For any business or website owner looking to drive more organic search traffic, Web Master Tools (WMT) is an indispensable resource. Also known as Google Search Console, WMT provides a wealth of data, reports and tools to help you monitor, maintain and optimize your site‘s performance in Google search results.
But with so many features and configurations, WMT can seem complex and overwhelming, especially for those new to SEO. That‘s why we‘ve put together this comprehensive guide. By the end of this article, you‘ll have a solid understanding of what WMT is, how it works, and most importantly, how to leverage it to supercharge your SEO efforts and get more traffic from Google.
What is Web Master Tools (WMT)?
Web Master Tools is a free web service offered by Google to help website owners, webmasters, and digital marketers monitor and maintain their site‘s presence in Google search results. It allows you to:
- Check your site‘s indexing status and optimize visibility
- Submit sitemaps and individual URLs for crawling
- View search analytics data and see which queries drive traffic
- Receive alerts about site errors or security issues
- Test and improve your site‘s mobile usability
- And much more
In essence, WMT acts as an intermediary between your website and Google, giving you valuable information straight from the source on how Google "sees" and understands your site. This empowers you to identify and fix issues, submit the right content for indexing, and ultimately, improve your organic search performance.
"Google Search Console is like a doctor for your website, identifying potential health issues and providing intelligible feedback on how to resolve them." – Neil Patel, Digital Marketing Expert
The Evolution of Web Master Tools
Web Master Tools first launched in 2006 as "Google Webmaster Central." In the early days, its primary function was to show webmasters which queries were driving traffic to their sites. This was groundbreaking at the time, as it provided never-before-seen insights into user search behavior.
Over the years, Google continued to expand and improve the tool, adding features like sitemap submission, crawl error reporting, and site performance analysis. In 2015, the tool underwent a major rebrand, changing its name from "Google Webmaster Tools" to "Google Search Console" to better reflect its value for a broader audience including business owners and digital marketers.
Today, WMT is one of the most powerful and widely used SEO tools available. According to a study by Search Engine Journal, a whopping 89% of SEO professionals use Google Search Console regularly. And for good reason – the insights provided by WMT are essential for diagnosing site issues, tracking progress, and continuously improving search performance.
Setting Up Web Master Tools
Before you can access the wealth of data in WMT, you first need to set up an account and verify ownership of your website. Here‘s a quick step-by-step guide:
- Go to search.google.com/search-console/welcome in your web browser
- Click "Start now" and sign in with your Google account (create one if needed)
- Select a property type (domain or URL prefix) and enter your website URL
- Select a verification method to prove you own the site. Options include:
- Uploading an HTML file to your website
- Adding a meta tag to your site‘s homepage
- Using your domain name provider
- Using your Google Analytics or Google Tag Manager account
- Follow the instructions for your chosen method and click "Verify"
Once you‘ve verified ownership, you‘ll be taken to the WMT Overview page where you can start exploring the different reports and tools available. We recommend taking a few minutes to click around and familiarize yourself with the interface.
Key Features & Reports in WMT
Now that your account is set up, let‘s dive into the core features and reports you‘ll be using in WMT to analyze and optimize your site for search.
Performance Report
The Performance report is probably the most frequently used section in WMT. It shows you how your site is performing in Google Search, including:
- How often your site appears in search results (total impressions)
- The average position/ranking of your site for different queries
- How many clicks each query generates
- Your average click-through rate (CTR)
You can view this data over various time ranges and filter it by queries, pages, countries, and devices. This allows you to identify your top-performing content, track rankings for important keywords, and discover new opportunities to drive more traffic.
For example, if you notice a particular page gets a lot of impressions but has a low CTR, that may indicate you need to optimize your meta title and description to make it more relevant and compelling to searchers. Or if you find a high-volume query where you rank on page 2, you may want to prioritize optimizing your content for that term to reach the first page and get more clicks.
"Without data, you‘re just another person with an opinion." – W. Edwards Deming
URL Inspection Tool
Have you ever wondered whether Google has indexed a particular page on your site or how it renders that content to users? The URL Inspection tool in WMT allows you to check the indexing status and last crawl date of any URL on your site.
Simply input a complete URL from your verified property and click "Test Live URL." WMT will show you information like:
- Whether or not the URL is indexed in Google
- Any coverage issues impacting the URL
- When the URL was last crawled
- Tips on how to fix issues found
This is extremely useful for troubleshooting indexing problems with specific pages and ensuring your important content is accessible to Google. If a critical page isn‘t getting indexed, the URL Inspection tool will help you identify why and take action to resolve it.
Coverage Report
Speaking of indexing, the Coverage report in WMT gives you a high-level overview of how well Google is able to crawl and index your entire site. It displays the total number of pages Google has tried to index and groups them into categories like "Error," "Valid with warnings," "Valid," and "Excluded."
Clicking on any of these categories will bring up more details on the specific issues detected and which URLs are affected. Common problems you may encounter here include:
- 404 errors from broken links or deleted pages
- Redirect errors from faulty or infinite redirect chains
- Server errors preventing Google from accessing your content
- Pages blocked by your robots.txt file
- Duplicate content issues
Monitoring the Coverage report regularly is key to ensuring your site maintains good technical health and doesn‘t have widespread problems preventing your content from getting indexed. Aim to keep the number of error/warning pages as low as possible.
Sitemaps Report
A sitemap is a file that lists all the important pages on your website you want search engines to index. While not mandatory, submitting a sitemap can be beneficial for larger sites or those with a lot of content not easily discoverable through normal crawling. Google provides clear guidelines on how to create and format your sitemap.
Once you‘ve created your sitemap, you can submit it to Google via the Sitemaps report in WMT. Simply enter the complete URL to your sitemap file and click "Submit." WMT will process the file and display information on the number of pages submitted, pages indexed, and any issues encountered.
The Sitemaps report is also where you can test and view details about any structured data (like reviews or products) you‘ve added to your site to create rich results in SERPs.
Mobile Usability Report
With Google‘s switch to mobile-first indexing, having a site that performs well on mobile devices is more important than ever. The Mobile Usability report in WMT evaluates your pages against mobile best practices and alerts you to any problems affecting your mobile users.
Issues you may see flagged here include:
- Viewport not configured
- Content wider than screen
- Text too small to read
- Clickable elements too close together
Clicking on any of the issues will show you which specific URLs are affected so you can prioritize fixes. Resolving these warnings will help ensure your site offers a user-friendly experience to mobile visitors and can rank well for mobile searches.
Leveraging WMT for SEO Wins
As you can see, WMT offers a goldmine of information about how your site is performing in search. But data alone isn‘t enough – the key is to use these insights to guide and power your SEO efforts.
Here are a few ways you can take action on WMT data to move the needle for your organic traffic and rankings:
Find & Fix Technical Issues
Use the Coverage and Mobile Usability reports to identify technical obstacles impacting your site‘s ability to get indexed and rank. Prioritize critical errors first, like widespread 404s or mobile UX problems. Collaborate with your web developers to implement needed fixes.
Improve Under-Performing Content
In the Performance report, set up filters to see which pages get substantial impressions but have a low CTR. Consider updating these pages‘ titles, meta descriptions, and content for relevance and keyword optimization. Also look out for thin, duplicate, or low-quality pages that could be dragging down your site.
Expand Your Keyword Targeting
Also in the Performance report, view the queries driving impressions and clicks to your site. Take note of relevant keywords you‘re not directly targeting in your content and consider adding new pages or sections optimized for these terms. You can also use this data to inform your paid search keyword strategy.
Protect & Monitor Site Health
Set up email alerts in the Settings panel of WMT to get notified of critical issues like security problems (malware, hacking) or manual actions/penalties on your site. That way you can take immediate action to resolve problems before they impact your traffic and rankings.
Real-World WMT Success Stories
To further illustrate the value and potential of WMT for SEO, let‘s look at a couple real examples of companies that used it to drive meaningful results.
DaySpa Body Basics
DaySpa Body Basics is a skincare retailer that used WMT to identify and capitalize on an untapped SEO opportunity. By analyzing their Performance report data, they discovered they were getting a lot of impressions for queries related to "Eminence," a brand they carried.
So they created dedicated pages optimized for those keywords, like reviews and FAQs on each Eminence product. As a result, they doubled their organic traffic year-over-year and grew sales from organic search by 76%.
Raizlabs
Raizlabs is an app design & development firm that leveraged WMT to improve their content performance and rankings. They used WMT data to find their most valuable search queries and pages to guide a content optimization initiative.
They focused on updating page titles, headers, and copy on key pages to better target their top keywords. They also pruned thin/duplicate pages to improve crawling and indexing. Within six months, they saw a 400% increase in first page keyword rankings and 180%+ gain in organic traffic.
Advancing Your WMT Skills
We‘ve covered the fundamentals, but there‘s always more to learn when it comes to WMT and SEO. Here are some tips to level up your skills and make the most of this powerful tool:
- Set up scheduled email reports of your key WMT data points (Impressions, Clicks, CTR, Avg. Position, Coverage Errors, etc.) to monitor week-over-week and month-over-month
- Dive into advanced filters and search operators to extract more granular insights from your data, like which queries are driving featured snippets for your site
- Become familiar with the API to access your data programmatically for easier analysis and reporting
- Stay up to date on new features and reports added to WMT (like the new Page Experience report)
- Supplement WMT data with insights from other SEO tools for a 360 degree view of your search performance
The Future of WMT
As the search landscape continues to evolve, we can expect WMT to keep up by rolling out new capabilities to empower SEOs and site owners.
Some areas where WMT may expand in the future:
- More granular data on SERP features and user behavior signals
- Tighter integration with other Google tools like Google Analytics, Google Ads, etc.
- Expanded alerts and diagnostics powered by machine learning
- Support for new search experiences like visual or voice search
No matter what changes may come, one thing is clear – Web Master Tools will remain an essential part of the SEO toolkit for the foreseeable future. Mastering it is key to staying competitive in organic search and driving continual growth from this critical channel.
