If you click on the Google Index tab on the side bar of GWT, you’ll see a link for Remove URLs.
The Remove URLs page lets you add URLs from your site that you wish to not be crawled by Google and removed from the search results. This is great tool to remove links on your site that may contain sensitive data from showing up in Google search results.
Filed under: Documentation→Website Performance
Tags: google webmaster tools, gwt, remove URLs, website performance
If you click on the Crawl tab on the side bar of GWT, you’ll see a link for Crawl Errors.
The Crawl Errors page lets you know these 3 site errors for the past 90 days:
• DNS errors
• Server errors
• Robots.txt failure
It will also let you know whether you have URL errors pertaining to Desktop, Smartphone, Feature Phone and Android Applications.
To diagnose your URL errors, you can click the Download button within the table to retrieve the top 1,000 errors and check each URL manually to see what’s wrong. If you don’t have that many URL errors, you can simply click on the link to see more details about the problem. Once you have addressed the error, you can checkmark the URL and select the “Mark as fixed” button.
Filed under: Documentation→Website Performance
Tags: crawl errors, google webmaster tools, gwt, site errors, url errors, website performance
If you click on the Crawl tab on the side bar of GWT, you’ll see a link for Crawl Stats.
The Crawl Stats page shows 3 different graphs for pages crawled per day, kilobytes downloaded per day and time spent downloading a page (in milliseconds) by the Googlebot. This is a simple way to see how well your site performed in the past 90 days. You can check the high, average and low numbers to see if your website has been performing as expected. Be aware of any big dips or spikes in these graphs.
Filed under: Documentation→Website Performance
Tags: crawl stats, google webmaster tools, gwt, website performance
If you click on the Crawl tab on the side bar of GWT, you’ll see a link for Fetch as Google.
Fetch as Google is probably one of the most important tools for a blogger or a website that releases new content every day. If you have new articles or pages on your site that were just published by you or your team of writers and needs to be indexed by Google immediately, use the Fetch as Google tool. Paste the link to article there and click “Fetch”.
When the status changes to “complete”, you’ll see a button by it called “Submit to index”.
Click the “Submit to index” and you’ll have the option to make Googlebot crawl only that URL or crawl that URL and its direct links. Checkmark the one you think is suitable and click Go. In a few minutes, your page will be indexed on Google.
You want to be the first to have your news indexed by Google so that it can be listed at the top of the results. Sometimes when the news is a hot enough topic, you may find a big spike in organic visitors.
Filed under: Documentation→Website Performance
Tags: fetch as google, google webmaster tools, gwt, submit to index, website performance
If you click on the Crawl tab on the side bar of GWT, you’ll see a link for robots.txt Tester.
Robots.txt Tester page displays whether you have errors or warnings in your robots.txt file. Sometimes a webmaster may add something to the robots.txt that may disallow Googlebot from accessing your site so your entire website may get de-indexed. It is good to check this page every once in a while.
Filed under: Documentation→Website Performance
Tags: google webmaster tools, gwt, robots.txt, robots.txt test, website performance
If you click on the Crawl tab on the side bar of GWT, you’ll see a link for Sitemaps.
Sitemaps helps search engine bots crawl and categorize your site better. If you have a sitemap or multiple sitemaps for your website, you can add them on the Sitemaps page of Google Webmaster Tools.
There is also the option to test your sitemap for errors.
On the Sitemaps page you’ll find the amount of webpages submitted from your sitemaps the the amount of webpages indexed by Googlebot.
Filed under: Documentation→Website Performance
Tags: google webmaster tools, gwt, sitemaps, website performance
If you click on the Crawl tab on the side bar of GWT, you’ll see a link for URL Parameters.
URL parameters helps Googlebot crawl your website more efficiently by removing duplicates and saves bandwidth. More than likely, you won’t need to do anything with URL Parameters. This is an advance feature that is described in the video below:
Filed under: Documentation→Website Performance
Tags: google webmaster tools, gwt, URL Parameters, website performance
Click on the Security Issues tab on the side bar of GWT.
The Security Issues pages lets you know of any known security issues with your site. If you visit your website and get a malware warning from your browser, it is likely that your website is referencing code or content from another website that has malware.
If your site has been hacked or compromised, the search results of your website on Google will show up with “This site may harm your computer.” Or “This site may be hacked.” This will avoid people from visiting your website. It is important to check the Security Issues tab regularly to see whether Google has marked your site as being hacked.
There are numerous things that can cause your site to be compromised such as: server configuration, SQL injection, code injection, error template, binary malware, content injection and URL injection. One way to address these issues is by locating the problematic content and removing it.
Filed under: Documentation→Website Performance
Tags: google webmaster tools, gwt, hackers, malware, security issues, sql injection, url injection, website performance
To analyze your webpage online using Google PageSpeed you can go to:
https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/
You can also analyze your webpage from your Chrome browser by downloading the plugin:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/pagespeed-insights-by-goo/gplegfbjlmmehdoakndmohflojccocli?hl=en
After installing the plugin, you can analyze a page by going to your browser’s customize and control dropdown menu. Go to “More tools” and click on “Developer tools”.
Click on “Pagespeed” tab at the top of the developer tools and click on “Analyze” to analyze the page you’re on.
Filed under: Documentation→Website Performance
Tags: analyze webpage, google pagespeed, pagespeed insights, website performance
To increase your page speed, you should try your best to avoid or minimize redirects on your website. If a mobile user goes to example.com and it redirects them to www.example.com then redirects them to m.example.com, the user will experience slow page loads. Having a landing page that redirects multiple times to the final landing page will slow your page speed. Instead, you can design your website so that example.com uses a responsive design with different break points for desktops, tablets and mobile devices.
Filed under: Documentation→Website Performance
Tags: avoid redirects, minimize redirects, page speed, redirects, website performance