Introduction
Yep, i do know what you’re thinking. “Thanks to HTML Goodies, I’ve got Internet Explorer Web Developer Toolbar, Firefox Web Developer Extension, and Firebug, what more do i want .”
Okay, so you’ve got a hammer, a screwdriver, and an adjustable spanner . Even your basic tool belt has room for a couple of more tools. Google Webmaster Tools may be a handy diagnostics toolbox and a tricked out tool shed, if you think about all the add-on gadgets for helping you improve the “findability” of your site. Let’s open the lid and peek inside.
Once logged into your Google Webmaster Tools account, you’ll be presented with the choice to feature a site (domain name) for inclusion or view an existing site. A verification method is employed to synchronize your site with the Google application. This verification is made by either adding a meta tag to your website or by uploading to your Web space an HTML file uniquely named by the appliance .
Google’s new Webmaster Tools interface (shown herein) is like a number of their other products with a portal feel.
The home page provides a fast glance at a number of your key information: “Top search queries”, “Crawl errors”, “Links to your site”. Using the right-hand navigation, you’ll explore these and other features in greater depth. A menu button within the top left allows you to modify between sites.
The Webmaster Tools are organized into three sections: “Site configuration”, “Your site on the web”, and “Diagnostics”. As you would possibly expect, the location Configuration section is one that you simply typically do exactly once for every site, while the opposite sections are ones that you simply will want to watch on a daily basis of your choosing. make certain to use Settings to notice your preference for using the www or non-www version of the name for URLs. Google makes a distinction.
For the sake of brevity, i will be able to highlight a couple of of the features that prove particularly useful.
Sitemaps
Perhaps you’re aware that there are two sorts of sitemaps: an HTML sitemap that’s a set of links to pages on your site – a navigational aid employed by your Web visitors, and therefore the program sitemap referenced here. The program sitemap may be a document (XML file) that lists key URLs from your site, which helps the search engines identify key pages for indexing and the way often those individual pages change. (Learn more about sitemaps by clicking the “Sitemaps” help link on the Webmaster Tools sidebar.)
Through Webmaster Tools, you provide Google a URL to the situation (in your Webspace) of the sitemap that you simply created by following the Sitemap Protocol. Once Google has digested your sitemap, Webmaster Tools will report back about any errors.
In the example shown above, Google is reporting that a URL of www.no-pun.com was found within the sitemap for domain no-pun.com. Google makes a distinction between the www and non-www versions of the domain. The oversights are easy to correct with the convenient error listing that Webmaster Tools provides.
