The website owners guide to the top 5 things you should do in Webmaster Tools - plus the other 80% you ought to know.

1. The
Webmaster
Tools
Ac0on
Plan
Top
5
Ac0ons
For
Website
Owners
Presented
by:
Carol
Poole

2. Agenda
• What
is
Webmaster
Tools
• Your
Ac9on
Plan:
The
Top
5
Things
You
Should
Do
• A
quick
word
about
Bing
• Useful
Wordpress
Plugins
• The
Other
80%
(if
9me
permits)

3. What
is
Webmaster
Tools
• Free
Tool
from
Google
&
Bing
– hNps://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/
– hNp://www.bing.com/toolbox/webmaster
• Designed
for
webmasters
• Used
by:
– Webmasters
– SEO
Professionals
– Analy9cs
&
AdWords
Professionals

4. Why
Use
Webmaster
Tools
• To
help
improve
visibility
in
search
engines
• Ensure
the
website
is
healthy
• Understand
&
improve
how
the
website
is
found
– Search
queries
– Who
links
to
your
website
• Improve
the
user
experience
(UX)

5. Tools
for
Different
Purposes
• Tools
for
site
visibility
&
website
health
– Site
maps,
robots.txt,
broken
links,
crawl
errors,
site
errors,
malware
• Tools
to
improve
how
the
website
is
found
– Search
queries
&
CTRs
– Review
links
to
your
site
&
any
manual
ac9ons
• Tools
to
improve
UX
– Broken
links
&
site
errors

6. Valuable
Data
in
Webmaster
Tools

7. Key
Features
• Sitemap
submission
• Fix
crawl
errors
&
set
crawl
rate
• Site
health
&
messages
• See
which
websites
link
to
you
• Set
the
country
you
want
to
target
• See
what
searches
people
type
into
Google
when
people
find
the
site
– Can
the
CTR
be
improved?

8. Top
5
Things
You
Should
Do
1. Add
your
website
to
webmaster
tools
– Ensure
you
are
set
as
a
site
owner
2. Setup
site
no9fica9ons
3. Link
Webmaster
Tools
to
Google
Analy9cs
4. Submit
a
sitemap
5. Looks
at
your
search
queries
&
index
status
report
BONUS
• Check
who
is
linking
to
your
website

9. Add
Your
Site

10. Verify
Site
Ownership

11. Verify
Site
Ownership

12. SeJng
Up
Page
Owners
&
Users
• Three
levels
of
access
– Owner
– User
–
Full
Access
– User
–
Restricted
Access
• Users
with
full
access
can
not
add
new
users
or
link
to
Google
Analy9cs
• Users
with
restricted
access
can
generally
only
view
data
h"ps://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/2451999

13. Who
Should
Have
Access
• Webmasters
• Website
Owners
• Google
AdWords
Professionals
• Analy9cs
Professionals
• SEO
Professionals

14. Add
Users
&
Site
Owners

15. Add
Users
&
Site
Owners

16. Site
No0fica0ons

17. Site
No0fica0ons

18. Submit
Site
Map

19. Linking
To
Google
Analy0cs
• Go
to
Google
Analy9cs
• To
Queries

20. Linking
to
Google
Analy0cs

21. Linking
To
Google
Analy0cs

22. Linking
To
Google
Analy0cs

23. Linking
To
Google
Analy0cs

24. Linking
To
Google
Analy0cs

25. Submit
Site
Map
•
You
can
usually
find
what
sitemaps
you
have
by
typing
in
sitemap.xml
•
Some
sites
have
more
than
1
sitemap.
Submit
all
of
them.

26. Search
Queries
Data
in
Webmaster
Tools

27. Search
Queries
Data
in
Google
Analy0cs

28. Analyzing
Search
Query
Data

29. Don’t
Forget
Bing
• Do
the
same
thing
in
Bing
Webmaster
Tools
– Covers
Bing
and
Yahoo
Search
• Why
– Bing
shows
search
query
data
from
a
longer
9me
period
– Google
only
goes
back
as
far
as
90
days
– You
can
also
do
keyword
research
in
Bing
WMT
– You
can
see
not
only
who
links
to
your
site
but
also
your
compe9tors
– Can
connect
your
social
media
profiles
in
Bing
WMT

30. Useful
Wordpress
Plugins
• WordPress
SEO
by
Yoast
• Google
XML
Sitemaps
Plugin
• XML
Sitemaps
• Redirec9on
plugin
• Structured
Data
Schema
Creator
plugin
• W3
Total
Cache
or
WP
Super
Cache
–
for
site
speed

31. Ques0ons?
Download
the
slides
at
hNp://goo.gl/cY5hnv

32. The
Other
80%
• If
your
domain
is
.com
–
set
the
country
you
are
targe9ng
• Fix
crawl
errors
&
set
crawl
rate
• Fetch
as
Googlebot
– Good
for
when
you
update
your
site
• Get
your
keyword
data
back
• Sitelinks
–
if
you
want
to
demote
them
• Structured
data
–
for
web
&
SEO
pro
• Fix
HTML
improvements
–
for
your
web
developer
• Useful
wordpress
plugins

33. Fix
Important
Crawl
Errors
• Really
common
in
ecommerce
sites
• Priori9se
the
important
URLS
(the
404’s)
• If
it’s
a
big
list,
download
– Work
out
where
old
URLs
should
point
to
– Do
a
301
redirect
(server
side)
• Mark
as
fixed
in
WMT

34. Errors
To
Pay
Aen0on
To
• 404
Not
found
errors

35. Errors
To
Remove
Or
Ignore

36. Fetch
As
Googlebot
• What
is
it?
– Lets
you
see
a
page
as
Google
sees
it
– No9fies
Google
when
there
are
new
pages
or
changes
to
a
page
• Why
Use?
– Troubleshoot
page’s
poor
performance
in
search
results
– Helps
get
new
pages
or
changes
to
pages
indexed
quickly
– Check
crawl
errors
and
redirects
are
fixed

37. Errors
To
Remove
Or
Ignore

38. Sneaky
Trick
To
Get
Keyword
Data
Back

39. Sneaky
Trick
To
Get
Keyword
Data
Back

40. Sneaky
Trick
To
Get
Keyword
Data
Back

41. Sneaky
Trick
To
Get
Keyword
Data
Back

42. • Free
(with
ads)
• Without
ads
Sneaky
Trick
To
Get
Keyword
Data
Back

43. Sitelinks
• What
are
sitelinks?
– Addi9onal
links
to
your
website
that
appear
underneath
the
main
URL
in
the
organic
lis9ng
– Auto
Generated

44. Demote
Sitelinks
• Give
you
extra
real
estate
under
your
brand
name
• Site
links
can
be
demoted
in
Webmaster
Tools
• Why
demote:
– Informa9on
is
incorrect
– Don’t
want
a
par9cular
page
appearing
as
a
sitelink

45. Other
Features
• Rich
snippets
/
data
highlighter
– A
way
of
summarizing
content
on
a
page
to
make
it
easier
for
users
to
understand
what
the
page
is
about
• Page
speed
insights
– Enables
you
to
test
speed
of
website
which
is
now
considered
a
factor
that
impacts
search
engine
rankings

46. Structured
Data

47. HTML
Improvements
• What
is
it?
– Shows
poten9al
issues
when
Google
is
crawling
&
indexing
site
• Why
Use?
– Improve
user
experience
– Drive
traffic
to
your
site
– Helps
iden9fy
problems
with
9tle
tags
or
non-­‐indexable
content

48. Structured
Data
• Yoast
WordPress
SEO
– Facebook,
TwiNer
&
G+
• Schema
Creator
• Webmaster
tools
–
Data
Highlighter
• Genesis
Themes

49. Ques0ons?