Should we add our site to Google Webmaster Tools

[BobGW]

Hello,

Should we add our site

nlpca(dot)com

to google webmaster tools?

Everything's very white hat but we do have a section on each of our 4 sites for "Our other Sites" that link to the others. It's been there for many years.

We're looking for clues as to why we've dropped in rank

Thanks!

[Vahe.Arabian]

Hi Bob,

I think you should definently add nlpca to Google Webmaster Tools; as it provides you clues about the general health of your site.

In GWT you can look at the some of the following clues for drops in ranking:

• Malware Errors

• Crawl Rates

• Duplicate meta data

• Changes in search querie/landing page impressions and position

• Recent server side issues i.e. if a certain page has been detected as a 404 page e.t.c

Hope this helps,

Vahe

[BobGW]

Will it provide all of this even though we are just now adding it? What will it provide on information on drops in ranking since we're just now getting it set up in GWT?

[dreadmichael]

Yes! Google webmaster tools is a great help in determining crawler issues, queries, duplicates etc.

Now Google Analytics can be linked with Webmaster Tools allowing for even better data analysis. There is no reason not to have every site you manage up and running with Webmaster Tools.

[watkinsheating]

I don't see any downside to using WT. If I read you right, you've avoided WT hoping to hide this recip page from google? Rest assured, google sees it whether you're on wt on not!

As to diagnosing your rankings drop, wt will not just give you an answer nor will they point to the portion of your link profile or content that they don't like. The data that they give you on queries and clicks are very vague and inaccurate (and intentionally so), and I don't think they would help much with your issue. It is very useful for finding crawl errors, uploading a site map, and seeing +1 activity. WT is just one more tool to help you make your site more useful.

[gmk1567]

Search query report will be of great help to analyze organic CTR and ranking. Even though the data is available only for the last 35 days, the report is very valuable.

[BWIRic]

Another useful feature is the ability to remove pages from the index. I've needed to do this a couple times. It's free and only takes a few minutes to set up so I'd do it for every site. Google seem to be developing and refreshing a lot of things at the moment too so I am sure Google Webmaster Tools will only improve with time.