The URL parameter is a pretty advanced feature in Google Webmaster Tools (here after: GWT) and, thereby, it is easy to make big mistakes. And by making these mistakes it is possible that Google does not index parts of your web site. Because Google does not index these (large) parts the content from those web pages might not appear in the search results and, thereby, you lose search traffic to your web site. Therefore, it is important to understand what the consequences are from actions in the URL parameter feature. In other words, the URL parameter feature is a powerful function and thereby it gives great responsibilities. The predecessor of the URL parameter tool was Parameter handling which was replaced with the current tool on July 2011.

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Sitelinks are links directly under the search results in Google Search for a specific search query. Normally they are presented when the search query is the domain name but it does not have to be that way in every situation. The sitelinks is a fully automatic process (algorithm). That is, just like the search results, sitelinks are selected based on computer programs called algorithm, and, thereby, it is not a manual action made by a Google employee. In principle every web site is opt in to the sitelinks and the algorithm determines if sitelinks should be presented or not.

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In my last article I looked at the home page in Google’s Webmaster Tools (here after: GWT). On this home page you can look at all the messages that Google send to you on verified web sites. If you click through these messages are repeated for the specific web site. Therefore I will not look at the messages here again. Furthermore I will not look at the dashboard because the dashboard is a summary of the information in GWT. However I will continue with the “Configuration” tab and the section “Settings”. In this category you find: Settings, Sitelinks, URL parameters, Users and Associates. Once you set this configuration, in general, you don’t have to set it again. Furthermore GWT is a help-tool for webmaster and many of these configurations you set yourself on your web site/server. In general, it is better to set it on the site/server instead of in GWT because besides Google it does help your visitors to navigate and get a better experience on your site/server.

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I will look at the home page in Google Webmaster Tools (here after: GWT) first because GWT has too many functions to handle in one article. On the home page of GWT you see a screenshot of the sites that are verified on your Google account, all messages, preferences and author stats (under “Labs”). Like I already explained in my last article Google uses GWT to communicate with webmasters. The most direct way are the messages. Although Google does send emails when messages are submitted it is good practise to check your GWT to if there are messages because people have reported fake-emails. So it is a good way to verify that the messages are really coming from Google and nobody else.

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Bing is a search engine from the software giant Microsoft. Although Bing rolled out to many English speaking countries it is still in beta for other languages. Like Google (in my last article I looked at Google Webmaster Tools and compared it to Google Analytics to get a good view about Google Webmaster Tools) Bing does have an interest in sharing information to webmasters. Indeed the core of Bing is to bring good search results to their users and it does help that your web site is crawlable. Therefore, like Google, Bing introduced the free service Bing Webmaster Tools. Bing updated its webmaster tools on 6 June 2012 (they used the codename Phoenix if you want to search the web for additional information). On this update they enhance the functions and many users reported that Bing Webmaster Tools is better then Google Webmaster Tools with regard to user interface and data provided. And I have to say that they might be right. Of course there are more reasons to use Bing but these are the most obvious ones.

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Google offers site owners or webmasters a free very handy web application to understand Google’s search engine better. Although the data or information is specific for Google Search it does help to get a better understanding about how search engines see your site in general. This free service, the Webmaster Tools, from Google was launced on 4 august 2006. Before it was called Google Sitemaps but the functions where very limited.

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