How to Quickly Diagnose and Prevent Website Problems with Google Webmaster Tools
How to Quickly Diagnose and Prevent Website Problems with Google Webmaster Tools
As webmasters and SEOs, we're always looking for new clues into the methods Google uses to rank webpages. Of course, the specific algorithms Google uses are rarely clear, but fortunately Google offers a free resource called Google Webmaster Tools to help make things a bit less mysterious.
Google Webmaster Tools offers a wealth of data, providing you with a great insight into how Google views your site. By itself it won't guarantee high rankings, but it's one of the best ways to diagnose problems with your site. If you're ever having problems with Google crawling, indexing or ranking your pages, Google Webmaster Tools is the first place to check.
Getting Started with Google Webmaster Central
To sign up with Google Webmaster Tools, use your Google Account to register your site. Google will then provide a verification code to be placed in the header section of your home page. After you have the code on place, notify Google and they will ping your page to verify the code. Once they do, you're on your way to getting a Google's eye view of your site.
The Google Webmaster Tools dashboard is categorized into the six sections you see in the image on the right.
We're going to dive into each section and give you the details regarding the features most critical to the health of your site.
Overview
When you log into Google Webmaster Tools you'll be taken to the Overview section, where you get at-a-glance stats on two important me...
