An extensively used tool, in Search Engines Optimization Campaigns, is Webmaster Tools. It is an application, provided by Google and it is free of charge.
It is very important to state that this application, as its name indicates, is addressed to webmasters, professionals with wide knowledge and high experience in website development.
Unlike Google Analytics, which is a supervisory tool, as we analyzed in previous posts, Webmaster Tools allows changes and modifications to the website. Every change or modification through Webmaster tools has immediate effect on search engines results, evaluation and ranking. It is understandable that any modification made by amateurs could bring results other than the desired ones.
For that reason, a professional should be involved in change or modification of the website through Webmaster Tools.
But it is handful to any owner or administrator of a website to be aware of the information that Webmaster Tools provides and how the evaluation and ranking of the website is effected.
Signing in to the application, we can see an overview of the website in question.
This overview is divided in four major parts:
- The first part contains any messages concerning major technical issues of the website that should be fixed the soonest possible.
- The second one, is called “Crawl errors” and contains information about the server’s errors, pages not found, pages with long server response time e.t.c.
- The third part is about “Search Queries” and it gives information about questions, number of views on these questions, number of clicks e.t.c.
- The last part of this overview gives information about sitemaps (if an xml sitemap is submitted). We can see information about the number of URL’s submitted, indexed, or any warnings regarding URL’s.
Looking at the home page of Webmaster Tools, besides the Overview, we can see a menu on the left, with options regarding the information given in the overview.
The first option on the menu is “Show search”.
This gives a drop down list of options regarding Structured data, Labeling data, improvements HTML and Sitelinks. All aspects that affect the evaluation and ranking of the website by search enginges.
Structured data are essential for a website. Web developers use structured data to provide structured information on a website and its contents to search engines. Adding structured data or labeling data will improve the evaluation and ranking of a website by search engines, as well as the experience that provides to users when searching.
Tip: In cases of lack of structured data, search engines will try to collect information about the website and its contents automatically. In that case the evaluation and ranking will be lower than a website with similar content but containing structured data. That is why is very important for the web developers to include structured data in the website they develop.
The second option is “Site search”.
It contains sub-options to see analytical data regarding search queries, links to website, internal links, international targeting and finally any problems in the way website’s pages show on mobile devices. Through search queries, we find information about the questions under which the website was viewed, and information about the pages that users clicked to see.
On the third option, called “Google Directory”, there is a drop down list of options, giving analytical data on open status, keywords content, blocked urls, or URL addressed to be removed.
Next option on the home page of Webmaster Tools is about “Detection”. Here, we find analytical data on crawl errors, detection statistics, Robots.txt Tester (a special file where we declare to search engines which pages of our website, will not appear in searches), or the sitemap statistics (in case that a xml Sitemap is submitted).
The two last options in home page menu more technical but not less significant. The first one is “Safety issues” where we can check if the website is compromised and if there is a malicious content in the website, probably inserted by the ones who compromised the website. The second one is called “Other Resources” where we can find useful tools for the optimization of the website such as Structured Data Test Tool (we already analyzed the importance of structured data in the website), in order to check our structured data, Google Places, a free local platform from Google in order to mark on the map the location of the business and help customers to find what they are looking for, and finally Page Speed Insights where we can see how we can make faster the pages of the website in all devices.
It is obvious that the less problems or warnings on a website the better evaluation and ranking this website has by search engines.It is also obvious that all the information provided by Webmaster Tools for the optimization of the website is very important but any changes or modifications needed to be done should not be performed by amateurs. They are mainly technical information and all problems and warnings should be fixed by web developers highly trained and experienced ones.
In intros.gr, we have the knowledge and experience, as you can see in our extended portfolio, and in testimonials, to optimize your website to search engines. Ask for a quote for your online needs or contact us for any questions you might have on Search Engine Optimization.