Google provides free webmaster tools that you can use to help improve your website's visibility. These tools can also assist in diagnosing and fixing any construction or design problems on your website.

In order to access the webmaster tools, you need a Google account. Once you've created your account, log in by going to www.google.com/webmasters. Next, input the URLs of the websites you would like to add. You will then be required to verify that you are the owner of these websites.

Google offers two different methods of verification:

With the first method, Google will give you a name to use for a web page. You will create and upload a new page for your website using the name exactly as it was provided by Google. Once finished, you need to click a button that will inform Google the task has been performed. Google will then verify the page and the verification process will be complete.

The second verification method involves the addition of a Meta tag that Google will provide. You will need to add the Meta tag to the headline of your home page and then upload it to your website. Notify Google once you're finished. They will then verify the page to complete the process.

You can begin monitoring your website using the webmaster tools dashboard as soon as Google verifies it. Your dashboard contains information about your website as well as links to more webmaster tools.

Let's take a closer look at some of the Webmaster Tools:

1. Settings

The Settings tab allows you to set a geographic target and a preferred domain. It also allows you to add images to Google Image Labeler.

The geographic target setting allows you to provide information that Google uses to determine how your site appears in their country-specific search results. This will help drive geo-specific, targeted traffic to your site.

Setting the preferred domain to show your display URL with the www.yourdomain.com is the best option.

If you would like to add your images to the Google Image Labeler, check the appropriate box. Letting Google decide the crawl rate is the best option here.

2. Diagnostics

When Google crawls your website it may find errors. The Diagnostics section will SHOW YOU these errors. Check the error reports on a regular basis to make sure that any recently added content is recognized by the search engine spiders and that no new errors have occurred. The diagnostic tool will also show any http, URLS or robot restriction errors.

3. Search Queries

The Search Queries tool lets you see exactly how people are getting to your website with a Google search. This tool is unique because it shows you where your site was listed in the search engine ranking for specific terms typed into the search engine.

4. Statistics

The Statistics tool shows you the top search queries for your site, the most popular pages on your site as well as the pages that are most often clicked on. It also shows your Crawl stats and your site's distribution info which includes the current Page Rank for your site's pages.

Use index stats to verify that your site is indexed by Google, which pages are indexed, and any other websites that point to yours.

Subscriber shows you how many users have used Google products such as iGoogle or Google Reader to subscribe to these feeds.

5. Links

There are three important areas of the Links setting:

-External links: This shows which of your website's pages have links pointing to them from other sites.
-Site links: This shows which of your site's links have been identified as candidates for showing up directly in Google's search results.
-Internal links: This shows which of your site's pages have links pointing to them internally from other pages on your site.

6. Sitemaps

To me, the site maps section is the foundation of Google Webmaster Tools. This tool allows you to upload and manage your site map files. We have produced a separate video to teach you all of the important aspects of site maps.

7. Tools

The major focus of the Tools section is on the robots.txt file. This file is so important that we have once again devoted an entire video coveringthis topic.

Remember, using Google Webmaster Tools regularly is one of the best ways to effectively maintain your website, and to keep your pages optimized so they remain appealing to the search engines.

I want to invite you to sign up for our free newsletter. When you do, we'll provide you with links to other great webmaster tools.