Google Webmaster Tools - Blog SEO tool

Did you know that you can verify your Blog’s top search keywords queries with Google Webmaster tools for free? Yes this could be a great search engine optimization tool in order to manage your keywords and improve their content.

Google will provide you with search queries that list your site as a result in Google, you will find 2 lists, the first one depicts the top 20 search queries in which your site appeared and the second list gives the top 20 queries from which users reached your site. You will probably ask me how could this information be useful? Well we will get to this part later, but before that let’s see how to use Google Webmaster tools account.

Oh just for your information, GWT has plenty of functionalities other than the top search queries, see below:

1. Listing all your pages that are actually indexed inside Google
2. Being aware of any problems encountered while Google was crawling your Blog or site. Ex: pages that you accidentally have set not be crawled.
3. Find out all the sites that link to your site, not just a sample.

So now let’s see how to use this great tool:
Well its very simple plus it’s free so that’s great news, no?
So to create a Webmaster Tools account, you'll need a Google Account. If you have a Gmail address, you already have a Google Account. If not, you can get one here.

Once you have your Google Account:
1. Click on Google Webmaster Tools.
2. Click Get Started.
3. Sign into Google Webmaster Tools with your Google Account.
4. Under Sites, type the URL of your website, and then click Add Site.
5. Verify your site. Verifying your site confirms that you are the owner of the site, and allows us to share information about that site with you.

To add your Blog:
1. On the Dashboard, type the site URL in the Add site field. Make sure you type the entire URL, such as http://www.yourblog.com/
2. Click Add Site.
The site appears in the Site column. Click Verify link beside the site listing, and verify site ownership to see detailed statistics and errors for it.

To verify your Blog :
1. Click Verify next to the site you want.
2. In the Choose verification method list, select the verification method that works best for you.
=> Add a meta tag – This is the easiest method, you’ll be asked to add a META tag with a unique value to your site's home page.
OR
=> Upload an HTML file – You’ll be asked to create an html file with a specific name and upload it to a specific directory on your webserver. It’s the location of the file that is important, don’t worry the file could be empty.
Google will periodically verify this file, or the meta tag, depending on your choice, if the file or the meta tag is present, the site will appear as verified, if not well the site will appear as unverified, logic no ?

Well if all is OK your GWT home page should appear like this:

So as I mentioned in the beginning of this post, the most interesting information is the top search queries page:

>> Dashboard >> Statistics >> Top Search queries

So the first List is your top 20 search queries in which your site appeared, the list also provides the position of your blog or site in the SERP, for example the Query n°6 “Painting cups” appears in Google search results in the first page, on the ninth position. Try it for yourself

Type in “Painting Cups” in Google and look for the title Watercolor Paintings – Doudy Sketche you’ll find it on the ninth position…

N.B: positions can vary and could change of course so if its not the ninth position anymore, then you are reading this post a long time after it was written.

So consulting the first list gives valuable information about the result queries that your Blog only appears in. Your Blog can appear in a seach query like for example “Painting cups” but its not a guarantee that people will click on it when they see it. Yes, Yes I know, on of the factors is having appealing content, meta tags, titles,….etc well its not what this post is about.

You probably know by now what’s the 2nd list is about!!!!
Oh yes!! It gives you the queries your Blog appeared in and actually got your blog some traffic. Not bad hein!!!

From the 2 lists, you can make lots of conclusions, for example my top query in terms of how many times my Blog appeared is “Doudy” in the first list. I f you take a look in the second list you will not find “Doudy” which means nobody actually clicked after my Blog appeared in the search for “Doudy”.

Another conclusion is although the search query N°11 “Old houses in watercolor” is n°11 in my top search queries (1st list) but it generated 33% of the clicks (2nd list) => This means that maybe there is room to do more improved posts about the same subject using more keywords related to “Old houses in watercolor” like for example “Victorian houses in watercolor” and see the results.

So, to summarize, only after checking one page “Top search query” you have the following questions answered:

1- Top search queries that your Blog appears in.
2- Top search queries that actually generate traffic to your Blog.
3- Does your Blog’s Keywords appear in your top search queries.
4- What are the keywords that needs to be improved or added.
5- The position of your search queries in SERP’s “Search Engine Result Pages”.
6- The weight of each search query in terms of appearance and N° of Clicks.

So Not bad for just one page!! Hein?

So Personally I think Google Webmaster Tools is a great SEO tool for a non-professional newbie like me, I discover more valuable information every day using this tool.

Hope this post was of help to you.