Google Webmaster tools & SEO Audit

Once you are done with the pre-SEO Audit process, the next step would be to to start the SEO Audit. But before we get into it, the first thing you need to do is to get registered for a Google Webmaster Account.

If you already have a Google Account, all you need is to log in from the Google Webmaster page -http://www.google.com/webmasters/

You will need to add your site in order to start seeing data in your webmaster account.

Step 1-

Add a Site:-

After logging in, you will find an option on the top right to “Add a site”. Click on that and you can type in the URL of your website in the field provided.

Step 2-

Verification process:

There are quite a few ways of verifying your site. Verification options will be provided to you. The most preferred option would be to upload an html file to your root folder. This is a check that Google does to ensure that you are the website owner and have the authority to add a site and access data associated with your website.

Step 3-

Sitemaps:

You will need to create an XML sitemap, and submit that to the webmaster “Sitemap” section. You can easily generate the XML sitemap for your website for free by visiting the below-mentioned site –
http://www.xml-sitemaps.com

After your sitemap gets generated, upload it on to your root folder, so that it shows up as:
http://www.yourwebsite.com/sitemap.xml

Before submitting your XML sitemap to the Google webmaster account, it might be a good idea to review the sitemap to ensure that all the URLs have been included.

Step 4 –

RSS Feed:

Add your RSS feed URL to the sitemap section as well. This will ensure that Googlebot has access to all your URLs.

Once you have added you site, verified it, and submitted  sitemaps, you will start seeing data in your webmaster account.

How are SEO Audit and Google Webmaster Account related?

SEO audit essentially will tell you about factors in your website that is helping your web site and also about critical factors that may be hampering your website’s performance.

Google webmaster tools will provide data regarding your website’s health.The data will help you not only correct errors in your site, but also optimize your site for better performance. This is a wonderful tool for web site owners who are concerned about their website’s well being.

While we are discussing Google Webmaster Account, you might want to read this post on BING webmaster account. It will certainly be of value to have a webmaster account with BING as well.

In my next post, we will discuss the Google webmaster tools in detail, and other SEO audit tools that will help you maintain a Search engine and user friendly website.