Freeing Your Site's Information: Google WebMaster Tools

The internet is the largest and most varied medium of information in all of human history, housing literally billions of web pages ranging in topics from the mundane to the esoteric. Many companies struggle with determining how to make their websites visible and heavily trafficked on the Internet, and Google is helping out website owners, search marketing managers and webmasters with tools that include Content Analysis, Sitemaps, and more.

These tools are incredibly useful vehicles to develop and manage sites that a search engine can navigate and use, which any Search Engine Marketer will tell you is fundamentally important for the success and visibility of a site on the web. One aspect of this topic includes the importance of page elements and how to effectively leverage rich content like flash, AJAX, video, and more.

One thing to remember is the importance of using textual alternatives for content that is primarily audio/visual for the benefit of searching technologies. While humans have the ability to comprehend the “message” behind this rich content, search engines cannot. While we as humans can look at a picture of a car and understand and interpret what we’re looking at conceptually and even specifically, a search engine spider is left with nothing more than an array of pixels. One way to “tell” a search engine what’s behind this content is to use alt attributes for images and noscript/alternative content for browsers without JavaScript/Flash.

This has twofold importance. For one, this makes a site much more accessible to the visually impaired (who may use programs such as JAWS, a text/speech tool for visualization), and second, it helps search engine spiders index a site. Failure to use such options effectively leaves large portions of the internet essentially blind to your content, resulting in fewer page visits and less overall user engagement. In order to be more than just another fish in the sea, webmasters should leverage these tools and techniques to free their information, bringing it into the light for all to see.

If you’re not using Google’s Webmaster Central, get an account today and get instant visibility into the pages of your site.

Corey Koberg

Corey Koberg is a Founder and co-CEO at Cardinal Path where he leads the analysis, data science, media, and product development teams. He is a well-known speaker, having keynoted and led sessions on advertising, analytics, and optimization at conferences and events across the globe. Over the last decade he has taught thousands on the topics of online marketing measurement, statistical analysis, and optimization. He is the author of Display Advertising: An Hour A Day (Wiley, 2012), Google Analytics Essential Training (Lynda.com, 2011) and technical editor of several works, among them Performance Marketing with Google Analytics (Wiley, 2010), Google AdWords Essential Training (Lynda.com, 2011), and Google Website Optimizer Essential Training (Lynda.com, 2010) As a Principal, he has worked with dozens of Fortune 500 companies, such as Google, Chevron, Intel, NBC, Papa John’s, National Geographic, Time Warner, Universal Music, DeVry University, and others, to improve the effectiveness of their online presence through results-oriented, data-driven optimization. Corey holds a degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Illinois and has been involved in Internet-related engineering and consulting for over 15 years, beginning his career in the NCSA labs that developed the world’s first web browser. Corey is a proud husband and father of three children and enjoys sailboat racing, downhill skiing, and photography. He is involved on a volunteer basis with the University of Illinois and the local Emergency Response Team.