Google Verification Process Changes Ever So Slightly
Recently a website I maintain was no longer verified by Google Webmaster tools. Odd, since it had been working for some time using the HTML method.
I downloaded the HTML file from Goole Webmaster, and uploaded it once again to the site. I noticed that the previous version was zero length file, and the new file from Google has some text in it (a google-site-verification property). I don’t remember this from before, but either way, it works now.
We have to all remember that these Google tools are free, and they will change them whenever they want. There was a helpful post from Google’s Webmaster Blog about changes around October 1, 2009.
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/10/changes-to-website-verification-in.html
Not exactly my issue, but close enough to it.
Three Google Freebies That Everyone Should Have
Here’s three freebies from Google that everyone should have on their website-almost no excuse! It’s not completely free in the sense that it’ll take some time to implement, but not much time.
1. Get Google Analytics – it will tell you how many visitors went to your site, and from what search engine, and where they went once they got there. Also-you can look at the reports yourself – you don’t need a techie to explain them to you. Check out the ‘overlay’ feature that shows you an overlay of statistics on top of your website.
2. Get Google Webmaster Tools – Web master tools let’s you know for sure that Google is crawling your site properly. If it’s not being crawled properly, Google will tell you why. You get some quick tips like you should have unique Title tags. It will also tell you if other sites are linking to broken links on your site.
3. Get on Google Maps – Google Maps puts a nice icon on their map right where your office is. There’s a quick registration process and they’ll snail-mail you a postcard to prove that you’re there. You then type in a code off the card onto their site, and you’re done.
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