COIN 74B - Lesson 11 Homework
This assignment has several tasks.
You will set up a Google Webmaster account, upload your XML sitemap, and ensure that the site has been indexed. This may take a few weeks, so start right after you make your XML sitemap in assignment ten. If you are managing a site for a client, try to start this work early enough so that you can report better page ranking.
- Set up a Google Webmaster account. This will be similar to your other Google logins, but be careful in that you can only have two Google accounts open at a time. This is normally not an issue. Go to http://www.google.com/webmasters/ to access your six Webmaster tools (see the links below).
- Go to the site index status tools at https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/sitestatus Type in a site name, and find out if it has been indexed, and if all the pages in the site have been indexed. Submit an XML sitemap if it has not.
- Upload your XML site map (sitemap.xml) Go to Google webmaster tools (including sitemaps) and follow the link to your account. There a number of links and steps to follow - make sure to follow the directions. When your sitemap has been visited, the Google search bot will have a deeper inventory to follow when it comes back.
- Follow the link to submit content http://www.google.com/intl/en/submit_content.html If you have not submitted content for a site before, try this tool. You can get a client's site indexed very quickly - without being a webmaster.
- Try searching Google base http://base.google.com/base and consider how it work for a client
- Check out the Google Blog Spot at http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/read about new robots.txt files and what you need to do to enhance, or block, indexing of your site. Tell me about an article that you have read.
- Visit the Webmaster groups forum at http://groups.google.com/group/Google_Webmaster_Help and read some of the articles in an area of interest to you. Read before posting, and use the FAQ search for faster searching.
- Check out the Web Master Help Central http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/
- Set up Google tracking code in the bottom of one of your pages. This can be done manually or through site wide edits http://groups.google.com/group/analytics-help-tracking/topics Try putting that code in a few pages.
- Use the tracking codes above to create more detailed site visit reports. Visit your site from two different computers and then look at the analytics report. Can you see how visitors enter and navigate your website?
Write up a summary of all the above and put it into a web page that I can read. Call it analytics.htm or something like that, and link to it from HW.htm. Tell me about what you have learned, and the pros and cons of using these tools. You will be a better webmaster, and make more money from a more satisfied client when you master these tools.