Google.com offers its Webmaster Tools service to all webmasters free of charge. The tools provide a range of useful statistics, the ability to communicate certain search listing preferences directly to Google, and diagnostic features that list search optimization errors to correct.

Google Webmaster Tools holds great importance to webmasters for two main reasons:

1.) It gives webmasters a “look under the hood” of how Google works, which provides them with a greater understanding of search result rankings and indexing.

2.) It enables webmasters to get a better idea of what Google “thinks” about their web sites, how the Google “spider” sees them, and what improvements could be made.

MANY USEFUL FEATURES

In addition to interactively helping webmasters better comply with Google’s guidelines, Webmaster Tools can automatically perform various useful services like creating a Robots.txt file, counting links, or generating custom 404 error page messages.

Webmasters can not only find out what Google search phrases brought visitors to their sites, but the searches that made their pages show up in results. This holds importance because it may be used to determine what pages need more attractive description tags.

Site listing preferences like URL style (show “www” in results or not), image search inclusion, country-specific targeting, and “spidering” frequency, may be set in Google Webmaster Tools as well (under the “Settings” tab).

OVERALL IMPORTANCE

It is of the most importance that Webmaster Tools gives webmasters clear information on how to make their sites more acceptable to Google, the top search engine. This has the potential to raise a site’s position in results, considerably increasing its traffic.

However, the Webmaster Tools service does not replace Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tasks like META tag creation, keyword density enhancement, or link building. It also doesn’t take into account the policies of different search engines like Yahoo and MSN, which also hold importance.

OTHER SEARCH ENGINES

Do other major engines offer Webmaster Tools equivalents? To some extent, yes. MSN/Live has the Live Search Webmaster Center (webmaster.live.com), and the “Webmaster Resources” section of Yahoo! Help offers some useful links within their site. Ask.com has a page oriented to webmasters as well.

ABOUT GOOGLE.COM

According to their web site, Google was incorporated in 1998 and relocated to Mountain View, CA (its current location) a year later. Google’s importance to webmasters grew as it rapidly became the top engine in following years, and Webmaster Tools was established in 2006.

Considering that this service is free and easy to register for, there is little reason for webmasters not to give it a try.

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