Here are some of the answers to the questions posted.  More will be added in the next day or two.

 

Q:  If multiple sites are setup in Google Webmaster tools, does this Search Queries section so results consolidated from all sites?

A:  The Search Queries and/or Crawl Error sections only reflect what Google collection for that parrticular web property. Because I selected our library website as the web property after logging into Webmaster Tools I can only view queries and crawl errors for the website.

 

Q:  We've noticed that the indexing rate of our site is going down in certain sections. Have you experienced this?

A:  We have not noticed this on our site.  In the past we had several pages where the essential meta data descriptors were identical for each of those pages.  In that case I can understand Google having a difficult time indexing what it thinks are identical pages.  Having a site map helps Google to “stop thinking” so to speak and index each of the pages included in the site map file.

 

Q:  Do the tools assess ADA compliance?

A:  They do not or at least not yet anyway.  As mentioned in the presentation we have site license for SiteImprove which does identify pages that have compliance issues along with broken links and spelling errors.  I have found that SiteImprove does not fully check every page every time it runs.  It seems to stop and log the page after it finds an error but it doesn’t finish checking the page for other errors.

 

Q:  Once you add Webmaster, how long does it typically take before data is available? For example, the mobile usability section is not yet populated for my site.

A:  Typically you should see something in about 24 hours assuming of course your users have hit the page, link, tab, etc. being tracked.  Depending on the time of day the change was implemented I can see it taking up to 48 hours for Google to capture the information and process their log file(s).

 

Q:  We have setup Google Analytics in the past, and just recently setup Google Apps which contains Webmaster tools.  Do you know if these can be connected even if setup with different Google accounts?

A:  They can be connected if there is a Google account in both the webmaster tools and analytics with admin permissions. For adding a user account to Google Analytics see https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1009702?hl=en and for webmaster tools see https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/2454036?hl=en

 

Q:  Just to be clear, the search queries are what people typed on the Google search engine, correct?  Not the search box on the website, if the website has its own google customized search?

A:  That is correct unless you are also via Tag Manager, tracking what users enter into the search box on your website.

 

Q:   What is best practice in how many different google property ids do you use at your schools?

A;   Good question and it does point out there is a difference between the number of property ids possible and at what point do the number of ids exceed what is practical to keep up with. For the libraries we have been trying to stick with one property id per resource, and at the University level, they only want their tracking code added to all files located in the librar folder on the webserver.

 

Q:  Should you just have one person designated to utilize the webmaster tools? Or what happens if you have multiple people using the tool for your site?

A:  There should be one or two individuals designated as the “administrators” for the account. He/She/They then have the responsibility of assigning “roles” to other staff.  For the most part the Crawl Error, Search Queries, and Mobility sections are just windows into your web property.  You can see what’s there but you cannot damage anything since the “fixes” must be made within your web property and not within Webmaster Tools.  Having multiple staff being able to view Crawl Errors and fix the problems would be a big plus!  Unfortunately once a user is assigned the role of “full” they have complete access to everything including being able to remove URLs from Google’s index.

 

Q:  What is your CMS?

A:   Marquette University currently does not have a CMS.  Discussions are underway and a vendor will be selected before the end of this semester.

 

Q:  Can I use Google tag manager with Drupal Google Analytics Module?

A:  The Google Tag Manager Module is what you will be looking for (https://www.drupal.org/project/google_tag)

 

Q:  Do you find that using the Webmaster tool increases your site's ranking in search results?

A:  It does help, especially with new pages that are added. This is mainly because of the sitemaps that are submitted to Google. But remember Google isn’t the only search engine in the US, there is also Bing, which has its own suite of webmaster tools. As of the date of this publishing, Yahoo search results are powered by Bing, and DuckDuckGo is powered by a combination of results from Yandex, Yahoo!, Bing, and Yummly.

 

Q:  What feature on Google gives you the heat maps as shown in the ad?

A:  The closest GA gets to heat maps is the In-Page Analytics which is accessible via the google analytics web interface (in Behavior > In-Page Analytics) or the Chrome Extension  (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/page-analytics-by- google/fnbdnhhicmebfgdgglcdacdapkcihcoh?hl=en). To simulate a heat map, make sure to enable the "Show Colors" option. Here is Google's documentation on In-Page Analytics https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/2558811?hl=en

 

Q:  Also were you able to do cross site linking with any of your journal vendors?

A:  We have not been able to get CDT working with vendor websites, due to the inability to customize them as we need. However, we have found that some of them are starting to provide better statistical counts for the month an article was accessed vs the year it was published. This kind of information has greatly helped with weeding electric journal subscriptions.