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Google has lots of tools you can access for free that will
tell you all kinds of things about your website.
For some of the tools, you will need to sign up for a free
Google account. A Google account gives you access to all kinds
of Google tools, and not just for your new website. So go
ahead and sign up for Google's
Webmaster Tools--once you do, you will also gain access
to the many tools Google offers from tools to help you track
your finances to Google Groups, Blogs, and much, much more!
As far as Webmaster
Tools is concerned, after you get logged in there are
three things you want to do here:
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1. Add a site - put a tracking code into your webpage
so Google can keep tabs on it
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2. Submit a Sitemap - tell Google where your "sitemap.xml"
file is to make it easier for Google to know about all
of your web pages
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3. Generate a "robot.txt" file - create and
upload a special file that tells search engines how
to scan your website's content
First, click the "Add a site" button.
Here Google will provide you with a snippet of html code
that you'll need to copy and paste into the html code of your
index page anywhere between the <head> and </head>
tags. Does this sound like Chinese to you?! From time to time
you're going to have to paste some code into your page, so
you need to know how to do this.
How to paste html code into
a web page:
Open one of the web pages you've
created or are working on.
From the main Dreamweaver menu at
the top of the page, go to "View." Toward the
top you'll see that the word "Design" is checked.
When "Design" is checked, in the main window of
Dreamweaver you see the design of your web page--you don't
see the html code Dreamweaver is creating behind the scenes
as you type, past in images, etc.
Now if you go back to "View"
on the menu and select "Code," in the main window
of Dreamweaver you will see all of the html code Dreamweaver
has created--this is the stuff web browsers like Internet
Explorer and Firefox read when they look at your web page.
It tells them how to display the web page. Back in the old
days, if you wanted to create a web page, you had to type
out this code directly all by yourself--there weren't any
programs like Dreamweaver that automatically wrote the code
for you as you typed!
Anyway, once in a while you have
to go to the "Code" view and paste in some code.
After you paste in the code, change the view back to "Design"
and then continue to work normally.
As far as the code snippet from Google's Webmaster Tools
is concerned, like I said, you must paste this snippet between
the <head> and </head> tags. You need to do this
on your home page, your "index.htm" file. The <head>
and </head> tags are at the top of the page. Go ahead
and put your cursor to the left of the </head> tag,
then right click and paste the snippet of code in.
Now return to "Design" view. You won't be able
to see the code you pasted in--that's all behind-the-scenes
stuff. In scanning over the world wide web, though, Google's
computers will see that piece of code, and this is how they
will be able to analyze your website for you.
Go ahead and save your index.htm file and then "put"
(upload) it to your host account server.
Back at the Webmaster Tools page, click the "Verify"
button. Google will quickly scan your site to see if the code
is now embedded in your page. You may need to click the "Verify"
button a couple of times. Eventually you'll end up at the
"Dashboard" page. This is is your Webmaster Tools
homepage.
Check out the headings--Google will begin gathering data
on your website and the results will be listed here. It will
take a few weeks, at least, for any data to be gathered, but
eventually you'll be able to see where your website ranks
for various searches (Top search queries), if anyone has linked
into your site (Links to your site), errors on your website,
etc. Explore Google's summaries and explanations to get the
most out of this information, but, like I said, it will take
some time for Google to gather any meaningful data.
Second, submit your sitemap to Google.
On the left-hand side of the Webmaster Tools page, click
"Site configuration" and then "Sitemaps."
On the Sitemaps page, click the "Submit a Sitemap"
button. Google will then ask for the location of your sitemap.
If you've already created a sitemap see "Site
Map"), tell Google where you saved it--it should
be in your root folder (where you keep your index file). So,
for example, type in "www.nameofyoursite.com/sitemap.xml"
(use the xml sitemap).
If you've done everything correctly, in a few minutes (refresh
the page) a green check will appear in the "status"
column.
Third, create and upload a robot.txt file.
A robot.txt file provides instructions to the machines that
crawl over all of the websites on the internet. You don't
HAVE to have a robot.txt file unless there are files on your
server you don't want the crawler to go rummaging through,
but it probably helps things go more smoothly when a crawler
goes over your site.
All you have to do is click "Generate robot.txt,"
choose "Allow all," and click "Download."
Save the generated file to the root of your website (where
you keep the index file). Don't forget to upload it to your
hosting account (server).
Ok, so now you're all set to begin receiving a little feedback
and stats about your website's performance on the web. But
wait! There are a few more Google tools you'll want to get
connected to to exponentially increase the feedback you'll
get... Click "Next" below!
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