Learn How Google Robots View and Index Your Site
Getting Google’s view of your website and diagnosing potential problem areas and how Google works Also identify potential SEO problems.
I have personally been using Google webmaster tools for only a couple of years now, however I could not imagine my life/career as an SEO professional without it now. For those of you who don’t currently use Google webmaster tools you should start right away. You can go here www.google.com/webmasters/tools and simply sign in with your Google account.
What is Google webmaster tools?
Google Webmaster tools is a very powerful tool that was created by Google a few years ago in response to popular demand of many webmasters wanting a better way to become more “Google Friendly”. Google webmaster tools can help you get a great deal of feedback from Google regarding how Google robots view and index your site as well as assisting you in diagnosing potential problem areas in your site.
Key features:
Site verification:
Google Webmaster tools allows you to cofirm ownership of your site by either placing a meta tag in the code on your site or placing an html file in your root directory. This will let Google know you are acting in good faith to become more “Google friendly” and will open up the doors to the other features that Google webmaster tools has to offer.
XML sitemaps Submission:
Google Webmaster tools allows you to register your XML sitemap making it easier for the Google spider to index and crawl your site.
Key Indexing data about your site:
Google webmaster tools gives you very detailed information regarding the indexing of your site. From the last time the Google spider crawled your site to any 404 pages that were found at the time.
Key Statistics:
Google webmaster tools Allows you to see the top search queries that were used to find your site in Google search results.
Other sites linking to you:
Google webmaster tools will display a detailed list of other sites that are linking to your homepage.
Internal links:
Google webmaster tools allows you to easily see the details of your internal linking structure. This is a very important part of on page SEO.
Generate robot.txt file:
Google webmaster tools let’s your create a robot.txt file that allows you to instruct Google as to what directories you don’t’ want crawled by the Google spider.
Set your preferred domain:
You can instruct Google as to how you would like your domain name to appear in the search results i.e. http://domainname.com or http://www.domainname.com.
Geographic target:
Google webmaster tools allows you to set a geographic target. i.e. We are a Houston based company and most of our customers are in Houston so we have our geographic target set to Houston TX.
To summarize if learn to you use Google webmaster tools to it’s potential your SEO will greatly improve and you will have a more “Google friendly” website as a result.
[tags]Google webmaster tools, Google friendly[/tags]
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"Ask Gerald" Gerald answers SEO questions on a monthly basis through his newsletter.
About The Author
Gerald Weber
I am a professional SEO and Internet entrepreneur. I founded Search Engine Marketing Group in December 2005. Other projects I am involved in for fun include MyBlogGuest.com and MySEOCommunity.com Feel free to follow me on Twitter or Google+28 Comments
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Hey,
I'd agree with that, I'm usually curious of checking whether I am ranking good for keywords or not, and Google webmasters sure helps me do that!
Hey,
I’d agree with that, I’m usually curious of checking whether I am ranking good for keywords or not, and Google webmasters sure helps me do that!
Twitter: the_gman
November 19, 2008 at 6:13 pm
@Abduirehman
Google Webaster Tools is really an amazing tool!
Twitter: the_gman
November 19, 2008 at 6:13 pm
@Abduirehman
Google Webaster Tools is really an amazing tool!
I've been trying to set up a google webmaster tools for a while. But it always gives me an error message. I don't know why but it won't accept my XML sitemap, any ideas?
<abbr>How to Blog’s last blog post..5 Free SEO Tools You’re Probably Not Using Yet</abbr>
I've been trying to set up a google webmaster tools for a while. But it always gives me an error message. I don't know why but it won't accept my XML sitemap, any ideas?
<abbr>How to Blog’s last blog post..5 Free SEO Tools You’re Probably Not Using Yet</abbr>
Twitter: the_gman
November 23, 2008 at 8:29 pm
@How to Blog
I'm really not sure what is causing your problem offhand. If you want to hit me up on skype I'll see if I can help you out. I'll send you an email.
Twitter: the_gman
November 23, 2008 at 8:29 pm
@How to Blog
I’m really not sure what is causing your problem offhand. If you want to hit me up on skype I’ll see if I can help you out. I’ll send you an email.
Great post
Hope to read more like these!
<abbr>Farrhad’s last blog post..5 Free SEO Tools You’re Probably Not Using Yet</abbr>
Great post
Hope to read more like these!
<abbr>Farrhad’s last blog post..5 Free SEO Tools You’re Probably Not Using Yet</abbr>
Twitter: the_gman
November 25, 2008 at 5:09 pm
@Farrhad,
Glad you enjoyed this articles. If you would like to read more articles like this simply subscribe to our RSS or you can subscribe by email if you like. We publish weekly articles regarding SEO tips, search engine marketing and just blogging in general.
Twitter: the_gman
November 25, 2008 at 5:09 pm
@Farrhad,
Glad you enjoyed this articles. If you would like to read more articles like this simply subscribe to our RSS or you can subscribe by email if you like. We publish weekly articles regarding SEO tips, search engine marketing and just blogging in general.
sweet! good biz news to have. thanks
)
<abbr>sarah the wonder girl’s last blog post..thewondergirl: The thrilling part of getting a new house and moving ceases to exist when you have to actually move boxes and furniture.</abbr>
sweet! good biz news to have. thanks
)
sarah the wonder girl’s last blog post..thewondergirl: The thrilling part of getting a new house and moving ceases to exist when you have to actually move boxes and furniture.
Ten points – good article.
Ten points – good article.
Very interesting article
http://twitter.com/paulhale
Very interesting article
http://twitter.com/paulhale
It can also help you get cached pages that no longer exist to be removed.
.-= Rob´s last blog ..Lack of Business Plan Could Equal Doom for Twitter =-.
It can also help you get cached pages that no longer exist to be removed.
.-= Rob´s last blog ..Lack of Business Plan Could Equal Doom for Twitter =-.
I think that its important to note that even Google webmaster tools doesn't show all your inbound links, so hopefully people don't spend too much time getting obsessed with it. I believe the words Matt Cutts used to describe it was something along the lines of, "It shows a good chunk" of your incoming links, or something along those lines.
.-= Noah | WealthNet Partners Blog´s last blog ..The Power of Planning for Growing Your Business =-.
I think that its important to note that even Google webmaster tools doesn't show all your inbound links, so hopefully people don't spend too much time getting obsessed with it. I believe the words Matt Cutts used to describe it was something along the lines of, "It shows a good chunk" of your incoming links, or something along those lines.
.-= Noah | WealthNet Partners Blog´s last blog ..The Power of Planning for Growing Your Business =-.
I always recommend for everyone to install Google webmaster tools on their site. It just shows Google that you are not trying to hide anything from them., especially if you are heavy into SEO efforts.
.-= Nick Stamoulis´s last blog ..How Do You Become An Authoritative Website? =-.
I always recommend for everyone to install Google webmaster tools on their site. It just shows Google that you are not trying to hide anything from them., especially if you are heavy into SEO efforts.
.-= Nick Stamoulis´s last blog ..How Do You Become An Authoritative Website? =-.
I'm using all my web site..
Sanalika Hileleri recently posted..En İyi Sanalika Balık Tutma Hilesi
I’m using all my web site..
Hi Gerald, Google Webmaster Tool is definitely a great way to put your website on Googlebot’s radar. Another one is linking from other sites to yours. According to Matt Cutts, Googlebot’s crawl priority is proportional to your site’s PageRank.
[...] of ‘visual boom’, it’s vital to make sure all the images on your website and blog get quickly indexed by Google, so they can appear in Google image [...]