Google Webmaster Tools

Posted on November 28, 2006
Filed Under Web Tools |

When I submitted my site for inclusion on Google the other day (read more about that here), there was mention of something called Google Webmaster Tools. So I looked into it further. It seems that you can get some information about how Google sees your site using the tools.

Because I already had a google account, I could log straight in to Google Webmaster Tools. When I first logged in I had the option of adding a website to my account. So I added Monetize Your Blog. Once I had added my site, I had to verify my site (to prove that I am in fact the owner and not just someone nosing about). This involved copying a block of code into the template for my blog, then asking Google Webmaster Tools to verify it.

Once all of this was complete, I was then allowed me to see a whole bunch of information about my blog. This information fell into 3 categories - Diagnostics, Statistics and Sitemaps.

Under Diagnostics, it told me when a googlebot last visited my home page and whether pages from my site were included in Google’s index (fortunately they were). It also had information about any errors which were encountered during the crawl.

Under Statistics, there were a number of headings, but none of them contained any data for my site. I can only speculate that my site is too new or not important enough to warrant this sort of detail.

The third category of Sitemaps looked interesting. It seems you can create a map of your website and submit it to Google Webmaster Tools in order to help Google index your site correctly. I have not done this yet, but I will describe it in more detail when I do.

Overall Google Webmaster Tools looks like a handy resource to assist in the quest for prominence in the Google index. I don’t know whether other search engines have similar tools, but I will describe them here if I find any.




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Comments

3 Responses to “Google Webmaster Tools”

  1. Chris on December 9th, 2006 3:05 pm

    Sitemaps are very useful. Once you’ve been crawled once,you’ll find it gets each post onto Google very quickly.

    I used a free generator:

    http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/

    Instructions are dead easy. Definitely do it ASAP.

  2. monetizeyourblog on December 9th, 2006 9:55 pm

    Thanks Chris. I will give it a go.

  3. Are You Making The Most Of Google's Search Statistics | Monetize Your Blog on January 2nd, 2008 5:10 am

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