How will Google webmaster tools help with SEO?

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How will Google webmaster tools help with SEO?

If you own and/or manage a website, you ought to be thinking about Search Engine Optimisation. And where there is SEO, there is the Google Search Console, also known as the Google Webmaster Tools. Google Webmaster Tools are a suite of web utilities that enable one to audit, analyze, and accentuate how Google views their website.

The role of webmaster tool in SEO is to help one improve their rankings on Google search. This oversimplification of the importance of Google Webmaster Tools is only for those who are yet to dive deep into the world of Search Engine Optimisation. Google Webmaster Tools focus on crawl stats, page errors, and rich snippets.

Additionally, the focus is on getting data about incoming search traffic, requesting Google to crawl and index the website, viewing crawl error reports, and much more. For the uninitiated, it is an automated simulation of a user’s experience when discovering one’s website through Google.

How to start with Google Webmaster Tools?

After logging into your Google account, head over to www.search.google.com to start your journey into the glorious world of Google Search Console.

The first step is to declare a website that one can prove is theirs. Then, you need to update the link for your website’s sitemap. A sitemap is an autogenerated XML file that provides Google with a list of the different pages on a particular website. Depending upon the underlying technology, your website’s sitemap can be found out. Or, one can be created manually.

The latter is scoffed at, especially for websites wherein content is regularly updated, such as blogs. Usually, one can find their sitemap at www.example.com/sitemap.xml.

Google webmasters - Sitemap

Google Webmaster Tools Features

Currently, Google Search Console offers tools under four categories: Index, Enhancements, Security and Manual Actions and, Legacy Tools, and Reports. To continue to keep Webmaster Tools even after the rebranding as Google Search Console only reiterates the importance of Google Webmaster tools.

Google webmasters Features

  1. Index: This section is all about website discovery. How well is Google covering your website? How can Google track changes on your website to automatically index and rank its web pages? These and more allow you to fine-tune your discoverability on the internet.
  2. Enhancements: This section deals with the responsiveness factor of your property. It is still marked as an experimental feature.
  3. Security and Manual Actions: This section highlights any issues Google might be facing in crawling and indexing your website.
  4. Legacy Tools and Reports: A majority of the users came to the Google Search Console from Google Webmaster Tools. And more often than not, such drastic changes alienate the existing user base. To retain them, there are a few features from Google Webmaster Tools that have been made available under Google Search Console in a different location.

The importance of Google Webmaster Tools is hence, two-way. Google is also adequately benefitted from this exchange of resources and products.

What is the importance of the Google Webmaster Tool?

  1. Know the problem– There’s no lack of competition amongst webmasters. Then how do you stay one step ahead? How can you manage to stay on top of things at all times? This is where the importance of Google Webmaster Tool comes in. You can enable the option to be notified via mail whenever your website is facing technical issues. With the abundance of options, people become more and more impatient; the first impression becomes everything! If your web site is malfunctioning or suffering server problems, that might cost you some visitors.
  2. Target the right audience– If you know your target audience, and let’s say it’s country X, your website would perform better in country X. The rational thing to do would be to change your “Site Settings” with Google Webmaster. The role of a webmaster tool in SEO is simple. You can change the options under the heading “Target In-.” It lets you choose country X as your target audience/destination. This way, you’ll have a more realistic approach to SEO.
  3. Analyze the traffic: “Traffic” in all other areas of life is an unwelcome phenomenon; it’s only in SEO where “traffic” is of crucial essence. Head over to “Search Queries” under the “Search Traffic” menu option, and you’ll find many useful features at your beck and call. Now you can analyze your performance in the Google Search Engine and look out for any outliers. If any outliers exist, analyze the reasons behind them. The Google Search Console can even list down all the strings of keywords that caused your website to pop up. You can also check out the impressions and clicks for your website.
  4. Linking: The Google Search Console is a mystical, fancy tool that works in the simplest ways. It’ll let you know all the links that have navigated people to your website. This is extremely informative because now you know what you’re selling. Let’s say you have a store where you sell vegetables. If you notice that people flock to the apple aisle, you’ll probably keep more apples in stock the next time. This is how it works with the Google Search Console as well. It lets you know what people are flocking to. You can also use this tool to identify if any of your content is getting negative reviews. Remove the ‘bad links’ and get to work. 

Apart from all the ways mentioned above in which the Google Search Console works wonders, it also helps in detecting malware. 

The importance of the Google webmaster tool can be identified in all the various features it provides. Technology has made a lot of progress since people first started making websites. Whether it be a small-time blogger or a corporate firm generating leads through an online forum, you can’t deny the mighty role SEO plays.

There are infinite possibilities once you understand the role of a webmaster tool in SEO. You can then use these possibilities to build something better, something that was out of your reach before.

Now that you have the Google Search Console at your behest, aiding you every step of the way, there’s no excuse for not putting your best foot forward in the world of Search Engine Optimization. Have fun and play with the tools the Google Search Console provides. The more you spend time with it, the better you’ll understand it.

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