If you own a website, you have to know how to check your site’s health yourself. This is important (http://www.webconfs.com/importance-of-using-google-webmaster-tools-for-seo-article-55.php) to your SEO effort. One great tool you can use is Google’s Webmaster Tool. You can ask a freelance SEO specialist to help you navigate your way around GWT. You can also use the following tips: 

1. Signup

To be able to use GWT and all its features, you must sign up for a Google account (https://accounts.google.com/SignUp?service=mail) first. Once you have successfully created one, navigate then to Google Webmasters Tool (https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/).

On the page you will find a welcome message detailing what you can do using the tool. If you are ready to get started, simply enter your site’s main URL on the add a site box and click Add A Site.

 

 

2. Verify your website

Google will want to make sure that you are indeed the owner of the website you submitted.

The recommended verification method usually involves uploading a custom HTML file to your site’s root domain. See image below:

 

If you find the above method troublesome, Google gives you three different alternatives as shown below.

 

3. Explore the GWT Features 

You may find yourself overwhelmed by the amount of information you will find on your GWT dashboard. Relax, you only need to focus on a few recommended features.

MESSAGES

This is where you’ll find direct communication from Google about your site’s health. The messages may give you advanced warning of inappropriate activity that should be addressed in order to prevent Google from penalising your website.

SEARCH APPEARANCE

Clicking on the “?” icon will give you a visual breakdown of the various elements of your SERP.

For example:

 

 

Some of the few important items you will find in this section include:

Structured Data: This will help Google understand your website’s content better, allowing you to display rich snippets in SERP.

Data Highlighter: This enables you to help Google identify some on-page structured data without you needing to provide the code.

HTML Improvements: This informs you of issues with your meta-descriptions and title tags.

SETTINGS 

This allows you to check and set:

• Whether you prefer the www or non-www version of your URL (this is important to avoid duplication issues).
• The frequency by which Googlebot crawls your site.
• Notify Google you have changed your site’s URL.
• The users who can access your GWT profile (for example, your freelance SEO partner).

CRAWL

This section gives you an idea how Googlebot interacts with your website. Pay particular attention to: 

Crawl Errors: which occur when Googlebot can’t reach certain pages on your website;

Blocked URLs: which allow you to use a robots.txt file to control how search engines should crawl the content of your site; and

Fetch as Google: a great tool for verifying if Googlebot sees your page as you expect it to.

SEARCH TRAFFIC

This is where you will find detailed information about how your website performs in SERPs. Focus on:

Search Queries: This gives you an idea about what specific search phrases for which your site has appeared in SERPs, your click through rate, and average position.

Links to Your Site: You will find here great information about your site’s backlink profile or the sites that are linking in to your site.

GOOGLE INDEX

The most important parts of this feature are:

Index Status – This tool enables you to track the number of your website’s pages indexed by Google, the existence of worrying trends, and the possible pages blocked from crawler’s access.

Content Keywords – This displays the most common keywords Google found when it navigated your site. If you see unexpected keywords showing up, check for hidden keywords in your pages. 

SECURITY ISSUES

This gives you notification when Google detects malware on your website that can seriously affect your users’ experience.

LABS

Last but definitely not the least, this feature provides a number of tools that will help you maximise your website better.

One particularly important you might want to look is the Author Stats. While Google recently started removing author photos in SERPs, authorship still matters because it can help you identify and track all of your verified content. It can also encourage users to click on your result.

This list of Google’s Webmaster Tools is not comprehensive, but this hopefully should provide you a good start to determining the health of your website and make the necessary improvements. If you find it too complicated, make sure to seek the help of an SEO freelancer.