Google Webmaster Tools

Jade Webster

Changed its name to….

Google Search Console

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Webmaster Tools

Google Search Console allows us to check the indexing status and

optimize visibility of our websites.

A site that's active in Webmaster Tools

has a better shot at ranking well.

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Webmaster Tools

https://www.bing.com/webmaster/home/

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Webmaster Tools

https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/

Sitemap.xml & Robots.txt

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Sitemap.xml

A sitemap.xml is simply a list of pages on your website, and what search engines should crawl and index.

All our important pages should be on our sitemaps, otherwise Google might not be crawling and indexing them.

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Sitemap.xml

The Sitemap URL has now changed. So can please add the new site to your Google Webmaster Tools.

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Robots.txt

A Robots.txt file does the opposite, and tells search engines what they cannot crawl and index.

For example, when we do online banking, we don’t want Google to index our private pages – therefore these pages will be in a robots.txt.

Submit to Index

What pages would we add to our robots.txt?

Dashboard

Errors

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Errors

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Errors

‘OK’ 200

This means the client’s request was successfully received, understood, and accepted.

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Errors

Server Errors 5xxWhen you see this kind of error for your URLs, it means that Google bot couldn’t access your URL, the request time out, or your site was busy.As a result, Google bot was forced to abandon the request.

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Errors

Not Found 4xxA 404 error is returned when Google bot attempts to visit a page that doesn’t exist – either because you deleted or renamed it without redirecting the old URL to a new page, or because of a typo in the link.

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Errors

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Errors

Soft 404Usually, when a user tries reaching a page, they will get a 404 error. As a result, the content of the page won’t be crawled or indexed by search engines.

A soft 404 occurs when your server returns a real page for a URL that doesn't actually exist on your site. This usually happens when your server handles faulty or non-existent URLs as "OK," and redirects the user to a valid page like the home page or a "custom" 404 page.  

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Errors

Access DeniedTo crawl a page, Googlebot must be able to access it. If you’re seeing Access Denied errors, it may be:

• Because your site requires users to log in to view all or some of your content.

• Robots.txt file is blocking

• A proxy, or your hosting provider may be blocking Google from accessing your site.

Search Analytics(Search Queries)

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Search Queries

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Search Analytics

Sitemaps

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Sitemaps

Not all pages are indexed, especially if you have put the pages in robots.txt file.

Watch out for large numbers of pages no longer being indexed – this might be a sign of Panda.

Fetch as Google

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Fetch As Google

Fetch As Google allows you to see if:

• Your URL’s are blocking Google• Your pages are getting redirected• Your website is temporarily down• Your website is unreachable

• Submit your website to index

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Submit to Index

500 single URL submissions 10 whole website submissions

Submit to Index

When & why would you submit to index?

Break

Mobile Usability

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Mobile Usability

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/6101188

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Mobile Usability

Why be mobile friendly?

Imagine losing 30% of your traffic….

HTML Improvements

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HTML Improvements

Messages & Manual Actions

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Manual Actions

If Google thinks you are violating their web spam guidelines, such as Penguin and Panda – then they may send you a Manual Action.

These are not to be ignored. If you are served a Manual Action you are likely to either be seriously demoted or removed from Google, until you ask for reconsideration.

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Manual Actions

If your site isn't appearing in search results, check the Manual Action page. If you think you are adhering to the guidelines, you can request a review of your site directly from the Manual Actions page.

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Messages

Types of messages:

• Sudden spikes or drops for your impressions or click (search queries)• Your DNS server is down or misconfigured• Your web server itself is firewalled off• Your web server is refusing connections from Googlebot• Your web server is overloaded, or down• Your site’s robots.txt is inaccessible• Increase in errors• If they think you are behaving in a spammy way• If your CMS is due an update (Wordpress)• If they have detected Malware• Google+ link regquest

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Messages

Setting up email alerts

Removing Content

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Removing ContentYou can remove content from Google in two ways:

• Robots.txt File• Meta Tags• Remove URL’s (found under Google index)

Rich Snippets

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Rich Snippets

EventsProductsReviews

Knowledge GraphVideosArticles

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Rich Snippets

• Events• Products• Reviews• Knowledge Graph• Videos• Articles

https://developers.google.com/structured-data/rich-snippets/reviews

https://developers.google.com/structured-data/testing-tool/

Data Highlighter

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Data Highlighter

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Data Highlighter

Try and create one Rich Snippet

Sitelinks

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Sitelinks

If you rank well in Google, it will start showing multiple links/pages of your website. We cannot say which pages should rank, but we can say which ones we don’t want.

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Sitelinks

International Targeting

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International Targeting

Settings/Preferences

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Settings/Preferences

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Settings/Preferences

Help Centre

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Help Centre

Thank you