SEO Optimization Basics – Google Webmaster Tools

This article has been written to assist people who perhaps are new to internet marketing get their website noticed by the search engines. Of course there is a lot more that ought to be done, but for the sake of simplicity, I will talk about only one topic in this article – the use of Google Webmaster Tools.

Note: Google Webmaster Tools is able to be utilized on a lot of the website building sites, so although these notes are particularly for WordPress, you can still use this information to help the search engine optimization on your other sites. You should usually be able to locate all this sort of information under a ‘Settings’ tab when you are editing on your website.

You can get your sites verified by pasting the meta tag code from the Google Webmasters Tools site into the appropriate place when you are in edit mode for your site on the website building site.

Back on the Google Webmasters Tools site, you can also often get your site sitemapped by clicking on the ‘Add Sitemap’ button, then typing in ‘sitemap.xml’ in the box next to your site’s address.

Go to the website at http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/

If you have a little look around here, you will see how Google sees your website. This site can give you valuable information regarding the traffic to your site and how you can increase it by taking careful note of your View Links Data, Top Queries and Page Analysis.

The important thing about this site is that by submitting your sitemap directly to them, they will be sure not to miss any of your posts or pages.

So, sign up for your account (a good idea is to use the same log-in information for this account and your Adsense account [if you don’t have an Adsense account yet, just keep it in mind, because you probably will open one at some later stage and you can use the same account details for it]. Ditto for AdWords.

When you log in you will see your Dashboard. Add your site address with the www. but not the http://.

Click ‘Add Site’

You will then need to verify your site, so choose the ‘Add a Meta Tag’ option. Scroll down a little and you will see a code, which you need to copy and paste into your site’s header. Open a new window and go into your WordPress Admin area. Go to ‘Appearance’ then ‘Theme Editor’ then select the Header from the list on the right-hand side. When it comes up, scroll down to where you see the script and paste your meta tag code in just ABOVE this script and BEFORE the script.

Click ‘Update File’

Go back to your Webmaster Tools window and click on the ‘Verify’ button. If you have done everything correctly, you should get a message confirming verification.

Now, head back to your Webmaster Tools Dashboard and next to your site URL there will be a column titled ‘Sitemap’ – click on the link that says ‘Add’. Choose ‘Add General Web Sitemap’ and put in sitemap.xml where required. Click on ‘Add General Web Sitemap’

You need to put some good content onto your site, if you haven’t already done so, before moving on to more SEO strategies. If your site was created on one of the website building sites, once you have put some content on your site and you have published it, you can use other search engine optimization strategies, also.

Well, that’s it for this article. Wishing you all the best for a very successful future.

Valerie

Author Bio: You will find loads of information on how to set yourself up for success as an internet marketer at Voiceover, a blog by Valerie Eldridge. You can also meet Valerie on her business website, www.valerieeldridge.com

Category: Marketing
Keywords: seo optimization techniques,web page search,search engine optimization basics,create web page online

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