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8 Advanced Webmaster Tools You Should Be Using for Better SEO

Posted on August 12, 2015  in Better Ways, Entrepeneurship, SEO, Trend Information, Web Developmemt, WordPress

Google Webmaster Tools (GWT) is one of the most powerful resources in an online marketer’s toolbox — especially when it comes to SEO. Most of us know how to get around in GWT, and are familiar with some of its basic functions. But there’s so much you can do in GWT that will enhance your site’s ranking in the search results pages.

Whether you’re a beginner in GWT or an experienced pro, I think you’re going to discover a few things in this article that will increase your knowledge of Webmaster Tools.

1. View author stats

Author stats is a not-so-obvious feature of Google Webmaster Tools. The main reason for this is because it’s still in beta. You can access it through the “Labs” section of Google Webmaster Tools through your personal login.

There’s another reason why it’s often overlooked. It’s not a website feature, as much as it is a feature to track your personal stats and visibility as a content producer.

 

If you have a Google+ account, and are a verified author on any websites, here’s how to view your author stats.

•Log in to the Gmail account that is connected to your Google+ account.
•Go to Google Webmaster Tools.
•Click on Labs
•Click on “Author Stats”
In “Author Stats,” you can view the number of all the articles you’ve written, impressions, click-through rates, and average position on Google.

This data is crucial if you’re interested in improving as a recognized author, and enhancing your content personal brand and content marketing efforts.

 

2. Change crawl rate

Google lets you set the rate at which you want them to crawl your site. You can only change this feature in Google Webmaster Tools. In most cases, you want your site to be crawled as often as possible. If, however, Google’s frequent crawl rate seems to be slowing down your site, here’s how to change it.

Click on the gear icon in the upper right corner of GWT.

Click on “Site Settings.”

 

Click on “Limit Google’s maximum crawl rate.”

Set the crawl rate to “Low” or “High” depending on your needs.

Click “Save.”

3. Create structured data highlighter

Sites with structured data (e.g., schema markup) rank four positions higher in search results. If you’re not using structured data on your website, you need to start. According to Searchmetrics, only 0.3 percent of websites are using schema, but a whopping 36% of Google’s search results include snippets derived from schema markup.

(Image via Search Engine Land)

There is a huge opportunity to gain rank and improve your listings in search results pages by using schema.

The structured data highlighter in Google Webmaster Tools makes it easy for you to do so. I’ve written a tutorial on schema markup, that will help you to get started.

 

Here’s how to access the structured data highlighter in Google Webmaster Tools.

Click on Search Appearance.

Click on Data Highlighter.

Click “Start.”

Prepare to spend a few minutes acquainting yourself with the tool. It’s not difficult to get started, but it might take a few minutes to completely go through the process of adding schema to any of your pages.

4. Identify HTML improvements

Google tells you exactly what SEO features you should focus on as you optimize your site for search. It’s called “HTML Improvements.”

Go to “Search Appearance.”

Click on “HTML Improvements.”

Here are the issues that Google focuses on:

•Meta descriptions – Search-optimized descriptions are probably not a direct factor in search rankings. This is probably why the tool explains that “Addressing the following may help your site’s user experience.” Meta descriptions are, however, important for users and click-through rate, which have a subsequent impact on ranking. Descriptions should be present on each page, and written in such a way that they are neither too long nor too short.
•Missing title tags – Most SEOs agree that the title tag is the single most important feature of a site’s technical SEO. This is probably why the GWT HTML Improvement tool focuses on every aspect of a title tag.
•Duplicate title tags – Lots of SEOs are concerned about duplicate content. It’s a concern that’s probably well-warranted. The fact is, duplicate content is going to happen. It has to happen, especially if a site needs to include, for example, the same legal disclaimer on multiple pages, or other standardized verbiage. Though no one knows quite how, duplicate content might negatively impact search rankings. You can identify any occurrence of duplicate title tags directly in GWT.
•Long title tags – Title tags that are too long will be truncated or replaced by Google.
•Short title tags – Title tags that are too short are not taking advantage of full SEO potential, and are probably not helpful to users, either.
•Non-informative title tags – Google is all about providing information. If, in their view, your title tags are not providing sufficient information, they will let you know.
•Non-indexable content. – If your site has non-indexable content such as rich media files, Google will alert you to this.
To examine any of these issues in detail, you can click the hyperlinked topic and identify where exactly on your site the problem is located.

5. Change sitelink ordering

Sitelinks are the additional entries that Google lists underneath your main site in the SERPS. They appear when a user performs a directional or branded search. For example, here are the sitelinks for Quicksprout.com.

 

You don’t get to control whether or not Google shows sitelinks for your site. It’s an algorithmic-generated feature. You can, however, ensure that you have a clear site structure and a Sitemap, which will probably generate sitelinks.

 

Sometimes, however, Google’s algorithm doesn’t quite get the sitelinks right. That’s where the “Sitelinks” feature of GWT comes in.

Click on Search Appearance.

Click on “Sitelinks.”

Your only option is to “demote” a certain sitelink. If, for example, one of your sitelinks is appearing, but you don’t want it to, you can ask Google to keep it from appearing as a sitelink.

6. Identify internally linked pages

Internal linking is a very important part of a site’s SEO. I’ve explained before how exactly you should conduct an internal linking strategy.

The “Internal Links” feature in GWT helps you see which of your internal pages are most frequently linked within your site. The greater their internal linked integration, the stronger these pages are.

If you don’t see your most important content pages on the first page of the “Internal Links,” you should probably address this by adding additional internal links.

 

Click on “Search Traffic.”

Click “Internal Links.”

7. Indexation status

I strongly encourage every SEO and webmaster to keep a close eye on their indexation status. Over time, the number of indexed pages can change. These changes may signal an algorithmic shift, which could affect rankings. At other times, indexation drops may signal a negative SEO on your site.

As a general rule, your number of indexed pages should rise in correlation to the consistency of your content-marketing output. As long as you’re creating great content, your indexed pages should be rising.

Check “Index Status” to make sure.

Go to “Google Index.”

Click on “Index Status.”

8. Fetch as Google

If you want to analyze a page’s performance in the search engine results pages, the “Fetch as Google” tool is a great resource.

Click on “Crawl.”

Click “Fetch as Google.”

Type in the URL of the page you want to analyze.

Click “Fetch and Render.”

Using Fetch as Google allows to see how — or if — a page might appear. You’ll be able to identify the HTTP server response, the time of the crawl request, the HTML code, the visible indexable content, and a screenshot of the page as seen by Google. If the crawler was unable to access any of the content, you’ll see this list of inaccessible resources as well.

If you’ve configured robots.txt to block certain elements, this will be listed as the reason for no access. Other times, however, there may be other legitimate crawl problems that can surface during this examination.

Conclusion

I use Google Webmaster Tools every day, both from my own site and others’ sites. The list of eight resources above is only a sampling of the many features available in GWT.

The better you become at using these tools, the better you will become at having a site that is perfectly optimized in Google.

Contributor Neil Patel

SEO Tips

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Entrepreneurship – How to Make $1,000 or More Per Hour

Posted on April 23, 2015  in Entrepeneurship, Finance, Ideas, Money

How would you like to make $1,000 per hour?

No, you don’t need to go to law school or become a doctor. In fact, you can start making $1,000 an hour or more right now.

This is not an article about some new multilevel marketing company or passive income stream. You can achieve these results in your current business, knowing what you already know.

And best of all — you can make this money consistently.

 

How much is an hour worth?

Nearly every task on earth could be outsourced, for a price. If you want to get ridiculous, you could even hire a butler to pick you out of bed, carry you to the bathroom, and brush your teeth for you. While I don’t recommend this, let’s expand on this topic.

If you are mowing your lawn for one hour, how much are you earning during that time? You could have paid the neighbor’s kid $10 for that work, but instead you did it yourself. You earned $10 for that work.

Look at you, big-shot entrepreneur! You should be proud.

Now, maybe you already hire a kid to mow your lawn. But what about checking your email? Your Facebook? How much is that worth?

You could probably get that done for around $10 an hour also. Maybe less.

OK, Brandon, I get it: outsource more. But how does that help me earn $1,000 an hour?

Hold your horses, we’re getting there.

Just as there are certain tasks during the day that are worth very little, there are other tasks that are worth more. For example, hiring new employees.

If you are the CEO of your company, you are likely still hiring your own employees, sifting resumes, doing interviews and making offers. But how much is that task worth, per hour? What would a competent person charge to do such a task for you: $30 to $50 an hour?

Let’s be excessive and pretend we all live in San Francisco. A good HR person might cost you $100 per hour. So by doing all the work of hiring new employees, you are making a whopping $100 an hour. Look at you, hot shot! Your parents would be proud.

But I’m not done yet.

What about the tasks during your day that are worth much more. I’m talking about those special moments when you make a huge sale, land a big client, install a new product or reach 50,000 people on a podcast.

Those moments are worth much more. Those moments, even if they last only a few minutes, can be worth $1,000 an hour or more.

 

Consistency is key.

Let me ask you a few questions:

• How much time today did you spend doing tasks that were $10-per-hour tasks?
• How much time did you spend doing $100-per-hour tasks?
• How much time did you spend doing $1,000-per-hour tasks?

My guess is you probably spent a lot more time doing $10-an-hour work than $1,000-an-hour work. In fact, I’d guess you are spending 99 percent of your time doing the former and just 1 percent doing the latter.

But what if you could spend more time doing $1,000-per-hour work and less time doing $10-per-hour work?

You can!

I know what the naysayers are thinking right now: “In order to have those $1,000-per-hour moments, you have to spend a lot of time on the $10-per-hour administration tasks.”

True.

However, do you need to spend that time on the $10-per-hour tasks? Can you train someone else to do all those tasks for you? Why can’t they do the windup and you throw the pitch?

Everyone can earn $1,000 an hour. Even a fast food employee has tasks that, if only for a few seconds, are worth $1,000 per hour. The key is in consistency, and increasing those moments in your day.

The more time you can spend doing $1,000-per-hour tasks the more money you, and your business, will make. It truly is as simple as that.

If you currently spend 30 minutes per day doing $1,000-per-hour tasks and the other seven and a half hours doing $10-per-hour tasks, you are bringing in $575 per day for your business. But if you spent two hours per day doing $1,000-per-hour tasks, and six hours doing $10-per-hour tasks, you are bringing in $2,060 per day for your business.

Do you see the power in this?

The best part isn’t even the money, it’s time. What would be better? Spending 12 hours per day doing $10-per-hour work or one hour per day doing $1,000-per-hour work?

Exactly.

Take a minute right now and write down what tasks in your business are worth $1,000 per hour? What tasks are worth $100 per hour? What tasks are worth $10 per hour?

Start outsourcing the $10-per-hour jobs out today, followed by the $100-per-hour jobs.

Watch how fast your business explodes.

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