Google's Webmaster Tools

Getting Started with Google's Webmaster Tools

Google Webmaster Tools provides Webmasters with detailed information about their Website's visibility on Google. It helps identify and diagnose problems, discover link and query traffic and share information about the Website.

 

Visit the Google Webmaster Tools Checklist

The Webmaster Tools Checklist is an excellent resource to start with for anyone new to search engines or the free webmaster tools provided by the search engines:
http://www.google.com/webmasters/checklist/

The checklist provides several useful links and informational resources for getting started on Google's Webmaster Tools. It also breaks down the process of getting started and using Google Webmaster Tools into five steps:

Step 1: Create a Webmaster Tools Account and Verify Your Site
Step 2: Update Your Settings
Step 3: Monitor and Manage Your Site
Step 4: Add a Sitemap for Each Site in Your Webmaster Tools Account
Step 5: Keep Up To Date

 

Sign Up for Google Webmaster Tools

To get started, click on the "Create an account now" link on the lower right side of the screen:
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/

Adding a site (to Google Webmaster Tools)

The following two Webmaster Help Articles cover the options for adding and verifying a Website on Google's Webmaster Tools:

[1] Google Webmaster Tools Help article: "Adding a Site (to a Webmaster Tools account)"
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=34592

[2] Google Webmaster Tools Help article: "About Site Verification"
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35179

Overview of Google Webmaster Tools

The current User Interface for Google's Webmaster Tools has six main functional categories (see the list below). The most useful functionality on Google's Webmaster Tools are the Dashboard, the Search Queries page, the Links to Your Site page, the Keywords page and the Crawl Errors page. The functionality provided by each of these pages is explored in the sections that follow.

• Dashboard
• Messages
• Site Configuration (Sitemaps, Crawler Access, Sitelinks, Change of Address & Settings)
• Your Site on the Web (Search Queries, Links to Your Site, Keywords, Internal Links & Subscriber Stats)
• Diagnostics (Malware, Crawl Errors, Crawl Stats & HTML Suggestions)
• Labs (Fetch as Googlebot, Site Performance & Video Sitemaps)

The last section "Downloading Table Information" describes how to download performance information data from Google Webmaster Tools. It also discusses how to import this data into a spreadsheet for analysis or recordkeeping.

 

Dashboard

The Dashboard screen on Google Webmaster Tools provides a quick overview of the main performance metrics for the Website, including: Search Queries, Links to Your Site, Keywords and Crawl Errors.

The figure below shows a screenshot of the Dashboard for the ACSBDC Website.

Search Queries Page

The Search Queries page can be found in the "Your Site on the Web" functionality of Google Webmaster Tools. The Search Queries page lists the top search queries for which the Website appeared in search results, as well as queries for which users actually clicked through to the Website. For a more detailed explanation of the Search Queries page, see reference #3, the Google Webmaster Tools Help article "(Top) Search Queries."

The figure below shows a screenshot of the Search Queries page for the ACSBDC Website.

Links to Your Site Page

The Links to Your Site page can be found in the "Your Site on the Web" functionality of Google Webmaster Tools. The Links to Your Site page provides details about pages on the Website linked to from other Websites. For a more detailed explanation of the Links to Your Site page, see reference #4, the Google Webmaster Tools Help article "Links to Your Site."

The figure below shows a screenshot of the Links to Your Site page for the ACSBDC Website.
 

Keywords Page

The Keywords page can be found in the "Your Site on the Web" functionality of Google Webmaster Tools. The Keywords page lists the most significant terms Google found on the Website. It provides insight into how the content of the Website is perceived. For a more detailed explanation of the Keywords page, see reference #5, the Google Webmaster Tools Help article "Keywords (Data)."

The figure below shows a screenshot of the Keywords page for the ACSBDC Website.
 

Crawl Errors Page

The Crawl Errors page can be found in the "Diagnostics" functionality of Google Webmaster Tools. The Crawl Errors page provides details about the URLs in the Website that Google tried to crawl but could not access. In addition to listing any URLs Google had difficulty crawling, the Crawl Errors page indicates the type of problem and, where possible, it lists the page or pages on which the errors were found. For a more detailed explanation of the Crawl Errors page, see reference #6, the Google Webmaster Tools Help article "Crawl Errors."

The figure below shows a screenshot of the Crawl Errors page for the ACSBDC Website.

Downloading Table Information

Note in the image above of the Crawl Errors page that there are two links to download data from this screen:
[1] "Download this table"
[2] "Download all errors on this site"
These links provide the capability to download a file of the tabular information displayed in Google's Webmaster Tools. In general, Keyword, Search Query and other tabular information displayed in Google's Webmaster Tools can be downloaded as a comma separated file. These comma separated files can then be imported into MS Excel (or other spreadsheet application) and saved or analyzed as desired.

The instructions below detail the sequence of steps necessary to download the Search Query and Keyword data files from Google Webmaster Tools and create a spreadsheet to view, analyze or save this data. An example spreadsheet (using downloaded data from the ACSBDC Website) can be downloaded from a link below.


Search Queries Data File
[1] Download the Search Queries data file from the Google Webmaster Tools interface:
Your Site on the Web > Search Queries > Download This Table
[2] Open the CSV (comma separated value) file with MS Excel. Reformat and re-label as desired, and then save this as an Excel Workbook (*.xls) file, this will most likely be the topmost option in the pull down list.


Keywords Data File
[1] Download the data file from the Google Webmaster Tools interface:
Your Site on the Web > Keywords > Download This Table
[2] Open the CSV (comma separated value) file with MS Excel. Reformat and re-label as desired, and then save this as an Excel Workbook (*.xls) file, this will most likely be the topmost option in the pull down list. Note: Since there were many URLs listed in the Top URLs field (for some of the keywords) these were globally replaced ":http://acsbdc.org" with ":~"
[3] Reopen the Search Queries spreadsheet (generated above) without closing the Keywords spreadsheet. From within the Search Queries spreadsheet, right click on the Sheet Tab and select the "Move or Copy" option. In the "To book" field, select the Keywords spreadsheet from the pull down list and check the "Create a Copy" option, and then click "OK".
[4] Next, save Keywords spreadsheet which should contain both the Keywords and Search Queries data as separate Sheets within the Workbook.

Sample Spreadsheet for the ACSBDC Website

Search Query and Keyword Data from Google Webmaster Tools (MS Excel format; 78 Kb)

 

References: Google Webmaster Tools

[1] (Google's) Webmaster Tools Checklist
http://www.google.com/webmasters/checklist/

[2] Google Webmaster Tools (Tutorials) on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/googlewebmasterhelp

[3] Google Webmaster Tools Help article: "(Top) Search Queries"
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35252

[4] Google Webmaster Tools Help article: "Links to Your Site"
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=55281

[5] Google Webmaster Tools Help article: "Keywords (Data)"
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35255

[6] Google Webmaster Tools Help article: "Crawl Errors"
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35120

[7] Google Webmaster Tools Help article: "About Our Stats and Data"
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=96568

[8] Google Webmaster Tools Help article: "My Site isn't Doing Well in Search"
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=34444

[9] Google Webmaster Tools Help article: "HTTP Status Codes"
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=40132

[10] Google Webmaster Tools Help article: "Changing Google's Crawl Rate"
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=48620