Learn Core Concepts About Google Webmaster Tools

One of the first requests we make from new SEO clients is access to their Google Webmaster Tools (formerly Search Console). This free software acts as an overview dashboard that lets you manage and oversee all aspects of their website.

Implementing Google Webmaster Tools involves numerous steps, from verifying your website with Google to creating XML site maps and making sure titles are informative, descriptive and relevant. This article covers all the basics for setting up and using this powerful service.

Getting Started

Google Webmaster Tools (GWT) is a powerful suite of free tools from Google that help you manage and optimize your website and SEO. Once you create an account, there are a few things you should do right away to get the most out of it.

Submitting sitemaps should be one of the first tasks completed, which GWT makes easy by clicking “Crawl” in the left navigation column, then “Sitemaps”, to access a list of your sitemaps. If using SEO by Yoast plugin, all XML sitemaps will automatically be submitted on your behalf.

Search Analytics Report in Google Web Tool is another fantastic feature. This report gives an invaluable snapshot of your site’s performance by showing all queries that have returned your web pages, enabling you to sort them according to clicks, impressions, CTR and position – as well as showing keyword phrases which have led visitors to your pages.

Sitemaps

Sitemaps are an integral component of any website, providing Google with information about all the pages and files on it. Google uses the information from a sitemap to crawl your site more effectively – specifically discovering orphan pages without link backs pointing towards them. You can use the sitemaps area to set geographic target areas if your business serves multiple geographical regions simultaneously. Visiting the site https://truucoins.com/ helps you understand Google Webmaster Tools more quickly.

Once you’ve confirmed ownership of your website, it is advisable to create and submit a basic XML site map. You may also consider including image sitemaps, news sitemaps or video sitemaps if relevant to your content. It can take some time before data begins appearing here so don’t become disheartened if nothing shows up immediately – Google Webmaster Tools messages will keep you apprised of any issues with crawling your site!

Crawling Issues

One of the key features of Google Webmaster Tools is its capability of tracking crawl errors. Crawl errors can have serious ramifications for SEO and usability of websites, so it is critical that this report be regularly checked in order to address any discrepancies found therein.

If you see an error message that states, “Server Error,” this indicates that your server cannot load the page due to overloaded traffic or an ongoing DDOS attack. Contacting IT for resolution would likely be wise in such situations.

Index Status Report is another feature of this tool that shows a list of all pages indexed by Google for your website. With it you can quickly identify pages not being indexed and submit them back into Google for indexing – increasing search engine optimization efforts! Furthermore, alerts provided by the index status report could alert you of any errors which might be impacting page rank negatively.

Site Messaging

Once your website is verified with Google Webmaster Tools, they’ll begin sending messages about its performance. Be sure to read these regularly as they could provide vital insights about your website’s health: they might warn of malware on it or inform of pages not following SEO best practices.

One of the greatest strengths of this tool is its ability to analyze backlinks. You can use this function to see how many backlinks your website has, which pages they link to, and the anchor text used – giving you invaluable information for optimizing content and making sure backlinks are of quality.

Other features include geotargeting your website – important for schools with courses and programs offered across multiple locations – as well as customizing which domain would appear in search results (with or without www). It’s even possible to link GWT with Google Analytics so you can gain even greater insights into its performance.