4 Steps To Using Google Webmaster Tools

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Google Webmaster Tools can help your business substantially. Which is why you should be taking it seriously! I’ve learned this the hard way.

First scared by all the techy jargon. But after learning about it and taking it one small step at a time I’m now getting the majority of my traffic from Google.

As a freelancer, I have a skill in writing content. In no way am I techy in any way. That’s how many freelancers start.

They have their specific skills that they are selling to a specific niche, but they have no idea how to even get started with Google.

Whenever freelancers try and research how to master Google tools, their head is fried with all the techy information.

This techy overload for freelancers is why I’ve created this simple guide to verifying their site with Google. Not only verify but how Google Webmaster Tools can help optimize their site.

What Does Google Webmaster Tools Do?

In short, using these SEO tools help you to get your website on Google which equate to impressions, website clicks, and sales.

Without them, you’ll struggle to generate the traffic to your site. Ultimately, struggling to get seen and heard in your niche.

That’s why I’ve laid out for you 3 easy to use steps in using these awesome tools.

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are ‘affiliate links’. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission.

4 Steps To Using Google Webmaster Tools

New to Google and all it’s fantastic apps to help your freelance business?

Check out how you can start using Google Webmaster Tools to increase the visibility of your site with these 3 steps.

Verifying Your Site

Verification is the process to prove to Google that you own your website or ‘property’.

For all methods below, you will start the same by going into your Google Webmaster Tools and clicking ‘add property’.

Google Webmaster Tools adding a property
Source Google Search Console

Next, you’ll be asked what type of property.

Source Google Webmaster Tools

Typically, you would choose domain as this is selecting all of the website and each of the domains it has.

Here are 2 options to verify your site with Google in only a few minutes.

DNS Record

Choosing this option if you choose the property type ‘domain’. With this option, you have to verify the property with your web host. This can be a slow process and take a couple of days.

HTML file upload

However, if you choose URL prefix then an HTML file upload is what you need to verify with Google.

For this option, you will be uploading an HTML file to the root directory of your property.

Using Yoast SEO To Verify Your Site

You can verify your site using Yoast SEO. Although, you need to add your website to Google Webmaster Tools first to do so.

After you’ve verified your site, you can connect it to Yoast SEO. To do this you need to follow these 5 steps.

1 Go to the general settings on Yoast SEO

2 Click Webmaster Tools

Using Yoast SEO to verify with Google Webmaster Tools
Source Yoast SEO

3 Get the code by clicking the link and then pasting the code to Yoast SEO

4 Click save changes

5 Celebrate you now have a sitemap on Google

Using The URL Inspection Tool

URL inspection tool on Google Webmaster Tools is important as it shows if your site or specific pages on your site is live.

You need your site to be live on Google for it to even start showing up on the results pages.

After you’ve clicked ‘Test Live URL’, you’ll get one of these 3 results

  1. Your URL is on Google
  2. The URL is not on Google
  3. Your URL is on Google but has issues
Google Webmaster Tools URL inspection feature
Source Google Webmaster Tools

Your URL is live and showing up on Google. You can now rejoice and relax as people find you on Google.

Uh oh!

Your URL isn’t live on Google.

Don’t despair, not all is lost. It could just be that Googles spiders have not yet crawled your site and found the URL.

Trust me, they soon do and you will be celebrating. Just recheck after a few days and you’ll see the URL is live.

Um, Google has picked up on some issues. When this happens check on the settings of your WordPress plugins.

Usually when I get this warning my WordPress plugin settings need changing or the plugin needs updating.

Though if you can’t find out why there is an issue, go to Google support as they can help you further.

Performance

Performance on Google Webmaster Tools is an important feature that you want to be paying close attention to.

Google Webmaster Tools performance feature

The feature shows you

  • Impressions
  • Clicks
  • Keywords
  • Average Position
  • Countries
  • Devices

This data has helped to show me what keywords I should be targeting and for which pages.

In A Nutshell,

Hopefully now you can start verifying your site with Google Webmaster Tools confidently. Verifying your site can help to get your business on Google. More impressions leads to more clicks and eventually sales.

About Post Author

Alison Wolf

Helping you to build an online business so you have an extra stream of income or quit the day job. Don't forget to follow me on social media using the handle @heyalisonwolf