Comments on: SEO Q&A : Should You Use Google Webmaster Tools?

By: Matthew

Matthew — Mon, 11 May 2009 18:29:46 +0000

Hi,

I have an established health information site with 3000 pages and a PR that fluctuates between 4 and 5.

Over the past month the total backlinks shown in Webmaster Tools has dropped from 6500 to 5000, while links to the homepage have been cut in half from 3000 to 1500. Traffic during this time has continued to climb steadily…

Surely there isn’t a campaign against my site that has resulted in half of the backlinks to my site being removed over a month! Does anybody know why there could be such a significant drop in the backlinks according to Webmaster Tools?

Thanks.

By: Vrata

Vrata — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 19:35:30 +0000

Hello, I have a site with about 1000 unique users daily. There is now almost 6 months till the domain registration, the Page rank is still 0. I guess it’s in the sandbox

I have 4-5 years of writing in forums and I have about 5000 posts in various forums with an average Page rank of 3.

I can put the address of the site with the appropriate anchor in my signature in these forums. Could that do any help at all? I mean regarding the optimization? However, these would be extra links, pointing to the site, but they come from sites with topics that had nothing to do with my site subject.

The “Drop by drop – pool” sentence could apply here?
So, my question is: What’s better? Less links, but from suitable sites or many links INDISCRIMINATELY?

Thanks in advance.:))

Best regards,

By: afree4u

afree4u — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 20:04:49 +0000

I think they would use it to their advantage if you have more multiple sites in one account.

By: Peter Mack

Peter Mack — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 03:58:41 +0000

The most frustrating thing about Google Webmaster Tools is how long it takes to update. I usually have to wait 2-3weeks before i see any changes despite being crawled every few days. It makes it very difficult to track how changes to the site or optimization effects traffic.

For example, search results and links take a very long time. Do those praising how great Webmaster Tools are have a similar experience?

By: Laura

Laura — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 21:32:26 +0000

You have to figure that they have the info off your server logs anyway, whether you sign up for the service or not. I have never heard of a case where server logs were considered private, and I would think that along with indexing the site it’s self, the related server logs are also looked at. But this is just a guess on my part…
However, I do know that I have had pages on my server indexed when no link to them existed. So googlebot is poking around in places that it doesn’t get to by following links.
The tools are okay, I don’t think it matters one way or another rank-wise just to purely use them. It just makes your log info look nice, and hopefully from there you can make informed decisions that will help ranking, or traffic, or whatever your cause.

By: Internet Marketing Joy

Internet Marketing Joy — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 19:42:51 +0000

Honestly, I haven’t tried using this tool…but after reading this one…I’m looking forward to using it myself and experience how it differs from other tools.

By: Daria Goetsch

Daria Goetsch — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 17:52:29 +0000

I sign clients up individually for Google Webmaster tools and Google Analytics so we both are able to view reports and stats. I particularly like the links section of Google Webmaster tools. I download the links, save off in excel and am able to track new links indexed from link building for clients.

By: Colorado Mortgage

Colorado Mortgage — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 15:38:30 +0000

I have wondered if they track how often I login. I guess it’s obvious they track it, but do they do anything with that information? Does logging in make you look like you’re aggressively trying to SEO your site. If you look like you’re too eager, will they punish you at some point? I only have two sites, so it’s pretty obvious in my case. I doubt that they use that information, but I’ve definitely wondered about it.

By: EX

EX — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 14:35:13 +0000

I use Google Webmaster Tools everyday!

By: Goran Giertz - Marketing

Goran Giertz - Marketing — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 14:25:58 +0000

We are all in the business of researching and understanding as much about websites and the Internet as possible.

That is what makes SEO what it is. We are always on the lookout for more and more tools to show us more and more information.

Its expected that Google or any of the search engines are doing the same.

I am really not bothered if its going to help me and my clients efforts by Google having more information.

As far as the Web Master tools are concerned, well they are tools and they are tools made by the people that we are trying to optimise around.

Knowing if our sites are being crawled by Google well….. priceless.

Wishing everyone an exseollent day.