Google Webmaster Tools: better findability in Google

In the previous blog, Google Webmaster Tools: register and solve problems, we looked at how you can keep your website up and running for Google. Now the fun part: how are you better found it? Google Webmaster Tools offers unprecedented opportunities for SEO. Such as the keywords on which your pages are found. And per top page which keywords gave the most traffic. I specifically discuss the component Fetchen like Google under the Crawl menu item, and on the menu items Appearance of Site Search, Google Index and Search traffic.
You have just written a great blog or launched a great product page. How quickly does Google see this? There may be a few days, depending on the crawl budget that Googlebot grants your site. Via Fetchen like Google you can directly enter your page for indexation.
It takes a few minutes for the page to be retrieved and displayed. Until that time, Google gives the page the status pending, in the Fetchen as Google overview. Then you get the option: Submit to Index. You get the choice: only crawl this URL or Crawl this URL and the associated direct links. Unless you have added internal links, I recommend submitting only the specified URL. You can do fetches like Google 500 x per month for this URL only, and 10x per month for this URL and associated links. It is especially useful if you also want to post your content on other sites, and you want to prevent Google from seeing your page as duplicate content.
How are your webb pages displayed in Google's search results? Google shows in this section Structured data, Highlight data, HTML improvements and Site links.
Google is smart, but often needs help. "Paris Hilton" can be about the Paris hotel or the young heiress of the hotel chain. Google gets a lot out of context, but you can also help by offering your data in a structured way. With this you can also be better shown in Google via so-called 'rich snippets', such as telephone numbers, titles, addresses. The point is that Google also identifies the 10 numbers as a telephone number and not as a product number, for example. Under Structured data, Google indicates which data is still missing.
Click on one Page URL to get further feedback:
click on Live data to test for even more information:
If you provide data in a structured way, any search engine crawler can read it. With Mark data you can mark data manually. First you specify which page it is and what the page is:
You can then select content from your web page (left mouse button), and then tag it in a menu on the right. You can then easily process similar pages. While this is of course fun for Google, I recommend that you simply offer your data in a structured way.
A super handy tool from Google: what does Google stand out in the HTML of your website? For each possible report you immediately see which pages are involved and you can get started in your CMS.
When your homepage or webpage is displayed in Google, there are sometimes extra links below. These are links that Google thinks are relevant and help the Google user to reach their goal faster.
For my page the site links are: Guest Blogging, About Bloeise, Contact Information and Blooming with a sharp pen. You have no say in which links are shown as site links, and it can change regularly. However, you have the option of using Google Webmaster Tools which pages you do not want to see displayed as a site link.
On to Google index: how many pages has Googlebot been able to index? Problems with robots.txt can be seen here: if there is a new site for example disallow: / still stands. (some web builders use this to not show the new site to Google, but forget to remove it) In that case you see a huge drop to zero indexed pages. With the tab Advanced you see something more: which pages are blocked by robots.txt.
Not very useful, but for completeness: which keywords does Google link to your site? This list only shows the words found on your site. This is how Bloeise is the most common. If you click on a keyword, you will see the pages where the keyword is found.
Only use if you want to quickly remove a URL from Google. Have you accidentally published a page that should not have been visible? And can it be found in Google? Then you can do this here straight away remove from Google, for 90 days. In the long term you have to fix this with robots.txt. Removing URLs is therefore primarily a fast method. You can use this to remove URLs, files and entire directories, even the entire website.
Finally the really interesting part: search traffic! Consisting of Searches, Top Pages, Links to Your Site, Internal Links, Manual Actions and International Targeting.
Since September 2013, most searches are protected by Google users. As a result, you can hardly see in Google Analytics which keywords Google users have used to find your site. This problem is called Keyword not provided by secure search. However, Google Webmaster Tools allows well see on which keywords your site is displayed and clicked. See screenshot:
Which pages of your website score well? These are top pages that you will find under the Top pages tab. See example:
The page / More-organic-range-on-Facebook-5-tips / is unfolded, and all keywords that provide views and clicks are below it. This allows me to further optimize the page for Google by better processing those specific keywords in titles, headings, texts, alt-image, meta-description and link-anchors.
Which domains link to your site? NO, unfortunately this is not a complete overview. It also doesn't really coincide with the search link: www.mijnwebsite.nl, and while you do see: most links to your site, your content with the most links and how your data is linked (anchors), this data is not linked to each other. They are 3 different tables.
Here you can see which pages link to each page. Remember that internal links are just as valuable as external links. And of course you have full control over the anchoring texts of your internal links.
If all goes well, you will see the message: "No manual web spam actions found." You can't do anything else. You may even ask yourself: why is this not listed under Site Messages. If your site does not meet the quality guidelines of Google, then an automatic response can occur, or a manual web spam campaign. You will immediately see why Google did that. Reply fix this immediately, solve the problem and then send a new one Request for review to.
A .nl domain focuses on the Netherlands. A .be domain focuses on Belgium. A .com or .org domain can focus on 1 country, a language area or multiple countries. You can set that here. And that is more important than you think. You can read this on the Bloeise.nl domain. I used to use bloeise.nl, the full company name as an url. I do not think so? Next, Google believes that I am focusing on the Swedish market. And so I score very well for the Dutch keywords entered in Sweden in Google, but not for the Dutch keywords entered in the Netherlands. That cannot be further specified by Google. This is only possible with a general domain name such as .com.
If you do not manage a Dutch site with a .NL domain, but you focus on multiple countries or language areas, then I recommend that you read Google's explanation: Multi regional and multilingual sites.
At the top right you have a menu for several options that I only briefly mention:
Enable Webmaster Tools data in Google Analytics: with this you link GWT to Google Analytics. Unfortunately, you do not bring that much insight, I have not set up myself.
This allows you to add an additional user, such as a colleague. This is useful if you want to give someone access to your site in GWT. You can give a user limited or full rights. You can also add a new owner who has full rights. For example, would you like to give your web builder access to solve a problem? You do that via Partners.
Practical list of sources to help you use GWT better:
Google Webmaster Tools Google+ page
Here is a list of other Google support services:
Utility for testing structured data | Use the Structured Data Testing Tool to check if Google can correctly process and display your structured data format in the search results. |
Helper for structured data formatting | Not sure how to get started with adding structured data formatting to your HTML? Try this user-friendly utility. |
Tester for e-mail markers | Validate the structured data content of an HTML e-mail with the e-mail marker tester. |
Google Places | Research shows that 97% of consumers search the internet for local businesses. Make sure that your company is easy to find with Google Places: a free local platform from Google. |
Google Merchant Center | The place where you can upload your product data to Google and make it available for Google Shopping and other Google services. |
PageSpeed Insights | Use PageSpeed Insights to find out how you can quickly create your web pages on all devices. |
Custom search | Use the power of Google to create a customized search experience for your own website. |
This is the third blog in a series about the Basic knowledge of Online Marketing
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