Despite all of the complaining and protests about Google’s constant changes in algorithms and SEO strategy, it has been very good at giving webmasters the ability to learn from their mistakes and monitor their progress. One of the best tools available for such monitoring is Webmaster Tools, which can be used to track progress on keywords, detect penalties and much more. All too many people setup Webmaster Tools but never really pay much attention to it. In the world of SEO, this is inexcusable. Today, we’ll discuss what you should constantly be looking out for in Webmaster Tools in order to ensure smooth and easy SEO sailing.

Crawl Errors

There are plenty of reasons why a search engine might not be able to access a page. The problem could be on the webmaster’s end or on Google’s, but there is a record available for each time that this occurs. Within Webmaster Tools, you’ll be able to access what are called Crawl Error Reports. These reports can help you quickly determine why a page may not be ranking when everything else looks A-OK, or why traffic has suddenly dropped. Simply navigate to the Crawl section within Webmaster Tools to find out exactly which pages are experiencing difficulties and why.

Changes in Algorithms

Google is known for its constant changes to algorithms, much to the chagrin of webmasters. Fortunately, you can be in the loop when these changes happen, thanks to Webmaster Tools. Any website that already has Google Analytics installed will be able to overlap this data with the announcement of algorithm changes to determine whether or not a new algorithm alteration is worth panicking over. It is very important to be pinging your website with Google Analytics’ services, in part because it can help you detect…

Penalties

The ultimate dread of any SEO enthusiast is the penalty. Penalties can occur for a variety of reasons. Perhaps you accidentally duplicated or plagiarized content. Maybe a recent change in algorithms has resulted in one or more elements on your site being out of compliance. Whatever the reason, any manual penalties that are added to your site by Google will be in your Manual Actions Report within Webmaster Tools. It is here that you’ll be able to determine where you’re being penalized and how significant it may be, especially in conjunction with Google Analytics. If you carefully monitor this section of Webmaster Tools, then you may be able to catch the problem before it results in a drastic loss of traffic and a variety of other related problems.

Website Performance

Webmaster Tools can provide plenty of information on direct SEO concerns, but it helps with the indirect ones as well. Your website’s overall performance and speed are vital components to long-term SEO success, as anyone who is pinging your website will only give you so much leeway and time before they look elsewhere. PageSpeed Insights within WT will provide you with this information and can help you avoid excessive bounce rates, losses in revenue and a bad reputation.