Google Webmaster Tools: The Basics

At Devrun Web Agency, we know that you worry about SEO. It’s not a secret that of all the search engines out there, such as Yahoo, Bing, Yandex, and Ask, it is Google that takes the lead as the popular website on the Internet with just under 200 million unique visitors. Thus if you are interested in making your website highly visible and attracting an increasing number of buying customers, it is Google that needs to know about your existence and it is mainly for Google that you should streamline your keywords and other search engine optimization components.

Fortunately, there is an easy tool, or, better to say, set of tools to help you with the task – Google Webmaster Tools.

Is this another package I need to purchase and spend a lot of energy on?

As a webmaster, you are, of course, always short on time, especially if you are, in fact, the owner and operator of your own business as well. Importantly, Google Webmaster Tools are completely free to use and there is no requirement to use it.

The Tools are an excellent helping hand from the search engine to assist you in improving your page rank and visibility, fix errors and issues, and analyze how people find your website, but you do not necessarily have to spend hours every day working with the tools to succeed. In fact, with time you will notice that the tools provide the information you need to quickly analyze for any outstanding issues without the need to invest more time and energy into calibrating them.

What kind of tools are there in the box?

Google Webmaster Tools, if used correctly, can easily become your best friend when it comes to managing your Search Engine Optimization strategy. The tools included are diverse; from a sitemap verification process to optimizing your Google bot crawl rate for best results to messages on any errors that prevent Google from properly indexing pages to information on any manual penalties you had received for incorrect SEO work.

In case you were wondering how your competition does it, highlighting and enriching Google search results can be done through Google Webmaster Tools, and so is searching for broken links and analyzing the website’s incoming links. As you can observe, the toolbox is full of useful and efficient mechanisms to help you speak to the Google search engine algorithm and crawl bots.

How do I choose between Google Webmaster Tools and Google Analytics?

Another product from Google, the Analytics package, is more in-depth and sophisticated than Google Webmaster Tools. Importantly, the Tools only keep track of the search results from Google itself, basically ignoring the other search engines, whereas Google Analytics includes the information on all the traffic to your website and the behaviour of all visitors, irrespective of what search engine they had come from.

Thus the purpose, the focus and the structure of these two sets of tools from Google are very different, and they should not be confused. Google Webmaster Tools is a great start for many webmasters still gathering the experience, as well as anyone that wants a simple free way of managing their SEO. If you require assistance with these tools and your general website setup, feel free to contact the Devrun Web Agency experts today.

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