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SEO Promotion and analysis
Make use of free webmaster tools
Make Googlebot crawling smoother by using Webmaster Tools
Major search engines, including Google, provide free tools for webmasters. Google's Webmaster Tools help webmasters better control how Google interacts with their websites and get useful information from Google about their site. Using Webmaster Tools won't help your site get preferential treatment; however, it can help you identify issues that, if addressed, can help your site perform better in search results. With the service, webmasters can:
- see which parts of a site Googlebot had problems crawling
- notify us of an XML Sitemap file
- analyze and generate robots.txt files
- remove URLs already crawled by Google
- specify your preferred domain
- identify issues with title and description meta tags
- understand the top searches used to reach a site
- get a glimpse at how Googlebot sees pages
- remove unwanted sitelinks that Google may use in results
- receive notification of quality guideline violations and request a site reconsideration
Yahoo! (Yahoo! Site Explorer) and Microsoft (Bing Webmaster Tools) also offer free tools for webmasters.
High-level analysis is possible via Google Analytics and Website Optimizer
If you've improved the crawling and indexing of your site using Google Webmasters Tools or other services, you're probably curious about
the traffic coming to your site. Web analytics programs like Google Analytics are a valuable source of insight for this. You can use these to:
- get insight into how users reach and behave on your site
- discover the most popular content on your site
- measure the impact of optimizations you make to your site - e.g. did changing those title and description meta tags improve traffic from search engines?
For advanced users, the information an analytics package provides, combined with data from your server log files, can provide even more comprehensive information about how visitors are interacting with your documents (such as additional keywords that searchers might use to find your site).
Lastly, Google offers another tool called Google Website Optimizer that allows you to run experiments to find what on-page changes will produce the best conversion rates with visitors. This, in combination with Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools (see our video on using the "Google Trifect") , is a powerful way to begin improving your site.
Your Cabanova Website and Google Webmaster Tools
We've made is easier for you to connect your Cabanova Website with your Google Webmaster Tools account.
Here are detailed instructions on how to go about it:
- Log into your Google Webmaster Tools account [a] by clicking here
- If yet you do not have a Google Webmaster Tools account, you can sign up for free by hitting ‘Create an account now’ [b] on the above link
- Once logged into your Google Webmaster Tools account, click on 'Add a site'
- Enter your Website URL in the following format: http://www.yourdomain.com/ [a] and hit 'Continue' [b]
- Click on 'This HTML verification file' and save the HTML verification file on your Desktop
- Then log into your Cabanova account, edit your Website, go to the 'SEO' ribbon [1], hit 'Google Webmaster Tools' [2]
- Hit 'Upload HTML Verification File' [3], upload the Google HTML file you downloaded earlier and click 'OK'.
- Then go back to your Google Webmaster Tools account and hit 'Verify'
- Click on 'Continue'
- Click on 'Site configuration' [a] and select 'Sitemaps' [b]
- Click on 'Submit a Sitemap' [a], enter sitemap.xml in the displayed field [b] and hit 'Submit Sitemap' [c]
The Sitemap submission status will be first set to (Pending) then to (Validated)
At this point, the Google Webmaster Tools feature is correctly activated.
However, your Website won't get instantaneously indexed and available through Google Search.
The indexing process may take between 48 hours and a few days to complete.
Once your Website is fully indexed, a search on Google with your site name for example should list your Website among the first results.
Your Cabanova Website and Google Analytics
We've made it easier for you to connect your Cabanova Website with your Google Analytics account.
In the website builder, select SEO [1] ribbon and hit Google Analytics [2].
A popup will open named Google Analytics.
In a new browser window, go to the Google Analytics website and sign in (if you already have an account) [c] or sign up (if you do not already have an account) [d]:
After you are logged in, on the overview page select "+ Add new account" [e]:
In the page that follows, hit "Sign Up >" [f].
A page will load where you must enter your general website information. In the first field "Website's URL" [g], enter the exact URL that is diplayed in the Cabanova website builder in the Google Analytics settings popup [1] (for example: websitename.cabanova.com/analytics.htm):
In the same form enter a name for your account and the relevant time zone, then hit "Continue >" [i]
In the following page, enter your contact information and hit "Continue >"
On the next page accept the terms and conditions and then hit "Create New Account >"
A page will now be diplayed which tell you to "Paste this code on to your site". The code displayed includes a Web Property ID (in the format UA-xxxxxx-x). Select and copy only this Web Property ID [k]:
Back in the Cabanova web editor, paste the code into the field marked Web Property ID [1] and close the popup by hitting "OK" [2]:
Now publish your website by navigating to "File" and then "Publish Online"
Go back to your Google Analytics page and hit the "Save and Finish" button at the bottom of the page.
You will now see your website listed in your overview. You will see a warning icon in the status column [d], but this will change to a green check after a wait of up to 12 hours when Google has verified you have entered the Web Property ID in your website correctly.
Promote your website in the right ways
About increasing backlinks with an intention to increase the value of the site
While most of the links to your site will be gained gradually, as people discover your content through search or other ways and link to it, Google understands that you'd like to let others know about the hard work you've put into your content. Effectively promoting your newcontent will lead to faster discovery by those who are interested in the same subject (1). As with most points covered in this document, taking these recommendations to an extreme could actually harm the reputation of your site.
Master making announcements via blogs and being recognized online
A blog post on your own site letting your visitor base know that you added something new is a great way to get the word out about new
content or services. Other webmasters who follow your site or RSS feed could pick the story up as well.
Putting effort into the offline promotion of your company or site can also be rewarding. For example, if you have a business site, make sure
its URL is listed on your business cards, letterhead, posters, etc. You could also send out recurring newsletters to clients through the mail
letting them know about new content on the company's website.
If you run a local business, adding its information to Google Places will help you reach customers on Google Maps and web search. The Webmaster Help Center has more tips on promoting your local business.
Best Practices
Know about social media sites
- Sites built around user interaction and sharing have made it easier to match interested groups of people up with relevant content.
Avoid:
- attempting to promote each new, small piece of content you create; go for big, interesting items
- involving your site in schemes where your content is artificially promoted to the top of these services
Reach out to those in your site's related community
- Chances are, there are a number of sites that cover topic areas similar to yours. Opening up communication with these sites is usually beneficial. Hot topics in your niche or community could spark additional ideas for content or building a good community resource.
Avoid:
- spamming link requests out to all sites related to your topic area
- purchasing links from another site with the aim of getting PageRank instead of traffic