Google Webmaster Tools is free and an easy way to keep track on ensuring your blog is Google-friendly. Google Webmaster Tools allows you to see your blog the way Google sees it. You can view which of your pages are included in Google’s index, check any crawling errors (including blocked pages or 404 errors), view search queries that listed your blog in the results pages and any more.

Visit http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/.

You can use an existing Google account or register for a new one. When you sign in to your Webmaster Tools account, the first page you’ll see is the Dashboard. This page lists all the sites in your account, along with information about Sitemaps and site verification.

Enter your blog’s domain name in to the Site field and click Add Site.

Google Webmaster Tools - Dashboard
The next step is to verify that you are an authorised ‘webmaster’ for this domain name.Click on the link Verify your site.
Google Webmaster Tools - Verify
There are two methods of verification. You can either upload a HTML file with a name Google specifies, or you can add a meta tag to your site’s index file. It’s entirely up to you – my preference is the meta tag option for blogs.This way I know that I am not going to delete the file by mistake and it is in the header together with other meta tags I’ve added.

Select Add a meta tag and then copy the meta tag displayed.
The meta tag needs to be pasted into the header of your blog’s home page.

Google Webmaster Tools - Add Metatag

Wordpress LogoThe easiest way to do this in WordPress is to include the meta tag in the header.php file. Log on to your blog’s WordPress Admin and select Presentation then Theme Editor from the menu.
Click on the header.php file from the right hand side menu. Locate the <head> tag. Paste the meta tag just after the <head> tag as shown below.

Wordpress - Edit Header.php File

Double check that the meta tag is between the <head> tag and the </head> tag before the first <body> tag. Click on Update File.
Back in Google Webmaster Tools, you can now click on Verify to let Google know to check your blog for the presence of the meta tag.
Google Webmaster Tools - Verified
You may wish to spend a couple of minutes now to explore the tools. It may take some time for Google to gather statistics for your site but you should get an idea of the data that will be available and how this will help you and, in particular, your quest for SEO, in the future.


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