Basic Webmaster Tools for Google

Google Webmaster Tools:

Google Webmaster Tools is a no-charge web service by Google for webmasters. It allows webmasters to check indexing status and optimize visibility of their websites. And it shows traffic for each keyword separately; it gives more information about website performance according to Google search query.

• Settings

Geographic Target 

It is very good to let Google know the geographic location of your site. If a given site targets users in a particular location, webmasters can provide Google with information that will help determine how that site appears in its country-specific search results, and also improve Google search results for geographic queries. If your site is tailored to a certain geographic location, you may want to use this feature. Google says, "If your site is targeting users within a particular geographic area, please provide us with the relevant information below, using only the fields that apply to your target audience."

Preferred Domain 

The preferred domain is the one that a webmaster would like used to index their site's pages. If a webmaster specifies a preferred domain as http://www.SEO-experts.com.sg and Google finds a link to that site that is formatted as http://SEO-experts.com.sg, Google will treat that link as if it were pointing at www.SEO-experts.com

URL Parameters 

URL Parameters enable pages to capture and utilize parameters set dynamically in their URLs. Its values are set dynamically in a page’s URL, and can be accessed by its template and its data sources. This makes pages incredibly dynamic, enabling a single page to power an endless number of views.

 You can indicate to Google information about each parameter on your site, such as "sort=price" and "sessionid=2". This helps Google crawl your site more efficiently, ignoring those parameters that produce duplicate content and increasing the number of unique pages Google can crawl on your site.

Crawl Rate 

The crawl rate affects the speed of Googlebot's requests during the crawl process. It has no effect on how often Googlebotcrawls a given site. Google determines the recommended rate based on the number of pages on a website.

• Diagnostics

Crawl Errors 

 If Googlebot encounters significant errors while crawling your site, such as 404s, it will report these and identify where Googlebot found the link to the inaccessible URL.

HTML Suggestions 

You should be careful of unfriendly HTML elements. Specifically, it lists meta description issues, title tag issues and non-indexable content issues. Because it will affect your rankings.

Malware 

Malware is any software used to disrupt computer operation, gather sensitive information, or gain access to private computer systems. Google will inform you if it has found any malware on your site. Malware is not only bad for users, but will have a severely negative effect on your rankings.

• Your Site on the Web

Many SEOs complain that the data in Webmaster tools is often incomplete and offers rough estimates at best. These statistics offer unique insight to SEOs in particular, as they report keyword impressions, click-through rates, top pages delivered in search results, and linking statistics. 

• Labs

The Labs section of Webmaster Tools contains reports that Google considers still in the experimental stage. Site Performance is one of the most important of these reports. It indicates how fast or slow your site loads for visitors.

• Site Configuration

You can submit test robots.txt files , sitemaps, adjust sitelinks, and submit change of address requests when you move your website from one domain to another. 

• +1 Metrics

When users share your content on Google+ with the +1 button, this activity is often annotated in search results. Watch this illuminating video on Google+ to understand why this is important.

Sources: References from several reliable SEO forums and websites.

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