2006 Dec 05 - Tue

Google Webmaster Tools

I cover a number of different topics in my blog. I'm interested in finding out how people arrive on those pages. From a Google perspective, they have a convenient tool for analyzing some of this information.

Google has a site called Google Webmaster Central. On that page is a link for Webmaster Tools (including Sitemaps). I've added my web site to the tool. As part of that process, they generate a verification key. I've installed the verification key in the footer file that gets included on all generated webpages on my site. This verification key is part of a script that talks to Google each time a web page is rendered by a web browser.

As part of each rendering, information is sent to Google that logs the queries used to get to the specific page. Google summarizes this information and reports this to me each time I visit the Google Webmaster Tools.

I've also uploaded a simple site-map so Google knows which pages to visit.

Now that I've provided some basic information to Google, I can now get an idea of how pages are crawled, when they are crawled, and how the pages are ranked within Google's system.

I also have the ability to download a spreadsheet of queries Google has recorded for reaching each page set. This will help me to optimize the keywords in each document. It also gives me an idea of people's interests, and thereby provide additional content focussed to those topics of interest.

I have a Google search tool at the top of my pages. The searches entered in that box are also recorded so I can tell for what people are searching once they reach my site.

There is also a set of index statistics provided which include: the pages indexed by Google, sites that Google knows that link to my site, and presents a list of sites related to my site so I can have an idea of who my competition might be.

I've found the Google 'link:' not quite as detailed as I think it should be. Google has maybe twelve sites showing information for link:www.oneunified.net. On the other hand, Alexa shows around 74 sites linking.

Anyway, for a high level view of what GoogleBot thinks about my site, Google Webmaster Central provides a good summary.