'Net Features : google webmaster tools

Turning Google Search Queries Data into Actionable Insights

Michael Garrity — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 20:45:00 GMT

Anyone that has ever done SEO work can attest to the fact that it’s usually very complex, multi-layered and never as easy as just tweaking one thing here or there to top the SERPs. That is why successful Web workers turn to multiple datasets to try to detect everything they need to change to improve their search results.

Google recognizes the importance of providing users with this information. One of the ways it helps is through the Search Queries feature in its Webmaster Tools. This feature offers data about Google Search queries that returned pages from a user’s website. It even allows users to see information about their “top pages," which were seen most often in search results. Webmasters can also specify the period they would like to see data for by using a set of calendar drop-downs (the default is the last 30 days of data).

Often, Web pros can focus too much on search queries and rankings, but there are sometimes bigger gains to make in cleaning up the way a site is crawled or reducing duplicate content. For instance, Google Search Queries can provide a plethora of highly actionable information that can quickly improve a website’s SEO performance; one just has to know what they’re looking for.

Know Goals
To begin, webmasters should make sure to shift their focus from simply getting as much traffic as they can to seeking out “qualified” traffic, which are the result of qualified queries. These are those searches conducted by users that have a realistic chance of actually liking a user’s website and, thus, eventually converting. Seeking out this type of qualified traffic is the best way to keep from wasting time or resources on SEO, while still being able to improve conversion rates. However, in order to attract qualified queries, webmasters must know what they want.

As with any sort of business marketing campaign, Web professionals must be aware of their website's goals (e.g. define their conversions), as well as the specific groups they’re targeting, where they’re located, what devices they’re using and what THEIR objectives are and how those align with business goals.

Search Queries helps webmasters better match their site’s content to the queries of their target audience. By selecting “Filter,” users can get a breakdown of all of the countries that visitors to their site are located. If good amount of visitors are coming from a specific country, webmasters should evaluate if their site is currently meeting the needs of these users or if it would be worth the investment to make sure that they do. The Filter also shows the search types (e.g. Web or image) that most frequently include their site in the results, which again enables them to alter their sites’ content to appeal to those searchers.

(Note: For those who are going to do research on individual queries, make sure to do it in a browser that doesn’t store cookies and not when logged into a Google account, so that personalization doesn’t affect the results.)

Click on This
A great way to pull out qualified traffic data is to change one's Google Webmaster Tools homepage to sort by clicks, rather than the default sorting by impressions, which can refer to both qualified and unqualified queries. Clicks, on the other hand, will display those searches that bring one’s site the most traffic, in essence telling them what they’re already doing well before they go back to make any changes.

Modifying the date range when looking at clicks may also bring up different results and once a webmaster has started using Search Queries, it would be a good idea to keep track of their data going forward, as Webmaster Tools only stores information for up to three months.

However, if the goal is to see years of search history to track various trend periods (e.g. holidays), the webmasters have to download the information. They should then look at their top query results to see if they’re the queries they would expect, if they come from qualified traffic and how they can improve the display of their page (or pages) in the SERPs to drive even more traffic.

This can be easily done by clicking on the query in Search Queries, which will then show the pages that appear in the results for that query. For example, if they see different URLs with duplicate content, they can improve their rankings by removing that from their sites. When looking at this information, it is important to see where one’s site ranks, how it is displayed and how its competitors rank and look.

Another way to check a site’s performance with qualified queries is to sort by click-through rate (CTR), where a high number shows that a page has a compelling search result appearance, while a low figure says the opposite. Important queries to monitor with CTRs are branded terms and categories that reflect a site’s goals and user intent.

Page Numbers
Finally, when a user sorts his or her Top Pages by clicks, Search Queries will show which pages were most visited by searchers during the filtered period of time, and clicking on that page’s URL will show all of the queries that the page ranks for. It makes sense, then, that users would want to go back and optimize these pages to make sure the content on it is optimized and the page as a whole makes it easier for visitors to convert.

Webmaster can also sort their Top Pages by impressions, which shows the pages on a website that Google considers the most valuable. With this information, users can link to these Top Pages to some of their lower-ranking pages of high quality to try to help improve their search rankings, as well.

Site Improvement is a Step Away
Search Queries in Google Webmaster Tools provides a lot of useful information that can help improve a site’s rankings for qualified queries and eventually increase conversions, as a result. The real secret to making the most of this particular tool is for webmasters to accept that some of the results may not be what they expected (e.g. some of their favorite Web pages may not be the best performing or the even most likely to bring in quality traffic). Those willing to go with the data they're given and make the necessary adjustments, will enjoy a noticeable boost in their SEO efforts.

The Once-A-Week SEO Checklist

Michael Garrity — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 21:00:00 GMT

A new year always brings about new possibilities, which are often predicated on the many resolutions we all make to improve our lives and work during the course of the year.

It’s possible that many of the hardworking webmasters and website owners have resolved to improve or amp up their search engine optimization (SEO) efforts this year to help them find more relevant consumers and increase conversions. However, many of these same Web workers will quickly find themselves faced with the same problems that plagued them in the years passed, most notably a lack of time in an already busy schedule.

No need to worry, though, because here’s some good news for you: It’s possible to maintain a healthy SEO campaign by (mostly) conducting a check up once a week that examines the most important elements of your website for moving up the search engine rankings, allowing you to identify and correct any issues you may be having. And the best part is, once these larger problems are corrected, it will help improve many other aspects of your overall SEO performance.

Just make sure that you regularly follow a version of this SEO checklist once a week, and get ready to watch the inevitable upward progress of your search marketing efforts.

- Use Google Webmaster Tools to check sitemaps

To start, simply sign into your Google Webmaster Tools account (actually, if you don’t have one, the first step is to register one), which can help you quickly identify any issues with your domain. Primarily, you should use this service to make sure your sitemaps don’t have any errors and to review how many of your pages have been indexed. If you find that you have some missing pages, that’s a pretty good indicator that you need to submit a brand new sitemap.xml to the search engines.

- Don’t forget to look for crawl errors, too

Google Webmaster Tools can also help you spot any crawl errors (pages “not found” or broken links) on your site; if these issues are uncovered, they should be considered top priority fixes. In addition, this tool can help you check up on your site speed, HTML problems, such as short or duplicate metadata, and links to your site.

- Look for (and fix) broken links

Having a bunch of dead links on your website is going to hurt your standing with the search engines, so you should make it a point to regularly look for them by using a tools to crawl your website and point out any hazardous hyperlinks that you are unaware of. And once you know which links are bad, you can easily fix or get rid of them.

- Tune up title tags

If you’ve put any effort into your SEO until now, every page on your site should have its own unique, descriptive title (as indicated in the HTML <title> tags), but as we all know, the more pages one adds to his or her site, the harder it is to constantly ensure that every page is given an appropriately SEO-friendly title. If you have a somewhat small site, you should be able to check all of your pages manually pretty easily, but for larger sites, Google Webmaster Tools will gather and present this information to you in a new “Content Analysis” section that can be found under the “Diagnostics” tab.

- Revise meta descriptions (as needed)

Although meta page descriptions don’t have a huge impact on search rankings, they can play a major role in convincing users to click-through to your site, so its worth giving them a once over on a regular basis, especially if you add a lot of new pages from week-to-week. In particular, you should look to make sure you don’t have any duplicate descriptions on your site. Good descriptions should be between 150 and 160 characters and made up of compelling copy that smartly uses crucial keywords, without using quotation marks or other non-alphabet characters.

- Follow the trends

Using an analytics platform like Google Analytics, check the daily, weekly and long-term search traffic trends to see what users are responding to and what isn’t working. Find out which of your pages have increased search engine traffic and which ones have had the opposite effect, and then figure out the reasons for why this is the case. Ultimately, you should have a solid idea/starting point to look at the problems on your site that need to be addressed, as well as the opportunities you have to increase search traffic based on user data.

- Add internal links when possible

Search engines use internal links to determine which pages the website owners think are the most important on the site, so to help your rankings and show off your best stuff, look around your site for ways to include links to these power pages. This is especially easy (and important) if you are consistently adding new content.

- Seek out your best search phrases and use them a lot

Thanks to – you guessed it – Google Webmaster Tools, webmasters can now find out what search phrases are leading users to their virtual door. By going to the “Statistics” tab and look at “search queries,” you’ll see the top 20 search queries that your site is appearing in, which can help you assess the performance of your current keyword campaigns and maybe even discover a few new ones hadn’t even thought of. With this information in tow, you can use TrafficZap’s keyword density tool to receive a report about the words and phrases that appear most densely on the page of the URL that you enter; this will help you figure out just how well you’re using your keywords and phrases on your site, and make adjustments accordingly.

Blogging Basics – Fighting Writer's Block and Learning SEO

Administrator — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 18:45:00 GMT

Almost everyone who starts out blogging is told to write about something they love – it's common advice because it's sensible advice.

But even if you are hugely passionate about a subject there are going to be days when the thought of sitting down in front of a blank page and filling it with words isn't going to happen. You might be too busy, too distracted or you might be suffering writer's block. The sooner you face up to the fact that blogging won't always be easy, the better. But there are some tactics you can to do to minimize the disruption these periods will bring.

Store up ideas from periods when the words are flowing and use them when things dry up.
When you start blogging draw up a list of 15-20 ideas and whenever you cover one of them add another to replace it.
You might find you write five entries without putting an idea back on the list, but as long as you refresh it when inspiration strikes, you'll never run out of content ideas.
You might also be the kind of person who likes to have specific blog titles in place before you start writing, but it doesn't matter if your ideas list is headlines, rough thoughts on a post or a mixture of both – having it in the first place is what matters.

So you've got your blog, you've got your ideas list and maybe you've even written a few posts - it's time to talk SEO.

SEO is as important as writing

If you're writing for the sheer fun of it then you won't have to worry about search engine optimization if, however, you want to attract visitors to your blog then you need to focus on more than just producing content.

SEO is all about making your blog attractive to search engines. If you do that, you're more likely to rank highly for terms relating to your site and attract more visitors. To start, think of your own experiences of using Google – when you search for something how often do you look any further than the first result on a page?

Around 80 percent of people who use Google click on the first result they see – so the benefits of having your site as that result, and hence the benefits of SEO, should be obvious.

The bad news is some SEO tasks can be very boring. The good news is others are a lot of fun. There is so much to learn about SEO, however, that it's important to remember you won't become an expert overnight.

Google wants to help you

A good place to start for an absolute beginner is by taking a look at Google's Webmaster Guidelines. This will give you a solid overview of the kind of thing you should (and equally importantly shouldn't) be doing. There are a few technical terms in there, but it will pay for you to get a grip on these areas early in your blogging life.

As you grow in confidence you may want to start using things like Google Webmaster Tools in order to make SEO improvements to your site. But as promised, there is another side to SEO and one which involves plenty of human interaction.

Links are crucial to boosting your search engine rankings and getting them should be a key focus for any blog. However, you need to be choosy about the kind of links you're getting.

Good links and bad links

Anyone taking their first steps into the world of SEO will find it impossible to avoid ads for services that promise thousands of links for very little money. But like most things in life, if an SEO offer seems too good to be true, it is.

You'll get your links alright, and they may even boost your Google rankings for a short while. But sooner or later the search engine will realize you are buying links (a big no-no in the Webmaster Guidelines mentioned above) and your site will plummet down the rankings.

Exactly why Google doesn't like link buying, and the full horror of getting caught doing it, would fill at least one blog post on their own, but anyone interested in such things can get a rough overview by reading the Wikipedia article on one of Google's most recent algorithm updates.

So if that's the wrong way to get links, what's the right way?

Firstly, you need to make sure your content really stands out – linking to something is a way of endorsing it and people are more likely to do that if your blog is of a high standard.

There are a few ways of doing this but the best one is to try and ensure you bring something new to the debate each time you sit down to write. Not every post needs to be a thesis, but if you draw on your own expertise and experiences you'll find you can bring a fresh spin to almost any topic.

Make the most of the social side of blogging

Great content on its own won't bring in the maximum number of links – to do that you need to get out there and make friends. Blogging is a social activity and whatever you are writing about there will be a community that revolves around that particular subject. Twitter and Google are your friends here – use them to find other bloggers and start a conversation.

If you're both passionate about the same thing this should be easy - by tweeting people and commenting on their articles you'll start to form a relationship which will be beneficial for your blog. This should be two people talking about something they love – there's no need to fake anything. If you're friendly, open and honest, you're far more likely to get a link than if you brazenly ask a stranger for one. Gently making someone aware of your blog will reap all sorts of benefits – if they like what you're doing they'll link to it and tweet about it – you won't have to ask.

Blogging is what you make of it

This is only the beginning though – we haven't even touched on SEO topics like guest posting or linkbait. And that's the beauty of blogging – you can treat it as just a way to get your thoughts down on the page or as a long-term project with specific goals and aims. Professional bloggers do exist and if you want to start on the road to becoming one, following the tips here will make sure you are heading in the right direction.

About the Author: Will Stevens – a journalist and SEO expert who is part of the 123-reg.co.uk blog team. The company is the UK's largest accredited provider of domain names.

Google Webmaster Tools Gets Admin Privileges

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 18:30:00 GMT

In what has been a (very) long time coming, Google just announced a feature that allows site owners to grant “limited” access to a site’s data and setting in Webmaster Tools.

The platform previously offered site owners the ability to grant full verified access to a Webmaster Tools account, but that presented some security risks in that anyone added as an owner could add anyone else they wanted as an owner which presents some obvious control issues. With this new administration feature, however, setting specific permission levels is now a reality. Instead of adding or removing owners, you’ll be adding or removing “users”.

Webmaster Tools site “owners” will be able to add or delete up to 100 users and specify each user's access as full or restricted. Those users who are added through the user administration page are tied to a specific site. Should for any reason you become unverified for a particular site, any users added will lose their access.

Users with full permission will be able to view all of the data and take most of the actions (changing site setting or demoting sitelinks) with Webmaster Tools, whereas Restricted users will have access to view data and take some actions including using some of the account features like Fetch as Googlebot and message configuration. Google has put together a list of the features and actions that are accessible as a full or restricted user.

Below is a screenshot of the user administration page used to assigned permission levels in Google Webmaster Tools.

Author Stats Now in Webmaster Tools

Pete Prestipino — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 18:00:00 GMT

This week Google released Author Stats within its Webmaster Tools product. Authorship annotations (read more here) are fast becoming a must-have element on websites as they provide greater visibility on the SERPs.

The new report will essentially just show how often this annotated content is showing on the search results pages. If an author has associated their content with a Google profile, they will be able to see the amount of impressions and clicks it received. While there’s certainly no guarantee that setting up authorship annotations will matter to SERP position, but it is easy to understand how they might positively influence a users decision to click through.

Google has made several improvements to its authorship annotations since its release earlier this year. For example, an indication of how many Google+ users have the author in their Circles appears on the SERPs, as does the ability to add an author directly to circle. Search engine users can also access comments posted on Google+ about an article shared by the author.

Google +1 Reporting with Webmaster Tools

Linc Wonham — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 18:00:00 GMT

Last week was a busy one for Google, and summer vacationing Webmasters may have missed the global release of +1 buttons to Google search sites, as well as the introduction of the Google+ project.

Both are key elements to Google’s social networking initiative, designed to compete directly with Facebook by making it easier for users to connect with friends and colleagues online. The +1 button aims to bring recommendations from friends and trusted contacts into actual Google searches – potentially giving it similar weight for marketers as the Facebook Like button.

Google may make up for being late to the party by providing the kinds of analytics that marketers have been yearning for in the social space. Late last week, the company released a number of reports within Google Webmaster Tools that will show website owners the actual value that +1 buttons are bringing to their sites.

The +1 metrics in Google Webmaster Tools will show how the button affects traffic in the following ways:

•    The Search Impact report gives an idea of how +1’s affect organic search traffic. Webmasters can find out if clickthrough rates change when personalized recommendations help their content stand out. You can do this by comparing clicks and impressions on search results with and without +1 annotations. Google will only show statistics on clickthrough rate changes when there are enough impressions for a meaningful comparison.

•    The Activity report shows how many times pages have been +1’d, from buttons both on your own site and on other pages (such as Google search).

•    The Audience report shows aggregate geographic and demographic information about the Google users who’ve +1’d your pages. To protect privacy, Google will only show audience information when a significant number of users have +1’d pages from your site.

The +1 Metrics menu on the side of the page can be used to view reports. Sites that have not yet been verified on Google Webmaster Tools can get access here.

Site owners can also see how users share content using other buttons besides +1 by using Social Plugin Tracking in Google Analytics. Once the JavaScript for Analytics has been configured, the social engagement reports help to compare various types of sharing actions such as the following:

•    The Social Engagement report shows how site behavior changes for visits that include clicks on +1 buttons or other social actions. This allows site owners to determine whether people who +1 their pages during a visit are likely to spend more time on their sites than people who don’t.

•    The Social Actions report tracks the number of social actions (+1 clicks, Tweets, etc) taken on a site, all in one place.

•    The Social Pages report compares the pages on a site to see which are driving the highest the number of social actions.
When adding +1 buttons to a site, Google will automatically enable Social Plugin Tracking for +1. Site owners can enable tracking for other social plugins in a few steps.

Test Your Website With Google's Site Performance

Mike Phillips — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 17:14:00 GMT

Getting users to your website is only part of the battle Web professionals face every day. We also need to keep them there. And nothing causes site abandonment faster than a poorly performing website. Google's Site Performance just launched and it can provide a detailed look at your website's performance issues.

From the Official Google Blog: "On Site Performance, you'll find how fast your pages load, how they've fared over time, how your site's load time compares to that of other sites, examples of specific pages and their actual page load times, and Page Speed suggestions that can help reduce user-perceived latency. Our goal is to bring you specific and actionable speed information backed by data, so stay tuned for more of this in the future.

"The load time data is derived from aggregated information sent by users of your site who have installed the Google Toolbar and opted-in to its enhanced features. We only show the performance charts and tables when there's enough data, so not all of them may be shown if your site has little traffic. The data currently represents a global average; a specific user may experience your site faster or slower than the average depending on their location and network conditions."

To get started with Site Performance, log in to your Webmaster Tools account and select "Site Performance" under the "Labs" menu.

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Google Webmaster Tools Integrated at Aplus.net

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 20:37:00 GMT

Web hosting company Aplus.net is now featuring direct access to Google Webmaster Tools on all of its hosting plans for clients.

Through their control panel, Aplus.net clients can generate reports for crawl info (to ensure Googlebot is able to access a site), indexing stats (to see which pages are currently indexed), links data (internal and external links), top queries (those driving traffic) and the page analysis data (content and keywords used by other sites for linking).

“Since its inception, this service has been highly regarded by webmasters – and now we’re making it easy for every one of our customers to continually optimize their search engine results as well,” says Dennis Kittrell, senior product manager at Aplus.net. “By adding it to the Aplus.net Control Panel, users are just a click away from actively understanding how Google sees and analyzes their sites. It’s a powerful and proven tool.”

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