Google-specific website enhancements

Set up Google Webmaster Account

A Google webmaster account serves as a dashboard for website developers to find, implement and track all Google-related enhancement to a website. It is a free account and must be set up before you can verify your website, attach a sitemap or generate and add Google Analytics, all described here.

Generate and add Google verification code to your site

The Google site verification snippet is a piece of code used to connect your site to your Google Webmaster Account. It also serves as a red flag to Google that your site is up and running, that the owner is likely a savvy owner, and that the website is at least at a minimum compliant with its search methodology.

Generate, modify and attach an xml sitemap

Unlike a user sitemap, a list links for all the pages in your site, an xml sitemap is for the specific use of major search engines. It is a roadmap to let a search engine know which pages are important -- and how important they are relative to your home page -- and which are not. By passing over pages like your Privacy Policy, or any others that you choose, your search results only include undiluted content-rich pages.

Generate and apply Google Analytics code

Though the addition of Google Analytics code to your site does not itself attract additional visitors, it is a key tool in the tracking of those visitors. By including it, you can see in real time the effects of any traffic cultivation efforts you apply to your site.