If you own a website, be sure to install Google Webmaster Tools (formerly Search Console). This free software reveals valuable insights that cannot be found elsewhere.
Starting off is simple: just log in and type your full URL into the prompt, followed by following steps to verify ownership.
Sitemaps
Sitemaps are an effective way of informing search engines about the pages on your website, both manually and using software solutions that automatically create one for you.
Make sure that your sitemaps are error-free and submitted to Google Webmaster Tools. At their core is an XML sitemap; however, you may also submit image, news and video sitemaps.
As part of your XML sitemaps, include metadata including the last modified date. When changing content significantly, updating this date is considered spammy by Google; canonical URL tags can also help. Prioritizing pages within an XML sitemap may speed up crawling and indexing time – although do so with caution and understanding SEO best practices!
Crawl errors
Once you’ve set up Google Webmaster Tools and verified your website, it’s time to evaluate the health of your website. One important tool available to you is the Crawl errors report which identifies issues such as authentication problems that prevent search engines from accessing your site or 404 errors that point to nonexistent pages on it that need fixing immediately in order to maximize SEO performance. These issues must be taken care of immediately or they could harm SEO performance significantly.
If a page returns a 404 error, you should redirect to an equivalent/similar page within your website so as to retain link equity. Furthermore, you should try and minimize parameters on URLs as much as possible, since these can lead to issues with crawling and indexing. Luckily, Crawl errors report prioritizes errors to help prioritize fixing the most pressing problems first, and validate fixes so Google is aware that their changes are working.
Site speed
Fast websites deliver an exceptional user experience. According to web OG Paul Boag, slow websites harm findability, increase task completion times, reduce user satisfaction levels and undermine understanding of products and services. Optimizing website speeds in terms of millisecond savings is integral to an effective SEO campaign. For comprehensive details on Webmaster Tools , click here arminae.com/ or visit our website.
For better page speed, limit plugins and JavaScript files to only those needed by the page. Make use of lighter image file formats and compress images using an image editing software like Photoshop before uploading them. Utilize a content delivery network (CDN) for faster download times by storing copies of your website at geographically dispersed servers.
Google Webmaster Tools provides a host of useful tools that will allow you to optimize your site and get the most from your SEO campaign. By taking time to familiarize yourself with this free platform, you could save yourself much hassle later.
Analytics
Google Webmaster Tools provides website owners and marketers with invaluable insight. It features various tools for effectively monitoring, optimizing, and managing SEO on websites.
Website owners can utilize Google Webmaster Tools (GWT) to see which other websites are linking back to them, providing Google with confidence that your content is valuable and authoritative. In this section you can view both the number of links pointing at your site as well as which pages on it are receiving most backlinks, along with anchor text used when people link back.
Once your website has been verified on GWT, the next step should be submitting an XML sitemap – an easy process that can be accomplished from the home page of GWT.