Even If You are an SEO Newbie…
Google Analytics are very important to maintain the edge of an organization in the virtual world, and Google Webmaster Tools have proven to be equally important. Google is constantly improving and upgrading its Analytics; the same goes for its Webmaster Tools - some of the newer features are author stats and structured data. These added features translate to better optimization of a website; however some of the time-tested classic attributes of the Webmaster Tools continue to allow SEO experts to get a clear idea of the metrics involved and how to enhance them.
Verification of Your Website
You can verify your website by following a few simple steps through your domain name supplier, who is usually in a partnership with Google. Alternately you can upload a root folder to your website home page, adding a Meta tag; or you can use Google Analytics to verify your website, if you have it installed. Once your website is verified, it will be displayed in the dashboard and all reports.
Links to Your Website
Under the Traffic section you will find the Links to Your Website report, which helps you to identify the link providers, the anchor text and also the most linked pages. It also displays the most internally linked pages; in most cases it’s the products or services page. You need to perform regular checking and upgrading for optimal use of such internal links. You can even download this data and study it for finding out better ways to promote your site by building relevant links.
Searching for Keywords
The Google Webmaster Tools metrics display more specific details than even the reports than Google Analytics provides. It includes the number of clicks, CTR, any changes that have occurred in a 30-day period, and your average search result ranking. This data will prove useful when you’re planning a campaign or promoting an event, to keep track of organic search traffic. The Content Keywords tab has the details of the keywords used for searching, which result in your site getting displayed.
Optimizing Tips
When your website is verified, you should submit the Sitemap to the relevant section in the Optimization section. This will help the search engine spiders to find your site faster. You can utilize the Remove URL option to remove redundant links to dated pages. You can also fix any errors by using the HTML Improvement section.
Structured Data
One of the latest features identifies the structured data within the contents of your website, like mark-ups from schema.org or microformats.org. It also displays the last time they were detected. If you want to enhance your search engine results, this is a page to be regularly monitoring, as this section will tell you which pages of your website with schema mark up are getting recognized.
Author Stats
As the name implies, it displays information like Google Authorship. You can find which pages appear in search results that are affiliated with a certain author (as long as they’ve been set up with Authorship through Google+). This report will tell you things like the number of impressions, actual clicks, CTR and average position.
Google Webmaster Tools and Google Analytics are constantly upgrading and innovating. Google tries to keep the SEO practices as fair as possible, by promoting White Hat SEO, in order to provide a level playing field for businesses. To get started with an SEO campaign to improve your visibility, ranking and performance in the virtual space, contact PCR today.
By Drew Himel