please explore the available tools that will help maximize the return on your website investment.

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