Google Webmaster Tools – Setup and Data Usage

Google Webmaster Tools is a free service provided by Google which allows webmasters to have an insider’s view on how Google views a website. Google Webmaster Tools also provides webmasters with a commnication channel with Google to provide them with info such as reporting spam in the Google index, reporting paid links (eg by competitiors ) and most crucially, submitting a site reconsideration request (if your site has been penalised by Google!)

Setting up a Google webmaster tools account is very easy, follow these simple steps:

Go to https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/
If you don’t have a Google account, sign up for one, if you do, login
In the dashboard, add your site’s URL
Next, verify your site. You can do this by uploading an empty HTML file (name of file provided by Google), you need to upload the file to the root of your site (where the home index page lies). Another way to verify your site with Google is by adding a meta tag into your site’s homepage (tag provided by Google).
Once you’ve uploaded the verification file, go back to Google and click “Verify”

Using the Data provided by Google Webmaster Tools

Now that you’re recieving this valuable data, you will need to analyse it and use it to improve your site’s performance in Google’s search index. Here are a few tips to get you started:

Tell Google about your XML file. This will allow Google to find all the pages within your site. If you don’t know how to create an xml file, Google provides tutorial as well as software suggestions for XML file creation.
Setup Robots.txt. Go to Tools (left hand nav) and analyse your robots.txt file. If you don’t have one, you can create an empty one by opening up an empty notepad page and saving it as “robots.txt” and then upload it to the root of your site (where home index lies). Google allows you to test various instructions in your robots.txt.
Analyse your meta data. Go to “Diagnostics” >> “Content Analysis” and check for duplicate title and meta descriptions tags. Also check for long and short tags.
In the same section, check to see if Google had problems crawling your site (web/mobile crawl).
Under “Tools” you can remove URLs from the Google index as well as enhance your custom 404 (page not found) code.

Other valuable data in Google Webmaster Tools

Google Webmaster tools provides you with lots of valuable data and insights within the interface includes:

Top keywords on your site
Top linked pages (internal and external)
Sitelinks (If your site has “site links, the expanded listing in Google results) you are able to control what pages show up by removing the ones your don’t want appearing.
Top search queries (by impression and click through rate)
Web Crawl stats
RSS feed subscriber stats (you need to a have a Feedburner account for this to work)