Search Engine Tools

We would mention there are useful tools beyond those provided by search engines, often free. Those best avoided promise website optimisation at the touch of a keyboard, the most helpful provide information to support a long term, well managed strategy. If you need to find a website tool for a particular function, by all means contact us and we will try to help.

All the main search engines offer free website tools, those from Yahoo and Bing will be mentioned a little later. The best are provided by Google, although they do fall into two categories. Practical areas for exchange of information vital to any website, plus data sections which are less viable.

Webmaster Tools data on areas such as links and search queries is in part deliberately limited, to prevent giving clues to abusers and in part of doubtful real world accuracy. Still of value in spotting errors, trends, or hacked sites but shouldn't be taken literally, best to focus on the excellent facilities that are available.

Google Webmaster Tools

To use Webmaster Tools you need a Google account. If you don't have a Google log in, you can sign up when you first go to Webmaster Tools. A core use is to understand how Google see your website, although the account works both ways with facilities to keep them informed. There is a useful guide in Google's help pages, with links to detailed information.

You will be asked to verify ownership of the websites you enter, by adding a meta tag in the index page (normally the Home page) amending DNS records, or uploading a file to the server. Don't be put off, as the procedure is fairly straightforward. The only point we would mention is if you are using free hosting, you may not have access to verify your site.

The guide to Webmaster Tools we linked to is clearly worded and illustrates the facility well. Getting to know each function will be helpful, not least:

  • The Dashboard - Often the first place you see, providing a snapshot of the sections above. At present not configurable, so you see areas Google choose but a fair chance that will change.
  • Diagnostics - Including web crawl statistics and any problems Google encountered in crawling the site, along with a content analysis page, listing issues which could be detrimental.
  • Your Site on the Web - Providing the search data we mentioned earlier. This can offer insight into a robot's perception of your website and alert you to problems, just don't take all entries as gospel.
  • Site Configuration - Containing areas where you offer information to Google. Submitting a sitemap and setting www/non www preference or geographic target are commonly used. Others include a facility to generate and test a robot.txt file, or remove URLs which are indexed.
  • Labs - Which concentrates on newer additions to the tools. At present these include:
  1. Fetch as Googlebot - Where you can act as Google would and visit pages on your site. Useful to see what they are seeing, more so if you discover that is zero. The number of sites which drop away in search because they were blocking Google without knowing is staggering.
  2. Malware Details - Not welcome in a sense but if your site is hacked, this can help identify core issues. Still worth carrying out a full site and security audit.
  3. Site Performance - A new addition but important. How a website physically performs is becoming a factor in how Google rank a site. A performance overview is shown, along with a download for a tool to look more deeply and links to useful resources.

Webmaster Tools constantly changes, mainly through the addition of new facilities. If you are interested in website traffic from organic search, they are an asset. The best way to see this is to try them and we hope you will, just be careful before you alter settings and read help documents thoroughly.

Extra Website Tools

Once you are familiar with Google Webmaster Tools, consider others that provide free information:

  • Site Explorer is Yahoo's equivalent to Webmaster Tools, basic facilities but similar to Webmaster Tools. Take a look at the information on Site Explorer, with a sign up option top right of the page. One area they will help with more than Google is detecting inbound links to your site, or any site, for which you don't need to be signed in.
  • Bing run by Microsoft offer a similar facility. This is a fairly new path for them and time should see improvement. Still worth signing up, which you can do at their Webmaster Centre.
  • Google Analytics provides information on the number of visitors, on site behaviour, how they found the site and more. Adding the system is straightforward, a section of code to be pasted into each page. Make a start at the Google Analytics information page, read through a detailed overview, or watch the video at the top of our page. Using Analytics offers significant benefit, one of the best free tools available for a website.

Using website tools to work with search engines is a great way to recognise that assumptions we make about websites may not be accurate. We hope the information these tools provide help take your website forward. If you found this page interesting, why not read HTML for search engines or writing website pages. Where we can help in any other way, please contact us at any time.