Setting Up Google Webmaster Tools

Most people are familiar with, or at least have heard of, Google Analytics. They can likely explain what it is, and if they sat down for 15 minutes, they could probably figure out the basics.

Fewer people, it seems, are familiar with Google Webmaster Tools. Besides offering advanced search query detail, it gives webmasters valuable insight as to how their site is viewed by Google’s crawlers. Within this (free) tool, you can manually perform tasks that will help your website’s health and search performance.

Getting set up in Webmaster Tools is quite simple; if you have an Analytics account it takes just a few moments. Here’s the steps:

  1. Go to google.com/webmasters/tools
  2. Sign in using the email you use to access Google Analytics (if you don’t have Analytics set up, you may want to start there).
  3. “Add a Site” – add the URL of the site you are looking to monitor.
  4. Verify the site. It will provide a recommended method as well as alternative methods. Assuming you have Analytics code in the Header file of your site, this is often the easiest way. Otherwise you can place a meta tag in your Header file as well.
  5. Begin exploring!

Depending on your level of familiarity with the concepts of Google’s Webmaster Tools, it can be slightly overwhelming. It’s easy to get lost in the rabbit hole of data. Fortunately, like most Google products, they have well-documented Support.

Here’s a few of the things you can use Webmaster Tools for:

  • Submit a sitemap
  • Manage your robots.txt file
  • Block pages from being crawled/indexed
  • Remove URLs that have been indexed
  • See which external websites link to your site
  • Detailed keyword data (more on this below)
  • Find errors like duplicate content or broken links

Search Query Data

If you’ve looked at an Analytics report of your organic keywords, you have probably noticed “not set” or “not provided” accounting for a large percentage of your traffic. This is due to the increase in private browsing sessions, meaning the actual search (e.g., [best breakfast in Baltimore]) is masked and will not appear in your Analytics data. That data exists somewhere – and that somewhere can be through Webmaster Tools Search Queries. It provides data from the previous 90 days of the actual search terms and phrases that led to your site appearing in search results, how many clicks as a result, and the average position of your site for that search. You can also see the percentage of change from the previous period.

You don’t have to be an expert to get started, but it can help to provide some direction in understanding the data. If you have questions about Webmaster Tools, drop us a line!