Google’s Own Tips for Best Site Management

Google has listed a dozen tools that can help your site shine like a beacon through the wilderness of the web. Granted, they name a lot of their own tools, but the advice is sound nonetheless – and all you have to do to prove their usefulness is to give them a try!

First on the list is a basic step that many newer webmasters don’t know to try out. Simply search for your site name using the command ‘site’ – in other words, type “site: name of your site .com”. When it comes up, you can look at your snippet (what shows on the search results) and your page titles to see what you might need to change for best user experience and attractiveness. You can also use the content analysis tool from Google Webmaster Tools for more details.

Sitemaps with a refresh rate are the fastest way to get new content crawled by Google, according to their team. This can help if you add pages quickly (daily or weekly).

You need to label every image appropriately to ensure you don’t miss out on showing up for Google Image Search. Instead of [001jpg] make sure your images scan as what they represent, hopefully utilizing a keyword or two: [blue puppy hoodies].

Google may not always serve up the best site links, so remember you can go in and alter these to represent your site in the best, most user friendly way possible.

Check for keyword traffic, errors, bad links and other problems using Google’s diagnostic checklist in Webmaster Tools.

Make sure your redirect properly by serving accurate HTTP status codes; a retired page should serve a 404, and a relocated page a 301. This will enable Google to find your new pages faster.

Organic content. Organic content. Organic content. There is really nothing to add to that except that you need it!

Finally, use what Google offers. Read the SEO Starter Guide. Watch the Webmaster Tutorials. Utilize the Webmaster Tools. Read the Central Blog. Ask questions and find answers at the Webmasters Help Center and Group.

If you take advantage of all of these tools, you can make your site one of the best out there. There are dozens more tools you can use from Google; these are just a start. You don’t want to neglect other engines, but Google needs a lion’s share of your attention, so paying heed to their advice is just good business practice!