This article is about fixing website issues using Google Webmaster Tools.

All websites that you want to be indexed in Google need to be set up on Google Webmaster Tools. You will need to verify that you own the site by going through their site verification process and it is also a good idea to submit an XML sitemap.

In the past I have used Google Webmaster Tools to primarily check my search traffic keywords, links to my site and that the pages were being indexed by Google.

I have not systemised these checks and it is certainly a good idea to make sure you check your site with Google Webmaster Tools on a regular basis and here is the reason why.

From time to time you will get messages from Google flagging up errors on your website which you need to fix. I have just discovered 2 huge general errors and, because I was not checking Google Webmaster Tools regularly, was not aware of this until today.

Much of the content on my pages was blocked to Google because of a faulty robots.txt file which I needed to correct and re-upload via FTP. I discovered this using the ‘Crawl’ menu within Google Webmaster Tools which firstly flagged up the crawl errors. I was then able to see how Google was viewing the page using the ‘Fetch As Google’ function in the ‘Crawl’ menu. It is easy to use and very illuminating!

These errors were also affecting the mobile-friendliness of my web pages – 22% of my pages were flagging mobile errors including the fact that some of the mobile ‘touch’ elements on my pages are too close together. I may need to change my WordPress theme to correct these as Google has announced that it is de-indexing pages that are not mobile friendly as from 21st April 2015! As mobile related traffic accounts for roughly 50% of all traffic, sites that are not mobile-friendly will be at a serious traffic disadvantage.

This demonstrates why it is important to invest in a good professional theme which is tried and tested by a lot of users i.e. to make sure that all the wrinkles are ironed out. Errors like these will severely affect the amount of search engine traffic you and I will attract to our websites and therefore should not be ignored.

So I recommend that you check out your websites using Google Webmaster Tools and set about fixing website issues that this site flags up for you.