Tune Up with Google Search Console (WMT)
Google Search Console (formerly known as “Webmaster Tools”) is the only way for webmasters to communicate directly with Google. Connecting your website to WMT is cost-free and will help you improve your site.
What Can You Do With Google Search Console?
Google Search Console gives site owners the tools they need to make sure that their sites meet Google’s guidelines. Not only does complying with these guidelines ensure that Google will not penalize the site, but it also provides a positive user experience. WMT provides reports and is equipped with diagnostic tools.
Discover Errors
WMT helps webmasters discover problems with their websites. It will provide a list of broken links on your site, as well as broken links pointing to your site. It will also let you know of any pages that Google knows to exist but are blocked from crawling.
Define Site Default Settings
Through WMT, you can tell Google how you would prefer they display your site. A site can be displayed either with or without www, and its images may or may not be included in Google’s enhanced image search. If Google displays sitelinks on your site below your site’s listing in its search engine result pages (SERPs), then you can help determine which site links are shown. You cannot force Google to display any, but you can stop Google from displaying certain ones.
Discover Your Search Queries
One of the reports included in WMT shows what search queries your site shows up in the SERPs for. This report includes where your site’s rankings are listed, your site’s click-through rate (CTR), and how often each search term is used. This report can be further customized by limiting the search type (web, mobile, image, etc.) and the geographic region the search originated from.
Stay Alert About Your Meta Description Information
WMT will alert you to any questionable meta information. It includes one report that lists pages with duplicate meta descriptions or title tags and another with pages with incomplete or short meta information.
Wrong Link Removal and Reconsideration Request
Many websites have been penalized for having too many backlinks from an untrusted source. WMT gives websites facing this penalty an appeal process. Through WMT, you can ask Google not to consider specific backlinks or groups of backlinks. You can also ask them to reconsider the penalty once you investigate the possible reason and take appropriate action.
