Search Engine Tools

Worth remembering there are many website tools, besides those provided by search engines, often free and of value. As with all software, or online facilities, a trusted, safe source is important. If you need to find a website tool for a particular function, by all means contact us and we will try to help. Apart from the small number that are a real problem, those best avoided tend to be the ones promising complete website optimisation, at the touch of a keyboard. The most helpful are those designed to provide information, which can be used to improve a long term, well managed strategy. All the main search engines offer free website tools and we will point towards those from Yahoo and Live Search a little later. These are of use, although essentially, less functional versions of the excellent array provided by Google.

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

You will be asked to verify ownership of the websites you enter, either by adding an extra meta tag in the index page (normally the Home page) or uploading a file to the server. Don't be put off by this, as the procedure is fairly straightforward. The only points we would mention are that if you are using free hosting, you may not have the right access and on other forms of hosting, there can be problems adding an empty HTML file. All you need to do is insert any character in the file, this solves the problem and Google are not interested in the content, only the file's existence.

As with much Google documentation, 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:

• Diagnostics, which includes a web crawl section, showing any errors google encountered, along with a content analysis page, listing issues that could be detrimental.
• Statistics, providing valuable insight into a robot's perception of your website, including a breakdown entitled "What Googlebot Sees"
• Links, offering an overview of internal links and those from other websites. This is far more useful than trying to use the link operator in a Google search i.e. links:yoursite.co.uk, which quite deliberately offers little. This is partly to protect the information for a website owner's benefit, although using the same search in Yahoo will provide most of the information.
• Tools, which contains most of the sections where websites can help control the way they are indexed. Amongst these options are:
  1. The facility to remove URLs, which can only be used for pages that are no longer live, or have been removed from indexing in another way. This is helpful, although you may not wish to use URL removal in all circumstances. For pages of value, permanently redirecting an old URL to a new one could sustain traffic and transfer the value of the page in indexing terms.
  2. On screen help to generate and/or check a robots.txt file, used to offer guidance to web robots visiting a website, such as blocking a section not to be indexed. Bear in mind that robots.txt is not a guarantee of anonymity, as explained in this Google video.
  3. Tell Google your preferred domain i.e. http://www.yoursite.co.uk or http://yoursite.co.uk. These two options are not the same and ideally, only one should be available, through permanent redirection if needed. Informing Google of the choice will help, although that should be carefully selected and is not instantly reversible.
  4. Set a geographic target, which is for non specific domains, such as .com and does not apply to country specific domains, such as .co.uk. Even if applicable, we would suggest you seek a little advice before using the geographic location facility. This is a fairly new, still developing, Google addition, essentially an extension to Google Business, which provides the localised results you often see in searches. The Google Business facility itself is open to all websites and of real value where goods or services are offered on a local basis. If you would like a website listed in this, or even a business without one, you can add a local listing
• Google Sitemaps, which are not the same thing as the sitemap you may produce to guide website visitors. These are in a file format called .xml, accepted by most search engines and in essence, a way of making sure they hold a list of all pages. The .xml sitemap can also contain information on when pages were last updated, which are considered most important and how often they are expected to change. Submitting a sitemap is worthwhile and Google provide a good guide to sitemaps, including a number of alternatives to generate these automatically. If you choose that route, just ensure the details are amended to reflect your website.

There is more in Webmaster Tools, although the list to date should show how useful these are to any website. If you are interested in attracting website traffic through organic search results, working with Google is essential. The best way to come to the same conclusion is to try their facilities and we hope you will do so.

Once you are familiar with Google Webmaster Tools, consider others that provide valuable and free information, to help optimise a website.

• Site Explorer is Yahoo's equivalent to Webmaster Tools and worth signing up to. Yahoo have a moderate but viable market share in the UK and tend to analyse websites in a slightly different way than Google. The options in Site Explorer are basic, although similar to Webmaster Tools in principle. Take a look at the information on Site Explorer, with a sign up option top right of the page.
• Live Search, run by Microsoft, offer a similar facility. This is quite a new path for them and time may see improvement, in terms of facilities, or response. Still no harm in signing up, which you can do at their Webmaster Centre
• Google Analytics, a tracking facility, which provides ongoing information on the number of visitors, their on site behaviour, how they found the site and much more. Adding Google Analytics is a straightforward process, a section of code needing to be pasted into each page. Make a start at the Google Analytics information page or read through a detailed overview. Using Analytics will supplement information from Webmaster Tools, although there are further benefits. Seeing first hand how visitors react to your pages is an excellent pointer to changes that are needed, then monitoring can continue to judge the effect of the changes.

Using website tools to work with search engines is a great way to recognise that assumptions we all make about websites, including our own, do not always reflect other people's perception. We hope the information these tools provide will add an extra level of understanding and help take your website forward. If you found this page interesting, you might like to read HTML for search engines or writing website pages. Where we can help in any other way, please contact us at any time.