Top 20 Search Queries: Why Google Webmaster Central Is Your Best Tool
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Tuesday, 8 of April , 2008 at 11:29 am
One feature I like about Google Webmaster Central is the Top 20 Queries tool. You can check to see what the top 20 queries for each of your websites are AND which ones are the most clicked on. This information is helpful to you as a webmaster for a couple of reasons. First, you need to know how people are finding your website. The top 20 queries allows you to see at a glance what queries people are seeking information on and which ones your site appears for. It even tells you the lineup in the SERPs for the pages you rank for. Secondly, if you see pages that you rank for but you are not appearing in the second column for (which queries people are clicking on) then you need to re-optimize those pages or tweak them so that you “get the click.”
Another detail that you can glean from this information is keywords you want to rank for but don’t. If pages that you want to rank for do not appear in the first list then you need to figure out a way to get them there. It may mean you need to optimize those pages better or it could mean you need more link building. Whatever the case, it’s time to analyze and see how you can keep improving. Search queries tell you a lot of information about where you fall in line against your competitors for your Search Engine Optimization efforts. Pay attention to them.
Category: Webmaster Tools
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Comment by Robert Orlich
Made Tuesday, 1 of July , 2008 at 2:43 pm
Hello y’all, I just wanted to say that the spam reporting tool in the google webmasters tools is showing some signs of improvement. I work in SEO in the pharmaceutical business, which y’all know it’s very competitive and full of spam/scams all over.
I’ve used the tool to report competitors spam on forums and blogs where all they do is put repeated and hidden keyword text, with lots of alt stuffed keywords and crosslinks. To some extent I’ve managed, or the people at google that is, to remove a lot of spam pages from the results, altought another one pops up every 2 to 3 days, and I’m talking about the first 10 SERP’s for various keywords.
It’s a little pain in the derrier to sumbit 30 and 40 sites a day, but hey someone’s gotta do it, and if it bounces my sites from #6 to #3 or 2, GREAT.
The whole point is to encourage users to report spam and abuse to Google and help clean the net.
Greetings and good reporting,
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