Learn how to verify and install Google & Bing Webmaster Tools.

1. By Chris J. Everett, Principal & Founder
Captivate Search Marketing

2. If you're the webmaster of an Exponent CMS website that is undergoing a search
engine marketing program, there are several metrics you'll need to analyze to
measure the performance of your campaign.
Among those basic
trends are web
page indexation,
as well as website
traffic and its
sources.
In this, the third part of my Advanced SEO Tips for Exponent CMS Websites
series, I'll discuss how to verify and install Google & Bing Webmaster Tools. In
later posts, I'll discuss how to create and upload XML sitemaps, as well has how
to setup and install Google Analytics.

3. Webmaster tools allow you
to manage the indexation of
your website, as well as
analyze its visibility in the
search index.
Before you can do this,
though, you must first verify
ownership of your site with
both Google and Bing
search engines.

4. Install Google Webmaster Tools
After logging into your Google Account, you'll want
to go to https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/.
To setup your website profile,
you'll need to select the red
“Add a Site” Button on the right
hand side of your screen.
A popup box will then appear,
where you'll type in your
website's domain name.
You'll next be directed to Verify ownership of your website.

5. There are multiple ways to verify ownership including inserting a meta tag in the
header of your theme file or selecting your DNS provider, but the method I like to
use is uploading an html verification file.

6. Simply download your HTML verification file and then upload that file to your
public_html directory through cPanel or FTP.
Once your file is uploaded, go back to Google Webmaster Tools and click the red
verify button. If you've successfully uploaded your verification file, you'll get a Green
check mark letting you know you've retained ownership of the site.

7. Install Bing Webmaster Tools
Similarly to Google, Bing Webmaster Tools can also be verified multiple ways.
First you'll go to http://www.bing.com/toolbox/webmaster and either sign in or
create a new account.

8. Once you are logged in you'll see your Bing Webmaster Tools domain
dashboard and immediately you'll notice the “Add a Site” box where you can
quickly type in your site's domain and then click “Add”

9. You'll then be directed to a screen where you're given the option to declare whether
an XML sitemap has been uploaded to your server:

10. If you don't have an XML
sitemap already on your
web server, you can
simply click “Add” and
move forward through
the process.
I'll discuss creating and
uploadingXML sitemaps
in Part IV of this
advanced SEO tips for
Exponent CMS websites.

11. You can download your “BingSiteAuth.xml” verification file from Bing and then push
that file up to public_html through FTP or cPanel/WHM. Once you've uploaded the
file, click the “Verify” button to complete the process.

12. Once you've verified ownership of your website with both Google and Bing
Webmaster Tools, you can then remove URLs from the search index, view any
crawl errors experienced by search spiders, analyze the overall health of your site,
as well as submit XML sitemaps - all of which are essential tasks for properly
maintaining a website undergoing an advanced SEO program.