What is Webmaster Tools?
Webmaster Tools are free Webmaster management services of search engines Google Search Engine, Bing, Yandex or Baidu ...
Webmaster Tools allows you to check the status of the index (indexing), optimize the display of search results and monitor keyword rankings of the Website.
Bing has Bing Webmaster Tools, Yandex also has Yandex Webmaster Tools, while Google has Google Search Console.
In the next topic of Website SEO Topic 2020, we will register and use the world's No. 1 Website administration service!
Review previous topic:
What is SEO? Methods of SEO Onpage & Offpage 2020
So?
What is Google Search Console?
Google Search Console (Google Webmaster Tools) is a free Google tool for webmasters, helping webmasters to monitor the status of the index (indexing) of the Website, track the list of ranked keywords (keyword ranking), list of backlinks from other websites. others point to ... thereby helping to optimize website content to be more friendly to Google Search Engine.
In addition, Google Webmaster Tools also allows monitoring of security errors, instructions for handling and assistance in resolving SEO requirements when the website goes down.
As of May 20, 2015, Google has rebranded Google Webmaster Tools of Google to Google Search Console.
Google Search Console is an indispensable webmaster tool in SEO Website, so every webmaster needs to understand how it works and best owns this service.
With professional SEOer, Google Search Console is one of the best free SEO tools, besides famous expensive SEO tools like Kwfinder, Ahref, Semrush.
Google also has another free service for Webmasters, Google Analytics (GA), for users just starting to learn SEO, need to understand the features of these two tools.
Distinguish Google Search Console vs Google Analytics
What is Google Analytis?
Google Analytics (abbreviated as GA) is a free service of Google Allows creation of detailed statistics tables of visitors to a website.
It is a product used by Internet marketers to compete with gender webmaster and the technical world while the web analytics industry is growing.
(Source: Wikipedia)
You also need to avoid confusing Google Analytics with Google Adsense - both abbreviated as GA. Google Adsense is Google's advertising service and not the Web administration tool.
At first, it is difficult for us to know clearly about the features and methods of operation of Google Search Console and Google Analytics.
They seem to have similar reports on Organic Traffic data - that is, organic traffic from the Google search engine, rather than from links from other websites.
However, the mode of operation of Google Search Console and Google Analytics is completely different, the way they collect data is also different.
And really, these two tools have great interactivity for users to get the most complete & realistic data about SEO of Websites on Google Search!
About the method of data collection
Google Search Console crawl from Google Search Engine search engine data.
In other words, Google Search Console (Webmastertool) shows what that Search Engine Interact with the Website , such as traffic to the Website from Google Search, the number of pages indexed (Google Index), the number of keywords ranked, the rankings of each keyword over time ....
You do not need to insert the tracking code into the Website to use Google Search Console - because it does not, in essence, pull data from the Website - but from Search Engine data.
Of course, to use Google Search Console - you must go through the authentication step that you own the Website - we will talk about this in the GSC registration!
Google Analytics (GA) collects data right from your browser to the Website.
It (GA) shows metrics on how user interact when visiting the Website. For example, from which source, by which browser, stay on the page for how long, the bounce rate….
To use Google Analytics we have to insert the tracking code provided by Google into the Website - because this code will help collect user interaction data - send it to Google for analysis and return the best reports for us to have. Accurate view of user interaction on the Website!
Google Analytics is also the main data source for campaigns running Google Adwords ads!
According to reputable reports, more than 50% of the 10,000 websites in the world's 10,000 largest websites use GA data!
So:
Webmastertool - Google Search Console pulls data from the Search Engine - and Google Analytics is data from users! These two combined will help you optimize SEO for Search Engines & Optimize for users!
Different data usage for GSC and GA
We use the data of Google Search Console to optimize the Website so that the Search Engine Bot can most easily access the content we want. As well as using it to track errors that interfere with the Index process and experience users such as 404 errors, display errors, mobile device compatibility errors, etc.
Google Search Console with basic users - is to help you track the number of keywords - the volume (volume) and rankings (position) of the keyword. These data are very useful for promoting SEO for a certain keyword group!
Google Analytics is much more complex, it involves user interaction so we use it to improve User Experience - as well as analyze how we interact - analyze user objects to improve internal quality content of the Website - optimizing the effectiveness of SEO & Advertising campaigns - Sales!
Note that the Google Analytics data is large & much more complex than the Google Search Console data - and it also does not represent the most accurate Organic Traffic (search engine traffic such as Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.).
To get the most out of Google Analytics for SEO & Marketing- we need a lot of advanced knowledge. Please refer to the course or book on Google Adwords offline!
Next part:
- Instructions for Registering & Using Google Search Console
- Instructions for Registering & Using Google Analytics
Sign up for Google Search Console (Google Webmaster Tools)
Update: In November 2019, Google launched the Site Kit plugin - which supports connecting WordPress with Google's SEO and Marketing tools. You can use the Google Site Kit to register and connect Google Search Console to WordPress instead of manually registering as here, see details:
What is Google Site Kit? Review & Site Kit User Guide
To use Google Webmaster Tools - Google Console - we must have a previous Google account (specifically register for a Gmail account).
Access this link to sign up for Google Search Console:
If you haven't already - sign in to your Google account:
On the first page - enter the domain name & default path of the site. Note, that by 2020, the use of SSL is almost mandatory - so if you already have an SSL security certificate installed, the path must be https: //
Next is the Website ownership verification step.
There are many options for you to verify that you own the Website, the easiest is to upload the .html file Google provides to the main directory containing the website code on hosting.
It is necessary to distinguish this .html file only for Google Search Console to confirm that you own the Website (proving you have access to the directory containing the code). This .html file is not a program that records (tracking) data about user interaction behavior like when signing up for Google Analytics!
Remember this file must always be present on the hosting folder, if you delete it, you need to use other authentication methods instead. Some other authentication methods are:
- Add Meta tags to the Header of the Website
- Create a Text Record on your domain's DNS with Google provided data to verify you own the domain name.
- Connect to the Google Anaytics account of the same Website if you already have a GA account before.
- Connect to the Google Tag Manager (tag manager) of the same Website if you already have an account
In fact, for Google Search Console to always update data for the Website, we should have an additional authentication method, because if you delete the .html file in the directory containing the code and forget, then Google will stop updating the data. Website material because you think you no longer own the Website.
The second authentication method is to create a Text Record in the DNS of Nameservers you use for the domain. Note, when pointing the domain name on Hosting that you use Nameservers, you need to create Text Record on DNS of those Nameservers.
For example, if you use CloudFlare Nameservers, then go to DNS, create a TXT records and copy the value provided by Google paste into it:
After clicking the VERIFY button - we can go to the interface of Google Console and start monitoring - use it!
Google Search Console (GSC) User Guide
With Google Webmaster Tools (Google Search Console - GSC), in addition to monitoring Search Engine update data, we can also configure many properties to help Search Engine Index the content of the Website in the best way!
In addition, Google Search Console also provides features for us to ask Google Index quickly a page or no index pages of the Website….
On a more complex level, we can create a request for Google to consider solving issues related to penalized ‘penalties’ when the Website is infected with viruses or has spam problems….
If you don't see the menu on the left, click the menu bar icon in the top left corner.
Each item has its own description and instructions, if you need to use this please click the icon (?) In the top right corner to display detailed information about each item.
Introducing Items in the new Google Search Console
Overview: summarizes the data status of all Performance, Coverage and Enhancement items, this is the part we take a quick look at the overall data of the Website, thereby quickly detecting problems arising if any.
Performance: data on keyword rankings as well as related data (CTR, Impressions, Clicks). This is the most important tab for Keyword Research
URL Inspection: used to check the index status of any page, or to request Google Index immediately on any page instead of waiting for the bot to detect and index automatically
Section Index There are 2 parts:
- Coverage: This item is very important, allows you to check crawler data and related errors (404 ...) so that promptly fix it to avoid affecting SEO.
- Sitemaps: information about the sitemap, if not updated, you can enter the name of the sitemap file for Google to update, this is very important for the bot to detect and index the best site (the sitemap file can be easily created by Yoast SEO, We will talk about how to create in Yoast SEO tutorial topic).
Section Enhancement:
- Mobile Usability: notice of Website availability on mobile devices
Section Security & Manual Actions:
- Sercurity: for site (or viruses) security issues notice
- Manual Actions: will be used to ask Google to handle the problem manually if Google reports the site has problems with spam, hacking or SEO-related issues.
Manual Actions The tab is also used to ask Google to remove some pages from your site from search results:
Links: link status (inbound and outbound)
Settings: used to verify website ownership (including the way mentioned in the GSC registration above, as well as adding users to GSC).
Submit Feedback: send feedback to GSC to make Google improve GSC better (but honestly, if you sent it, it might not be read).
About new version: this tab is only temporary because the new GSC provides a new interface and features, which need to be introduced to older users to better understand the changes.
Go to old version: this tab is also temporary, so that ‘nostalgic’ users return to using the old version, maybe the old 2019 version will no longer support it.
Overview of Google Search Console (Overview)
This is the tab that appears immediately upon logging into GSC.
In the Overview tab, GSC will summarize the data status notice of all other tabs - the default statistics time is the last 3 months!
This is the part that helps us have a comprehensive view of the website's SEO, as well as quickly detect problems if any. You can't go to GSC every day to see the section details, so the Overview section is very helpful!
Perfomance: Track data & Keyword rankings
Google Webmaster Tools interface (or old Google Search Console), the list of ranked keywords - rankings and related parameters is in the Tab Search Appearances, and in the new interface - is the Perfomance tab!
Here we can track the most important parameters about Organic Traffic.
The chart metrics include Organic Traffics: Clicks, impressions, CTR and Positions on search results. We will understand these terms shortly below.
Below the chart is statistics for all keywords that have been Google Rank (ranked)
You can select the parameters by week, month (3-6 - 12 or 16 months). You can also optionally choose an arbitrary time, or click on a point to keep track of statistics each day:
Number of Ranked keywords and SEO metrics of each keyword
Right below the chart is the entire list of keywords being indexed and ranked by Google.
The number of keywords can be extremely large if your website has a lot of content!
Note that the keywords chosen by Google Index and Rank depend entirely on Google, it contains the keywords you want to rank but there are also keywords selected by Google according to its own algorithms.
For example, you have an article on How to make money online with Affiliate Marketing 2019, which includes the prestigious affiliate marketing program of AccessTrade, and the keyword you want to rank for is AccessTrade or How to register for AccessTrade.
But, when users search for the keyword "AccessTrade scam", Google still shows your article in the search results list - That is, you have Rank the keyword" AccessTrade phishing "even without purpose!
To view the specific data for any keyword, click on that keyword, the specific data will be shown in the chart as shown below:
Terms to know in GSC Performance
To understand, you need to know some terms:
What is traffic?
Traffic is traffic to the Website from all sources outside the Website. In Google Analytics, Traffic includes the main sources: Direct Traffic, Referral Trafic, Social Traffic and Organic Traffic and Paid Traffic.
Specifically:
- Direct Traffic: access by typing the domain name directly into the browser
- Referral Traffic: access from links located on other websites
- Social Traffic: access from shared links on social networks
- Paid Traffic: traffic from running ads on search engines (Google Adwords, Bing Ads ..)
- Organic Traffic: Natural traffic, see below for clarity, this is the information shown on Google Search Console.
What is organic traffic?
Organic Traffic or Organic Search is natural Website traffic - directly from search engines!
For example, you need to find information about "cheap hosting should use 2019", so you type in this keyword browser, the results on Google will be as follows:
If you visit the article link of canhme or vuihocweb then that is counted as Organic Traffic.
And you go to the link of Godaddy that is Paid Traffic, they are running ads for similar keywords with cheap hosting so use 2019.
The Google Search Console shows how Search Engine interacts with the Website - so its metric is Organic Traffic. We will see some terms that Google Search Console shows below:
(Click on each tab to view the data chart of each parameter)
Learn these terms offline:
Clicks: the number of times users click on links to enter the Website from the search results page (Google Search) - this is the parameter representing the organic traffic.
Impressions: is the number of search results marketers - note, the number of impressions is always higher than the number of clicks, because users can click on another page or not click when looking at the search results.
Positions: the position of the keyword on the search results page, Positions decides big to Impressions and Clicks, because if a keyword position is 30 or more, it is unlikely that the user will see (impressions) or clicks. Users can often stop at the first or second results page because Google is getting smarter to display the information that users want to find in the first place!
CTR: Click Through Rate is the clickthrough rate, see details below!
As the picture of the keyword "cheap hosting worth 2019" illustrated above, if the user clicks on the article of FunnyHocweb, VHW has been calculated. 1 click + 1 impression, and canhme don't count as 1 click but count 1 impression because they clearly show up in search results!
CTR - What is Click Through Rate?
CTR is the click-through rate - people often call it click-through rate but it is now incorrect because if you click on the link on the touch screen of a phone, tablet ... because you don't use a mouse!
Calculated CTR = Number of clicks / Impressions (Divide the number of clicks by the number of impressions)
CTR is a measure of the ‘attractiveness’ of content displayed on search results pages. It is a parameter that marks the effectiveness of marketing campaigns: both from SEO and Advertising.
Method to increase CTR click rate
- Attractive SEO title - easy to understand: SEO title is the title displayed on the search results page, it may be similar or different from the actual title on the Website - We can use SEO plugins like Yoast SEO to rewrite SEO titles for any Page or Post.
- Descriptive content - Meta Description must be short - concise and informative to attract users.
- Optimize Schema Markup: as shown below, you will see 2 articles with reviews (reviews) bring a sense of prestige, as well as the article displays sub-items - showing more information.
- Optimize dates: users tend to prefer clicking on the latest updated content, adjusting the date can be easily done in WordPress
URL Inspection checks Page Index and requests Index quickly
The URL inspection section is very simple, you can click the menu or use the Search box right on top of the Google Search Console interface.
URL Inspection has the following features:
- Check the Index status of a Page
- Request a Page Index if it is not yet Indexed
- Requesting the Index to an indexed Page after it has changed
- Test URL Drive - to see Index status and compatibility with mobile devices
Regarding these features, we have a separate article here:
Instructions to Submit URL to Google for Indexing fast
Index - Coverage: Overall Crawler check - and 404 error
Information about the status of the Index (Crawler) and 404 errors (Page not Found or having other problems that cannot be indexed) can be viewed in Overview - Overview.
But to see the full details as well as the error page specific to which page we need to go to Tab Coverage.
Coverage has two important parts: Error and Warning, but the really serious is Error, because it informs the details of 404 errors.
Click the Error in the Details section, we will know which page has an error:
To fix 404 error, we use the plugin's redirect feature simple 301 redirect or Yoast SEO Premium, redirect the broken link to the corresponding article link.
(We will do it in the topic Scan Broken Links & Redirect fix)
After fixing, instead of waiting for the Google bot to update the information to remove the error message, we can choose Validate Fix so that Google will no longer notify about this error:
Google will send you an email notifying you of Validate Fix - just so you know they will remove this error message!
Index - Sitemaps: Ensure the Google Crawl Bot is correct
What is a sitemap?
Sitemap - Or a site map is a .XML file containing all the websites of the Website (exactly contains the link of the website).
Sitemap plays the exact role of "Website Map" for Search Engine Bot, which can detect and index, update Website content most accurately!
Sitemap can be created manually, created by free plugin, the easiest is to install and activate Yoast SEO (free or premium), it will immediately create a sitemaps file for you.
In WordPess, SEO plugins like Yoast SEO, SEOPress, All-in-one SEO Pack ... will help create a very quick sitemap, as well as configure the Search Engine Bot to be crawled and indexed. on the Website, by default and allows the option to block certain parts we do not want to appear in search results.
File sitemaps can be accessed via:
domain / sitemap_index.xml
As shown below is the sitemaps of canhme.com:
You need to declare sitemaps in Google Search Console:
After submitting if the sitemap is available - the path you provided is correct:
Enhancements - Mobile Usability
This is an informational section about Website compatibility with mobile devices.
Note, the notice here is only a 'availability', not a review of the ‘mobile optimization of the Website on mobile devices.
Regarding optimization for mobile devices - Google always advises people to play "AMP" - But AMP - Accelerated Mobile Pages is a very tough game, it currently does not have a perfect solution because optimizing Pages in accordance with AMP standards will result in sacrifices of many "vivid" features that attract users of the Website.
So if you see the Mobil Usability section without any errors, it might be a bit fun. Remember that many famous WordPress websites said no to AMP after ‘white mouse’ and received a lot of negative results.
Security & Manual Actions
This is the section for times when the website has a problem that causes Google to penalize ‘penalized’ (or SEO people call it flagging).
When Google Penalize, the Website cannot rank anymore - either in whole or in part.
The website is often infected with malwares, hacked or has many links pointing to spam sites, scams, black websites ...
If you encounter these problems, there will be an error message in the Security and Manual Actions sections (which can be detailed or general).
Google will also send you (Messages) notifications:
Now you need to handle the problem that Google has reported thoroughly.
Then, create a Request - Manual Actions report for Google to update and penalize:
You should also note that Google is just as bureaucratic as some of our civil servants, so your problem is handled and punished quickly or slowly depending on 'luck' because no one knows Google does. how was that - when.
Even the big websites can't push Google, the black people like most of us have to accept if the doctors on them have handled the delay (usually 1 week or more).
Links: Overview of Inbound and Outbound links on the Website
The Links section is a metric of incoming links (outbound) - outbound links and internal links.
Here you will know the exact number of links throughout the site or a certain page, as well as the links of other pages pointing to your site - specifically, which page.
The statistics in the Links section is only in the form of ‘quantity’, not to mention links quality.
The most helpful item for you to refer to is Top linking sites - that is, a list of sites pointing to your Web, as well as specific pages it points to:
As said - the limitation is that it does not evaluate those links as 'good' or 'bad' as well as the degree of good or bad ....
Một thông số nữa có thể có ích là Top linking text – thống kê những Link Text mà các site khác dùng để trỏ về Website của bạn!
Về mục Links của Google Search Console, có thể nói nó chỉ mang tính tổng quát và đủ để tham khảo. Nếu bạn muốn đánh giá toàn diện về links và chất lượng backlinks… phải dùng đến các công cụ SEO cao cấp chuyên biệt như Ahref hay Semrush..
Settings: Xác thực quyền sở hữu & Thêm người dùng GSC
Đây là mục cuối cùng chúng ta nói tới. Bao gồm 2 phần:
Xác thực quyền sở hữu Website với GSC
Như đã nói ở phần đăng ký Google Webmaster Tools, chúng ta có nhiều phương pháp xác thực quyền sở hữu Website, chúng ta có thể chỉ làm 1 (bắt buột khi đăng ký GSC) nhưng nên có thêm một xác thực nữa để tránh trường hợp chuyển code, chuyển domain… làm mất dữ liệu xác thực khiến GSC không cập nhật data cho Website nữa.
Ngoài việc xác thực khi đăng ký GSC, chúng ta có thể làm các phương pháp xác thực khác bất kỳ lúc nào tại mục Ownership verification:
User Permission: Thêm User và phân quyền GSC
Đây là phần dành cho những ‘Team’ cùng quản trị Website hoặc cần đến khi bạn ‘nhờ/ thuê’ người khác giúp SEO Website hay kiểm tra các vấn đề về SEO.
Mặc định khi đăng ký Google Webmaster Tools với email nào thì đó là email quản trị cao nhất của GSC – Owner, được quyền tạo thêm User và phân quyền cho User.
Nhấp vào Add Users và nhập email, chọn quyền FULL nếu bạn cho phép user truy cập toàn bộ GSC data:
Nếu chỉ cho phép User truy cập một phần Google Console – hãy chọn Permission là Restrict:
Chi tiết về phân quyền User Permission bạn có thể xem tại links hoặc ảnh bên dưới:
Xong!
Chúng ta kết thúc phần hướng dẫn sử dụng Google Webmaster Tools – Google Search Console tại đây!
Tổng kết!
Webmaster Tools – là các công cụ giúp quản trị web của các dịch vụ tìm kiếm, như Google Webmaster Tools, Bing Webmaster Tools, Yandex – Baidu Webmaster Tools.
Với Google, sau khi đổi tên Google Webmaster Tools thành Google Search Console năm 2015, đến đầu năm 2019, công cụ quản trị web – SEO nổi tiếng này tiếp tục thay đổi giao diện và các tính năng giúp cho người dùng sử dụng hiệu quả hơn!
Thường xuyên theo dõi Google Search console, hiểu được các dữ liệu nó báo cáo sẽ giúp Webmasters nắm được tình trạng SEO của Website, cũng như xử lý sự cố – tối ưu nội dung để Website luôn thân thiện với các thuật toán mới nhất của Google Search Engine!
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