Skip to content - navigation

Home

Google Webmaster Tools

Author: 
Simon Vreeswijk
Date: 
July 17, 2008

Google Webmaster Tools provides a ton of useful data for Webmasters.  In providing an XML Sitemap and submitting it to a Google Webmaster Tools Account a Webmaster can tell Google to crawl the pages included in the sitemap.  This is useful in two ways.  First it sends Google to the site before it would find it's own way there effectively having content indexed in Googles Search Results sooner.  Secondly, it allows Google to review the site from the view of a Search engine, the providing useful information to the Webmaster about the site.

google webmaster tools logo

Some information that can be viewed in the Google Webmaster Tools Account is :

  • A Site Overview detailing any errors found with the sites URL's
  • Diagnostics such as Web Crawl, Content Analysis, and Mobile Crawl for cell phones
  • Statistics about Search Queries, Crawl Stats, Index Stats, and What the Googlebot Sees
  • Link information about incoming and outgoing links
  • Tools such as the Remove URL's Tool

These statistics will show which pages returned errors, which content had duplicate Meta Tags, pages that had broken links, a list of incoming links, a tool to remove certain pages from Google Index and much more.  The Google Webmaster Tools Account is a must have for those serious about Search Engine Optimization.

-----------

This post was written by Simon Vreeswijk of Stikky Media Search Engine Optimization in Victoria, BC.