Getting Site Stats with Google
If you wish, you can set Google up to provide you - free of charge- some key statistics on how people are finding you in Google. To start, use the same entrance page that you used to set up your sitemap, or:
http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/siteoverview
- Set up a free account in Google if you haven’t already.
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Add your site URL to the list on the page if it isn’t already there.
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Click the Verify button to the right of the URL listing.
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Choose the type of verify. You can do it by adding a web page to the site or by using a Meta tag on your home page. I like to add a page to the site - in that way I don’t have to modify existing pages.
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Google will return the file name for this page.
Keep your Google page open and start your HTML editor. Create a blank page with the specified name and upload it to the main directory of your site. -
Return to the Google page and tell Google the page has been uploaded.
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Return to the entry page and wait until Google verifies it has found it.
This will start Google on a pilgrimage of collecting data for your site. To see this data, return to the entrance page as:
http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/siteoverview
Click the URL of the site. You will then see a menu at the top and left of the page. Try the various options. If you select Statistics at the top and Query Stats at the left, you will see your position when a person queries Google for various search terms. A low number is best - as it defines your position. A value of 1, for example, would mean that you were the top site returned on that search term. To the right you can see another column that shows the terms people clicked through to your site on. Again, it shows your position in the returned results.
Google also has an additional analysis feature that you can reach using:
http://analytics.google.com
Unfortunately, the feature doesn’t exist yet. Google bought it from Urchin. In fact, they bought the whole company. The feature , however, isn’t there yet. If you host with us, we can add the Urchin to your site directly for an extra $10 a month. This is well worth it for a serious web site.
Get lots of tips with Verison 9 of our SEO Book….