Google Webmaster Tools

Do you use Google Webmaster Tools for extra Adwords Help sometimes? This free tool from Google offers a number of useful features!
10 Tips & Tricks for Google Webmaster Tools

Google Webmaster Tools is Google’s free tool for webmasters. But the program is interesting for anyone from a professional point of having a website has to do, whether you’re e-commerce employee, IT or there are online marketer. Unfortunately there are many online professionals who rarely or never log into Webmaster Tools. So you have access to Webmaster Tools from your website, but it’s not clear what you can with it now and you have no idea why you’re here (weekly) as should be looking at? In this article you already get 10 good reasons!

Understanding your organic traffic

1. Searches

One of the most popular features of Webmaster Tools: understanding the origin of the organic movement. Google will remember from the past 90 days, how often you are visible in the Google search engine was on a specific search term (impressions), how many times people clicked through (clicks), which is the click-through rate (CTR) and what the average rank / position about the requested period. You can find this list under Search traffic> Searches. Or if you have British institutions under Search Traffic> Search queries.

This list is useful if you want to know which searches your visitors find your site organically. This provides insight into data that Google Analytics all times not give in Analytics, this information will be hidden under the heading “not provided”. Webmaster Tools see on what terms you will be found, or you found on desired terms and whether it produces traffic. You see it as you found mostly on your brandname. If you see that, it’s a good idea to focus on attracting more non-branded traffic.

Besides, already in September 2013 Google has promised is working on the ability to search data back to a year. However, the question to John Mueller (Webmaster Trends Analyst at Google) during the Webstore Vakdagen to its status, he said that we have not anticipated within the next six months.

Understanding organic traffic and searches in Google Webmaster Tools

2. Links to your site

Curious about the features of your link profile? Webmaster Tools gives you a number of useful overviews. Click “Search Traffic ‘(search traffic) and” Links to your site “(left to your site). Go here during a free hour once through it and you’ll see things that surprise you. So you get a list of links from Google websites to your site. If you click through to a site, you can see from which page they link and therefore you can check yourself why people link to your site.

Another overview on this page shows the anchor texts are often used (the anchor text is the clickable text of a link). It says something about the page you link to, but as an anchor text very often equals the focus keyword that you’d like to rank for (eg hotel Amsterdam) this may seem unnatural to Google (manipulated). It was a trick in times of choice to better rank for certain Google Keyword Planner keywords. If you have an enormous amount of links on your site and you only want to know what new links have been added, you can also download an overview of there (first click on ‘More >>’, see under ‘Most links to your site’ ).

Also handy: who wants to know what content is popular, helped by Google under the overview Your Content with the most links (your most linked content). You can see which pages go most of the links on your site. If you click through, you can see which websites link to your pages. So you immediately see which content in which is noticed and appreciated. You can do your advantage here right away.

If you find that certain types of content left much will you think if you can offer more of that content type and therefore can make more good links. Assume that many pages on the topic “How to …” get a lot of links you’ll know that this kind of content is appreciated.

Links to your site in Google Webmaster Tools
3. Manual actions

It does not happen very often, but if your site is hit by a manual penalty you will receive an alert in Webmaster Tools. You’ll find this under Search traffic> Manual actions (search traffic> manual actions). Watch out! Unfortunately you do not get notice of “automatic penalties. So if you have the presumption of such a penalty (eg sudden huge traffic loss) but does nothing, then you still have to figure out what is really going on and whether there is really a penalty. Not an easy task, but start at least find here.

Google communicates over manual actions in Google Webmaster Tools
Your site in Google

You can of course Google’en but what you see is not always what everyone else can see. Therefore it is good to look at how Google presents your site and whether you will be happy there.
4. Sitelinks

Site links that a search result as ‘extra’ appear. For example, in the example below it comes to social media marketing, yearbook, stats dashboard, jobs, et cetera. Watch out! Not all sites have sitelinks displayed by Google and often it is only when one is looking at brand name. In some cases, see the sitelinks different.

It may be that between your site links a page that you would rather not have, for example, “colophon. You can use this URL than “degrade” through Webmaster Tools. This can be through Appearance of Site Search> Sitelinks (search appearance> sitelinks). Paste the URL where it matters herein and click degrade. If Google honors the request, will shortly after the degraded page no longer displays as a site link.

Sitelinks in Google downgrade

You can demote up to 100 pages and a request remains 90 days granted by Google. Unfortunately, you can not specify which pages you would like to have it displayed as a site link. You can influence here, but it goes too far now to go deeper into that.
5. Highlight Data

Highlight data or data highlighter is a relatively new feature in Webmaster Tools. You can play easily highlight specific information on your site and specify what kind of information it is. Google can then take this into account when presenting your site in the search results.

Shown in the figure below is how Google can display marked information in search results:

Highlight data in Google Webmaster Tools

You can mark different types of information such as articles, upcoming events, local businesses, restaurants, products, software applications, movies and TV episodes. If this applies to your site? Then go to work. Click “Appearance of Site Search” and choose “mark information” (search appearance> data highlighter). You can see a video introduction how does highlight and can then start immediately. Enter in the pop-up to what (type) page (URL) you’d like to highlight content. Also select what information you want to mark in the dropdown.

Watch the video even if you have not yet fully understood, it is a lot easier than it looks!

Highlight data

Watch out! Perhaps your site is already using structured data for example through micro-data (such as schema.org). The possibility exists that certain information already highlighted in the HTML. That’s actually better because you data than by any search engine can be recognized.

If your site does not use structured data, marking data via Webmaster Tools is a good alternative. Remember that what this way only highlight for Google and does not apply to other search engines. You can easily remove marked information, so beware if you start cleaning. Nevertheless, a convenient functionality for web sites who, for whatever reason, can not have the ability to apply schema.org in the short term.
Crawl and index information
6. Content keywords

Though the SEO in a while not really matter keywords (it is increasingly about themes and topics) Google does provide a list of keywords that are used on your site. Go to Google index> Content Keywords (Google index> content keywords). The bluer the bar, the more often this term returns on your website. Useful to check if Google anyway recognize that your site is about a particular subject or theme. Missing (according to you) important issues? Then it is good to find out if Google does all pages can reach and indexing.

Content Keywords
7. Fetch as Google

A handy tool to see how Google sees the information on the page. You give in a URL and can choose from ‘pulling’ or ‘pick up and play. ” The ‘pick up and play’ option provides insight into how Google sees the information on your page. Does this picture look different than if you simply requests the page in a browser? Then this could be a reason to delve deeper into the technology. You can specify whether you want to view the page with a desktop or smartphone. You see it immediately if Google can not reach the page. This is under the ‘status’.

Here is a summary of what messages are possible and what they mean. Will not you come out? Enlist the help of your webmaster or SEO agency.

Fetch as Google

Through this fetchoptie you can also ask Google to back a particular page or all pages crawl directly get a link from that page. Useful if you have a new page put live and do not want to wait until the spider ‘just’ keeps popping up. You can 10 times a month to submit such a request. When it comes to an individual page, you can enter up to 500 pages per month (one month in the last 30 days). You get no guarantee, of course, but our experience shows that Google follow your request within 24 hours.

These options are listed under Crawl> Fetch as Google (crawl> fetch as Google).
8. Crawl Errors

Under Crawl> Crawl errors (crawl> Crawl errors) you can find information and statistics about crawl your site Googlebot. You can request statistics from desktop, smartphone or feature phone pages. You will get a list of other Google pages that include not found. This can mean that the page has been deleted, or the URL is changed or an external site links to an erroneous URL within your site.

Very useful for weekly check if there are no pages accidentally gone and whether or not you’d better redirect pages (this is especially true when a replacement page would be). Consider that a page that no longer exists, often still left can get from other sites. That means that if someone comes to your page from another site ‘dead end’. A redirect to a good alternative is useful so that the user can still find again what he seeks. In addition, you give that way value and authority through the new page. Occasionally look at and if it can clean up so!

Crawl errors and site errors
9. Indexation statistics

Indexing statistics are more important than you would say at first sight. This handy chart (Google index> Index Status) (Google index> index status) provides a clear line of the number of pages that the recent period has been indexed. There is also clearly a number of at. Look at this and see if the number of pages is logical.

Sell ​​your example, but there are 1,000 products and 20,000 pages indexed? Then there is something wrong somewhere and it’s good to have an expert look at what went wrong and how it can be solved. More pages in the Google index is not always better than less pages (thou shalt not spamming Google). And if accidentally caused, it can be a waste of capiciteit who has a spider when it comes to your site.

Another important feature is that you also have the ‘other side’ can resolve things. See you in the Analytics a day to visit the organic drastic slump? Then a look at this part of your pages are indexed. It is all too often by accident (mistake!) A site is excluded from indexation. Disastrous for your business, but with a small adjustment can make your site accessible again. Unfortunately, it does take a while for the results may again be at the old level. So check first these statistics before you pick panicked by any update or penalty you can be hit.

Index Status in Google Webmaster Tools
10. Various test functions such as Robots.txt, Sitemap, Mobile Kindness

Google has besides all the statistics and tools also built a number of useful test functionality for webmasters. Not everything is for everyone equally interesting, so I will confine myself to a brief explanation of each test functionality.

Robots.txt is a text file that controls what content is and is not allowed to be spidered. A somewhat technical / boring but extremely important part in SEO. You can find information from Google about Under Crawl> robots.txt tester. When you click this, you immediately see your own robots.txt file. If there are errors or Google comments on certain rules will be marked clearly.

Does it do not so much? Look then at least once in there, you see many errors (Google says so openly) then hook the web builder or desks. They can help you well beyond. Remember that a robots.txt can be very inconvenient if it is not working properly; at worst spiders can not crawl your content and thus searchability directly virtually impossible.

Sitemaps, which act as a kind of street-map for search engine spiders: this contains all the pages that they can view and indexing. Under Crawl> Sitemaps can be viewed or Google XML sitemap you can read and whether the content has been accepted. Here you see immediately whether Google has found a sitemap and where it is. You see when it was last processed by Google and if there are errors. You immediately see how many pages you’ve offered in the site map and how Google has indexed them. If there is no site map shown, but did you do? Then you ‘m add directly from this page.

Mobile friendly: last but not least. Google explains lately enormous emphasis on the mobile-friendliness of your website. From 21 April, mobile friendliness even a ranking factor. Until then get mobile-friendly websites that are visited by Google at least the words ‘mobile’ in the search results. It may well be that this label after April 21, just remains.

Mobile label mobile search results

There are several ways to create a mobile-friendly site. Especially in view of the changes from April 21 it is good to spare here to watch and take action if the site is not mobile friendly. It’s a bit short day, but Google gives you one and a half month to take action.

Whether your site through Google now has been labeled as a mobile-friendly can be found under Search Traffic> Mobile usability. On the mobile kindness in Webmaster Tools you will find information on how many pages contain errors and what mistakes are.

In the picture below you can see for example that Google indicates that the content is not adapted to the viewport and the tikelementen (buttons or left) are too close together.

Google has also developed a comprehensive tool to test if your site is mobile friendly, it is publicly accessible. So you do not necessarily have to use Google Webmaster Tools. Handy if you do not have access yet, and it immediately to view some things. The tool can be found here.

Have you already gecheck in Webmaster Tools? Check it out for this security also went into this public utility. Google will still be here even give tips that will not get you in Webmaster Tools.

Besides, since the end of January Google allows website owners all that difficult: you block Googlebot accidentally accessing your mobile site or to Javascript and CSS files you can get the following snippet to your site within mobile search results, a real CTR- killer. Test this simple in practice by Googling on your smartphone to your site.

There is no description available for this site by robots.txt.

Last tip: to create sub-profiles!

Do you have an enormous site you can also (sub) directory, create a profile in your Google Webmaster Tools account. Imagine running your website on a .com domain, but for each language (or country) have a directory. You can then create a language for each account. That way you avoid that you have a maze of data that you can no longer work with.

Example domain: www.voorbeeldwebsite.com
Dutch Pages: www.voorbeeldwebsite.com/nl/
English-language pages: www.voorbeeldwebsite.com/en/

You can now create at least 3 accounts for each of the above URLs one. Convenient and uncluttered. This may of course if your site works the same way, but with products:

Example domain: www.voorbeeldwebsite.nl/
Specifically range: www.voorbeeldwebsite.nl/schoenen/
Specifically range: www.voorbeeldwebsite.nl/kleding/
Finally

Given above are only 10 examples of opportunities that Webmaster Tools offers. But within each option, there are still nice to get more insights when you click through some here and there. Are you triggered? Pull out again some time clicking through. Hopefully you can fully appreciate the above guidelines, which have features for you and not interesting. Would you after reading this article to get started but you do not have access to Webmaster Tools, read this explanation of Google how you can create a free account.

Google Webmaster Tools is a platform that allows you to communicate your website with Google. So Google will tell you whether they can index your site correctly, or the structure of your website is clear and whether they are enamored of your backlink practices or not. Additionally, you can recover 404 errors and give Sitemaps.

In this article you can read more about these features in 6 useful tips to get more easily from Webmaster Tools

Because not all options are equally important and because there are only 24 hours in a day, you can find below the main ‘tools’ that you as a website owner can watch.
Tips in this article:

What websites are linking to me?
How do I forbid Google to show certain pages?
What should I do if my site Googlebot can not find?
On what terms will I find?
How do I get away crawl errors?
How do I place a sitemap?

Tip 1: What websites are linking to me?

Go to Google Webmaster Tools.

Under ‘Search Traffic “>” Links to your site you can see:

how many links there are going to your website
which sites link to you all,
to what your websites pages is most linked
through which anchor texts are linked to your will

Tip 2: How do I forbid Google to show certain pages?

Via Google index “>” Remove URLs, you can ask Google to certain pages of your website does not show in the search results.

It may be that some of your pages do not want them as your calling card appear in the search results. Maybe you have certain pages protected by a password. The URLs of these pages, you can submit here, so that Google knows that you prefer not to have in the search results.

request Google remove URLs
Tip 3: What should I do if my site Googlebot can not find?

The most common error is probably that the Googlebot can not access your website. You will find this message (hopefully not) under ‘Site Posts.

Googlebot can not access your site

Overall this message no reason to panic. It is wise to see what’s going on.

Googlebot at certain times your website has not successfully able to visit can have multiple reasons:

It could be the server (if they are temporarily lay off)
It could be Google itself (they sometimes make a mistake)
It could be the robots.txt file (as long as you have not gone in this file to work, this will not be the case)
If you use WordPress can personalize your settings under ‘Settings’>’ Read ‘lie (make that “Block search engines to index the site’ is not checked)

Tip 4: On what terms will I find?

Search Traffic searches

Since it is no longer possible via Google Analytics to see where and through which search terms visitors arrive on your website (the ‘not provided’ problem), it has become more difficult to figure out which terms can be found.

Fortunately, Google Webmaster Tools you can go some way towards you by offering the following diptych:

Through which search terms visitors arrive at your site and how many visitors that
On which pages are deposited most visitors from Google

searches top pages

One and one is two. Through this data merge, you can still get a good idea of ​​which pages on which keywords are found.
Tip 5: How do I remove crawl errors away?

An error means that Google crawl a particular URL on your website tried to visit (or crawl), but this has not been successful, or that the Googlebot encountered an HTTP error. This is often a 404 error, which means that the page (no longer) exist.

You can obtain the URL of a page or article that you have deleted forward the best to another page, article or your home page. That way, both Google and your visitors always on an existing page from which the user-friendliness of your website benefits.

The crawl errors can be found under ‘Crawl’> Crawl errors. There you will see a list of all the broken links that Google has found on your website.

Forwarding a URL, or ‘redirect’, can through a tough 301 redirect. With a 301 redirect, you indicate that the old URL should be permanently redirected to the URL specified by you.

If you use WordPress you can do this very easily using the “Redirection plugin. That is a plugin that you can add to your free website. Once you’ve done that you will find these under “Tools”> “redirection.” Here is how you can enter where the old URL (source) and the new URL (goal) to make the redirect.

Add new redirect 301

crawl sitemaps
Tip 6: How do I place a sitemap?

With a site map you can indicate to Google what the structure of your website is like going to include your posts, pages and media. Once you create a sitemap, you can pass it to Google via Crawl> Sitemaps. It is beyond the focus of this article to explain how to create a sitemap. (Which you can read here)

Add test sitemap

Click the “Add Site” and then fill in your sitemap’s URL.