Google Webmaster Tools

Google provides detailed web page reports, as well as tools for webmasters who tell Google more about their site,  through Google Webmaster Tools.  People use them without a lot of startup time, or learning, and webmasters improve their site placement, thus improving site traffic, with these tools.

How They Work

Google Webmaster tools are straightforward:

  • Sign up for Google or log into a Google account
  • Add and verify sites.  Google verifies sites when the webmaster uploads a small HTML file or meta tag, so Google knows the site belongs to that person.

Google then provides complete information and control:

    • Crawling – displays how and when Google crawled a site, problem pages Google couldn’t crawl, and solutions for the problem pages.
      • Webmasters submit sitemaps so Google crawls the whole site.
      • Webmasters submit crawl rates – in other words they may slow down the rate Google crawls their site.
    • Indexing – displays how Google indexes (lists) a site, including information on pages with violations – reasons Google didn’t include those pages in the index.  It also displays solutions for violating pages.
    • Traffic information:
      • Shows both internal and external links to pages, so webmasters know how traffic arrives.
      • Shows top queries – the top 20 queries that displayed a site, and those searches’ popularity.
      • The top pages on a site, and the words that link to it from other sites.

    Why They’re Useful

    Over time, partially reacting to people who trick the system and partially an improvement in search results, Google changes the way its servers – crawlers or spiders – gather and weigh web site information.  How the engine gathers and weighs web sites determines how the engine displays them as search results.  Sites closer to the top of the results receive more traffic, and Google wants those sites that most closely match searchers’ desired information at the top.

    Google Webmaster Tools help webmasters manage their site’s Google interface.  They not only provide traffic and search result measures, but they let webmasters tell Google about their site -

    • How Google crawls the site
    • What pages are available on the site (via sitemaps)

    Google indicates that the tools help webmasters make their site more “Google friendly.”  That’s the best explanation, and it results in better placement for sites, and better search results for Google users.

    Conclusion

    The old saying “knowing is half the battle” is true, and Google adds control to the information webmasters receive about their website’s Google interactions.  Fixing what doesn’t work and repeating what works, webmasters improve their sites’ Google listings.

    Categories: Glossary
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