The Secret Of Job Success: 10 Webmaster Skills To Thrill

Many webmasters like me struggle to construct a perfectly written CV and a cover letter for digital marketing jobs. Start building with these 10 skills that will reduce your struggle!

Ten webmaster skills that will give a direct lift to your digital marketing career - in no particular order:

I. Microsoft Office Skills

 
MS Office Suite used by 80% of businesses universally. It is simple yet with dynamic features. Among the series of applications, the most popular ones are - MS Word for desktop publishing, MS Excel for spreadsheets, MS PowerPoint for visual presentations, MS Outlook for email messaging service.

II. Foreign Language Skills

 
Studies show that up to 30% of jobs stay unfilled every year due to the unavailability of foreign language skilled professionals. Learning a foreign language means standing out and develops your employability.

III. Leadership Skills

Inserting leadership skills in CV designates (to your potential boss) that you can help a business grow well, no matter for which position you are applying. Emphasizing skills like taking initiative, achievements and in your role within it, team building and management skills will help you impress firstly, and demonstrate that you are likely to thrive under pressure.

IV. Creative Thinking

Representing you as innovative and able to think outside the box is imperative for all professions. If you are either creative or able to think critically, then the skill will definitely be an asset in your career.

V. HTML & CSS Skills

Knowing HTML and CSS are the two in-demand skills for most of the jobs associated with websites and apps. From a front-end developer to a back-end programmer, these are important “additional” skills. For a digital marketer or blogger, basic tech and design skills also become mandatory now to achieve success.

VI. Communication Skills

Whether writing an important official letter or interacting during a corporate gathering, effective communication is an essential life skill. Adding this to your CV and performing it during interviews will surely help you build a positive impression in the mind of your interviewer.

VII. Team Working Skills

Being a team player is essential in productiveness. From cooperating with your team members for everyday tasks to managing conflicts among different teams in the workplace, being a team player is a crucial skill to manage all these efficiently. So highlighting the skill in your CV will give you an edge over others for sure.

VIII. Design Skills

Be it for web page designing, or app user interface designing, or for a career in graphic design, or even as a digital marketer, basic design skills are a key ingredient to mastering the digital world. Proficiency in tools like Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, etc., and mention in your CV will actually set you apart.

IX. Presentation Skills

An interactive and easy-to-understand presentation with focused action items is a desired skill for almost all occupations. Your effective presentation skill will not only save time for your boss or clients or your subordinates but also your own. Therefore, it is a remarkable skill to mention. For example, no matter how much skill you are, if your CV is unable to present you accurately, then the opportunity goes against you. So designing and presenting your CV properly is very important.

X. Analytical Skills

Analyzing and measuring data is essential to identify the success blocks of the business. Expertise in tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console and understand the reports derived from those tools are vital for job seekers. So without any doubt, highlight your analytical skills on your CV. After all, driving with data means you are a result-oriented person.

Whether you are looking for your first employment or seeking a better opportunity, getting into can be challenging. Obtain a better understanding of the present job market and be ready for future trends by optimizing your job search efforts.

Digital Marketing Training Is NOT Learning To Lie

Last week, I wrote about the current crisis facing the digital marketing world by the lack of skilled practitioners. You may agree or may not with my viewpoint. However, what I saw and understood, shared accordingly here with all to think about it at least.

Anyways, are you preparing yourself to join any digital marketing class? If you are a rookie digital marketer, a novice developer, or a small business owner who wants to run a business online - then this is the time to select the right way.

Since my first sneak peeks of the "educated digital world" agenda last week, I am sharing below the three reasons behind the ongoing crisis the market is facing:

• We do things only when we are in trouble
• We are prone to waste our time and stop halfway while doing things
• We often forget why we do the things we do in the first place

I am trying to share my life experiences here, which will walk through you real-life applications of digital thinking in the context of marketing and overall mastering the web.

A deeper understanding of SEO (search engine optimization) is the key driver for reducing "the growing unrest in the digital world".

Learning how to think digitally and accepting customer insights to focus on what matters within our existing online marketing education system is now more important than ever.

For self-learners, six particular tools you can start using today, with real-world case studies of how others (leading companies and/or individuals) at different maturity levels have applied and seen an immediate impact.

• Google Search Console
• Bing Webmaster Tools
• Yandex.Webmaster
• Moz Pro
• SEMrush
• Ahrefs

Fortunately, I have experience working with all these tools and thus recommending you. If money is a constraint, then use the free versions of these and leverage the power of each in your work customarily.

So, if you are considering taking a crash course on digital marketing from any institute to start your professional career, you should better hold your fire now – think first why the friends (or batch mates or pass-outs) of yours are struggling in their own professional career.

Lastly,

Remember, a good digital marketing institute is -

• Offer blended curriculum of marketing, technology, and advertising topics that uncovers new possibilities and emerging opportunities
• Offer unlimited one-to-one Q/A sessions
• Offer practical training on leading marketing tools
• Encourage students to become leaders; dare to deliver exceptional results from their experiments
• Create a dynamic, intelligent community that will help students accelerate their career and empower them to become a stronger, more confident professional

To me, a bad digital marketing institute is -

• Focused on stereotype industry standards
• A place to learn “how” not “why”
• The focus is on issuing certificates at the completion of the course

Do not miss the opportunity to learn marketing technologies independently – open your mind before they rob you.

See you soon!

A Smart, Educational Look At What Digital Marketing *Really* Is?

The only two reasons I am writing this post:

- Because I am not alone.
- And neither are you.

The entire digital marketing education system is in crisis - a crisis of expectation.

Almost every digital marketing school in India is creating more chaos, not less so far.

From issues of following the outdated curriculum to growing advertisements of “guaranteed job placements”, it's clear that the teaching mechanism in the digital marketing industry is required a revamp.

These digital marketing training institutes are used to charge high fees from their students in exchange for providing knowledge in an unstructured manner. They are squeezing money and producing illiterate or semi-literate digital marketers. This has to be stopped since affecting every aspirant and beyond.

What you should have asked your teachers about digital marketing at training institutes?

I have pulled ten graphics for you from the web, to illustrate just how faulty the current system of education at every digital marketing school:

#10

source: valuespreadsheet.com

#9

source: listcrown.com

#8

source: phoenixisrisen.co.uk

#7

source: blankminded.wordpress.com

#6

source: theodysseyonline.com

#5

source: quora.com

#4

source: spinsucks.com

#3

source: commoncorestinks.wordpress.com

#2

source: actsucks.weebly.com

#1

source: livememe.com

Do you realize your responsibility to combat the challenges of the lack of a proper education system facing the digital marketing industry in India? If you are unsure, let me share one of my personal recent experiences.

While conducting interviews for the digital marketer role on behalf of an organization, I found a lot of BE/BTECH/MCA passed-outs have appeared.

All of them have done courses from digital marketing schools around who used to provide training on SEO, social media, etc. against fees. Unfortunately, when the panel starts questioning them, they failed horribly.

Clearly, their understanding of digital marketing was hazy and had no clue about the latest trends. All of them fumbled when faced with some tricky questions. Notably, all those aspirants belong to the under-30 age group - mostly were in their early-20s.

1 thing I learned by interviewing 20 candidates for the digital marketer role -

The goal was to recruit some fresher but with a clear logical mind.

One thing was common in them – they all are full of enthusiasm but merely directionless. Sadly, no matter how beautiful and tall a building is, the basement of the building has to be strong to carry the weight of the floors above. Otherwise falling down is only a matter of time regardless of continuous patchwork.

I believe we all are responsible for this mishap. We all should step up now and provide the right solution to the companies/candidates who need proper education, insights, and processes on digital marketing so they can rely on us.

Everyone is looking for a one-stop-shop for all their digital marketing needs, including affordable solutions and training but being cheated again-n-again. As a result, the meltdown of trust in the digital marketing industry from every corner of society is happening.

Let's figure out together how we all can help each other to solve the challenges that your business is facing, your career is facing. Share your thoughts through the post a reply.

Insights on India:

With the world’s second-largest population, India also has the second-largest digital market—and it’s booming. India's online population of 400M is expected to hit 650M by 2020. Smartphone ownership has tripled in the last four years alone. The government's nationwide “Digital India” push as well as a red-hot mobile commerce sector makes this market impossible to ignore. (Source: Think with Google)

Having a Smartphone does not mean you are smart. A more truthful self-review is required.

Earn your Google (or any other institution) certification now and become a reliable digital marketer. Opting for crash courses from any digital marketing school will not serve any good to anyone in long run.

Webmaster: Mastering Digital Marketing

I am a webmaster catering digital marketing services to clients around the globe. In my career, I come close to many professionals. Some of them now look disappeared on their own forever. Some I deleted that I did not need. Some are still in my contact list and connected in many ways.

Those who are no longer in contact and those who are still in connection have helped me grow not only professionally, but also personally at various levels. I have learned many of my webmaster skills from them - something from all of them, and I am truly grateful to them for that. I am still learning though.

Today, I will talk particularly about five people. How they knowingly and/or unknowingly have helped me to grow as a webmaster. Almost 6-7 years ago, these five people one-after-another started entering into my life. Whatever I am doing today as a webmaster and/or digital marketer, I cannot deny their influence on me.

Let me introduce them now. In alphabetical order -

A, M, N, R, and S.

You can consider this as a story of six people - I am one of them. Since I am the storyteller, hence I will let you know about the other five only from a webmaster’s point of view. Even I am not good at storytelling, I have to write about “us” because here are my two cents, which I owe to them.

I am in some way feeling connected to all these five people however strangely neither professionally nor at a personal level now. To me, the relationship between “us” is complicated now more than ever. In fact, it was never straightforward from the very beginning.

Initially, I started communicating in quite an unfriendly manner with three out of five. In addition, I was indifferent to the other two. I will tell you why I behaved in such a way and how they helped me remove the blocks between “us”. Overall, they together taught me some valuable lessons to become a webmaster.

To me they all are masters and I am feeling proud to get close to them. I am refraining from using their actual names here. I am unsure about their individual repercussion when they come to know about this blog post, so using alphabets instead.

10 most important qualities of a digital marketer:

My relationship (neither at a professional nor personal level) with them has never become completely normal - so am taking a calculative risk. Taking permission is difficult for me. Not mentioning them in this post is not an option for me as they helped me to understand the ten most valuable traits of digital marketing.

Let me tell you those. In no particular order -

From A

- Digital marketing is a blend of “art” and “science”
- When a marketer is more concerned with “what is said” than “how it is said” there is no marketing

From M

- Digital marketing is like “accounting”, everything “must be balanced”
- Accounting is the process of recording and classifying - likewise, stop practicing “random” UI tests and “senseless” acts of UX data analysis

From N

- Before you “compose” your social media messages, it is a good idea to ask yourself “why” you are doing it
- The “essential ingredient” for creative writing and design is “wasting time”

From R

- The ultimate measure of a master is not where he stands in moments of “no difficulty”, but where he stands at times of “difficulty”
- Without “context”, content is nothing

From S

- “Networking” is an extension of marketing.
- “Troubleshooting” every SEO issue within site architecture (for example, reported by a tool like Google Search Console) is a time-consuming and, some would say, thankless task

Now you may start thinking who these people are and why I am carrying them in mind and heart especially when I said the relationship is complex in-between “us”. Well, I will definitely clear the doubts but before that let me tell you who they are and how we connected with each other? You know the present, now you have to know the past so you can relate to the story.

Again alphabetically -

A

He is an artist. By profession, he is now more than just an SMM (social media marketing) specialist (as per the latest news I have). When we first met, he used to be a content writer more. In his off time, he provides drawing coaching to young fellows from his neighborhood.

M

He is an accountant. By profession, he is now (as much as I know) manages income tax, employee salary for his company. He possibly also a master in maintaining company balance sheets, cost calculations, etc. He is very active and quite popular on Facebook.

N

He is an instructional designer now professionally as far as I know. When we met first, he was a content writer and could manage social media accounts independently. In his off time, he likes to read, write, and debate various topics. He often tries out new cuisines.

R

He is now (as per the latest news I have) an expert in contextual marketing. He is also a master in marketing communication. When we first met, he was a content writer who has command over social media marketing. His special hobby makes him apart from the rest.

S

He is a computer networking and server specialist now. He has command over the entire gamut of client-server architecture. When we first met, he was a junior technician. In his off time, he likes to travel and make plans for holiday trips. He has a big network of friends.

Yes, all five are the male protagonists.

I briefly described them as my best. That does not define them of course. This is my own honest verdict about them based on multiple individual interactions as well as group discussions. I have to rely on my limited experience at a personal level and a restricted professional level with them.

Top 10 skills you need to become a webmaster:

I now share those skills that have proven valuable to me as a webmaster/digital marketer over time nurtured by them directly or indirectly based on their own area of expertise -

1) Data Analytics

Develop an analytical (not over-analytical) mindset

Being analytical means collecting data, filtering it, and identifying patterns. This does not mean exhaustive research all the time. This can sometimes mean the freedom to form a hypothesis and act on it carefully.

2) Technical SEO

Understand how search engines work

Setting up seamless communication between the servers with a web browser, recognizing search engine crawling, indexing, and ranking methodologies - are all important and need to be sorted out. Be technically advanced will help to undertake complex SEO tasks.

3) Inbound Marketing

Think like a client/customer act like an owner

The more you put your feet in someone else’s shoes, the more you able to connect with the actual requirements easily, the less you will be frustrated from updates in search engine algorithm or behaviors of social media platforms.

4) Social Media Marketing

Importance of social media in networking

Communication is vital to success in social media, where natural meaningful conversation still has no like-for-like replacement. Finding the right opportunity for discussion/talk/chat is critical too when you recognize how important is good conversation especially in any digital relationship.

5) Marketing Communication

Improve performance through memory exercises

At times, referring to relevant examples has significant effects. The more you practice your memory skills the easier for you to become a master to apply knowledge into practice through remembrance, which is also a powerful weapon to convince someone.

6) Content Development

Images help you connect with the text better

You need to keep developing your artistic sense not for winning any competition but for communicating intuitively in a visual way with your target audience on digital platforms.

7) Client Communication & Meeting Deadlines

How to deal with uncomfortable situations at work?

Earlier I have severe speech anxiety syndrome but now I am much less vulnerable at public speaking which essentially helps anyone in many ways - how to deal smartly with the uncomfortable work situation, how to put the right amount of pressure on team members etc. After I somehow, managed to stay close enough with those five wise men, developed a lot of personality of course not without making an idiot out of myself.

8) Team/Campaign/Project/Website Management

Stop being stubborn and selfish

Listen and respect others’ opinions, but still stand up for yourself with humility. Accept that you can be wrong too but never lose your confidence. Learn from your mistakes as quickly as possible, admit your fault with dignity, and agree to take that you will go to be wrong again. However, the important thing is to move on, do not stop trying. That said, sometimes, sticking to your gut feeling, even in the face of major disagreement, turns out to be the right move.

9) User Experience & User Interface Design

Solid experience in HTML, CSS, JScript

Optimize the experience by designing the interface for your users is absolutely basic in any form of the successful digital marketing process. Especially if you are opting for any paid marketing and programmatic advertising, then landing page optimization based on user behavior analysis is critical to improving your conversions. I believe to run at least any SEO/PPC campaigns effectively, understand the tags and markup that comprise web pages is necessary.

10) E-commerce & Small Business Marketing

Importance of written communication skills in business

There are three leading ways of communication in business: verbal, non-verbal, and written. All of them are important. No matter whether you are working for a big e-commerce giant or trying to rank a local business, the ability to effectively present your offer to a curious audience, possibly, the first and foremost job for any marketer. To do that, blogging and influencer marketing is the best way and for both writings, skill is required. Even if you want to run PPC ad campaigns, writing attractive ad copies or write a compelling story on landing pages also required adequate proficiency in writing.

I am fortunate enough to get valuable insights from these men in the form of discussions not only on and around digital marketing but also from their personal experiences. They invest their time in discussions with me and I will be thankful to them forever for that.

I believe that the above-mentioned skills will serve everyone well. I also believe these are the “must” to have for any webmaster. The one thing that is missing probably from my list is hardcore programming. I wish if I could write codes in Java or .NET or PHP or any other languages too. It will be great if I can do so in the future - I think I will then able to fill up a big empty space in my webmaster profile. Until then, I keep coordinating with developers to solve any programming-related issues that are beyond my capabilities.

Now is the time to tell you how I met with these five men and why the equation has remains strained between us?

Combining web mastering with digital marketing

So many people are in jobs or careers that they are not content with, simply because the unknown can be frightening. There are many blocks that need to remove to pursue that dream career.

Be it a new beginning, or developing new skills to move forward in your current career path, or even if you are changing job profile, some important guidelines applied in all stages of career development.

Those are -

• Construct your dream
• Burn your passion
• Never stop learning
• Polish your people skills
• Form your network
• Lift your communication skills
• Get an advisor
• Let’s be real
• Look for up-gradation of skills
• Stay relax

I was lagging almost all these traits when I first get in touch with these five men professionally. The clash that happened between us was due to my lack of practical knowledge about digital marketing and about life. Therefore, the collision was obvious and the impact is still there though not at a high level as was initially.

They accepted my nature since they wise enough. That is why they are keeping in contact with me even though neither professional nor personal commitments are anymore between “us”.

Before we met, I knew that -

• Digital marketing is the fastest growing industry all over the world (doubled in the last few years)
• Digital marketing jobs invite professionals from all industries (with digital marketing certifications)
• There is an acute shortage of professionals in the industry, which means many jobs are available

After we met, I able to pick up (under their guidance) -

• 360 degree of digital marketing - from the basic promotions to advanced organic growth and everything in between
• Etiquette of social media marketing and techniques of content development - most notably preparing reports and presentations not only visually interactive but also easy to understand
• How important is it to keep your cool and composure in real-world situations to control the environment as much as possible in your favor

I have taken their help at various points of time especially when I was stuck in my life and they responded gently all the time. Aside from huge diversity, I believe, we found some common ground of interest in each other and that is the reason communication is still happening between “us”.

You may not find the right job or fail to set up a suitable work environment, but if you choose a career with digital marketing or want to become a webmaster for long career growth - then the lessons I have mentioned, are priceless!

Your turn now! I would love to hear the qualities that have helped you to reach the top in your own career.

Cheers!

Google Search Console: The Toolbox of Webmasters

I’m a great follower of Google Search Console (formerly Webmaster Tools). Almost every day, I use to spend some time with this free Google tool simply because of its vast usefulness in managing/administering a website mainly from a digital marketer’s point of view.

By profession, I’m a digital marketer turned self-proclaimed webmaster with over a decade of experience in SEO, PPC, social media, etc., and still gaining knowledge every day.

In today’s post, I’m going to share with you all my relationship with Search Console as a fan of SEO (which is an essential part of all kinds of digital marketing activities). I’ll tell you the story of the webmaster’s life – my likes and dislikes about Search Console in addition to define some traits, suggestions for the Google Webmaster team, and predictions on upcoming changes to Search Console.

Statutory Warning: I haven’t had a chance to set up and then check Search Console data for any mobile app to date! So my entire write-up is on the website only. Though I have theoretical knowledge about using Search Console for mobile app, however, I feel, it’s safe to stick to websites only for now based on my practical experience.

Benefits of Google Search Console

Here are the top ten bits of help as a webmaster I use to get from Search Console –

• Finding and fixing security issues with the website’s content
• Removing errors that occurred when the website was crawled by Google’s both “Desktop-bot” and “Mobile: Smartphone-bot”
• Eliminating the site speed related issues by analyzing the crawl stats like time spent downloading a page (in milliseconds)
• Debugging usability issues detected by Googlebot for mobile site
• Addressing issues with structured data and rich cards implementation on top of considering suggestions from Google crawler on HTML improvements
• Troubleshooting issues with Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) implementation on the site
• Reducing issues with site’s user experience and performance by analyzing “Search Analytics” data
• Maintaining a search-friendly JavaScript-powered website or a complex e-commerce website
• Adjusting all the other technical SEO related concerns as seen by Google’s web crawling bot and report back through the Search Console interface
• Building a robust web presence by analyzing “Links to Your Site” data

Kindly note, depending on the nature of a user of Search Console, the usage may change and importance can vary time-to-time.

How to use Google Search Console?

This is my earnest request especially to the novice webmasters like me around the globe; please don’t devalue the actual worth of Google Search Console data. Invest some of your precious time to explore the opportunities you can see inside the tool reported by Google’s web spiders. And appeal to the experienced professionals, if you’re not exploring, then, you should start reviewing all the reported issues within the Search Console time-to-time immediately and consider fixing each of them very carefully.

Although there are many webmaster tools (both free and paid – one of them is Bing Webmaster Tools – its FREE to use – which is one of my favorite tools for my website optimization projects) available on the web for anyone’s use, however, Google Search Console is the most elegant one till date to me at least. And I’m saying you this not from any bias inside me. Clearly, Google is the leader in search engine technology till now (both for mobile and desktop even though both Apple’s SIRI and Microsoft’s CORTANA have a strong presence). So knowingly or unknowingly, you’re playing the SEO game to great extent as per Google’s playing rule or game plan.

Google Search Console Information

The Search Console is a platform which developed, maintained, and updated by Google. The main purpose of this tool is to provide the website owners valuable feedback about their site’s overall health condition and configuration issues. When the Google bots start crawling a website and indexing the web pages, they usually check for whether the asset (or presentation of content) is in compliance with Google’s set of rules and regulations (read algorithms) or not. Accordingly, they accumulate all the information and display it to the site owner for consideration through the Search Console interface. All the data that we’re seeing inside Search Console are the comprehensive analysis done by Googlebots – so it’s how Googlebot interpreting the web property (an entire website or set of web pages) – the insights (computation based on search algorithm) from search engine’s point of view.

Here, one thing is important to remember, search engines like Google, Bing is no more just senseless programs, they become smart, intelligent, and trying to sense the intent of each search happening through them on the web to match everyone’s expectation.

This is true that Google is not obliged to provide all the crawling information they collected to the site owners. However, to me, the amount of data they are currently sharing with the website owners are not sufficient especially if the site owner is serious (or curious enough) about his/her web-mastering role.

I believe, Google also knows that there is huge room for improvement in terms of helping the webmasters fixing the bugs within the site easily. And that’s the basic reason why they have developed Search Console (earlier Webmaster Tools) and maintaining it proactively. Not only that, Google is encouraging all the webmasters universally in every way for using their tool – their newly built Search Console interface (beta version) now is accessible to all in parallel to the old existing version. In fact, the more people start following Search Console directions or suggestions, the fewer Googlebots have trouble crawling and indexing accurately the web down the line.

Not only crawling issues or technical things, as a webmaster, but you can also figure out a lot of non-technical and marketing insights as well by doing Search Console data analysis regularly. Since the importance (and also acceptance of the tool in general) of Search Console so high, thus Google is also bringing up new Search Console features now and then. I’m anticipating that Google will invest more effort in Search Console’s up-gradation in the future. As a matter of fact, I feel, they’re actively trying to establish the Search Console platform as an intermediator between Google and the website optimizers and/or owners. And not only websites, but I also guess, soon the world will start getting more definitive tips for mobile app optimization through Search Console.

With the growing usage of the internet and the advancement of technologies like AI, VR, and ML, this is expected that the demand for professional webmasters will also grow inevitably. And as a result, the acceptance and regular use of Search Console’s feature-sets will also expand in near future. The more people start interacting with Search Console data-sets, the more they’ll become aware of how Google search engine works, the more they’ll take precautionary steps before designing and developing new websites and mobile apps, the more they’ll think practically how Google wish to see your assets on the web for the sake of your website’s success (to reach out to your targeted audience with your content). As a result, the less trouble a site owner faces later, the fewer technical obstacles will be arising for the webmasters, the easier it to optimize the site for digital marketers, the fewer headaches need to take by Googlebots and every stakeholder of this ecosystem work more efficiently.

It’s not very difficult to imagine, running the whole show (crawling, indexing, and then return results on the search results page against each search query) by Google needs humongous effort in terms of manpower, time, and money. We’re living in an era where leveraging the power of automation is very common in any manual process. The concept of IoT (Internet of Things) is now well known. Machines are becoming more and more independent of operation. So Google is also spreading out a signal, please help us understand your web properties (say, website and/or mobile app) so we can able to serve you better in terms of providing accurate search results.

Look, the common goal for both Google and any webmaster/website owner is the same to great extent – serve the user in a better way so they really get engaged with the content. Here content means anything that is helping us interacting with our audience – may it be text, may it be an image, or video, or any other form. So, the basics should be very clear to everybody – people are spending time on the web, so if I want to reach out to that audience, I should have at least a running website where I can portray my messages to them, now if I have a website, it’s my (as a website owner) responsibility to help Google find the easiest way to consume the content, the better Google digest our content, the accurate search results Google will able to provide, the more accuracy in search results means a happy searcher which may lead to a happy user or customer for your website. That means you are happy to put more effort into the web to build it better. So see, everyone is happy. It’s a chain reaction. It’s a duty for everybody to help out each other optimally so we can build a better web not for others but for our own survival.

Google Search Console Features

I’m using actively Google Search Console for quite a while now. I’ve seen the revolution and evolution of the platform as a user, as an outsider (not a Google insider by any means), as a novice marketer, as an experienced webmaster, as a geek, as a nerd who likes to learn about new tools and embrace technologies, etc., etc. I’ve witnessed many changes inside the Search Console over the time and I keep adjusting-re-adjusting my operational activities on and around this tool often. After all, change is the only constant thing if you are seriously thinking about truly digitize your work.

One thing I must admit that not all the changes implemented on to the Search Console platform till now by Google have given me an equal level of positive excitement or pleasure. So needless to say, during the course, I liked some changes to the Search Console very much, and on the other hand, I didn’t like some. But that’s fine. Nevertheless, the overall utility of the tool in a webmaster’s peaceful life is tremendous and growing faster. So I accept all the challenges that have been thrown to me (not personally obviously) by the Google Search Console team. You should too keep continuing with customizing your actions to survive online for many more years to come.

Most (if not all) of the professional webmasters already know the features and functionalities of Google Search Console very well. For that, thanks to the entire Google’s official help articles, forum discussions, personal blogs, news journals, and individual contributors from different parts of the world.

Please note, I’m not enforcing anyone to agree with my thoughts about how I see the Google Search Console features and what functionalities I would like to see in that tool in the coming days? Based on my own understanding, I’m sharing some predictions here about the upcoming changes to my favorite Google Search Console (previously Webmaster Tools) which may or may not happen.

I know, that Google has a big team of data analysts, developers, designers, user behavior analysts, user experience analysts, data scientists, user interface designers, etc., etc. and they are a bunch of really intelligent people. They put a lot of effort and the end product is in front of us – the current GWT platform – renamed Google Search Console (GSC). I also can imagine that before making any changes to the interface, they have measured and calculated a lot of things as a service provider. But that doesn’t mean every change they made is full proof. Not to forget, in the end, they’re human and can miscalculate too.

Anyways, one particular thing I would like to use here is an illustration of my unhappiness with GSC. For example, inside the Search Console feature, there is a Dashboard – you may consider it as a starting point especially for beginners.

On the Dashboard, there are four highlighted sections currently available. These are –

• Latest message to you from the Search Console team
• Current status of crawl errors
• Current status of search analytics
• Current status of sitemaps

Suggestion (on Search Console)

Nowadays, we the webmasters worldwide are working hard for proper AMP implementation as Accelerated Mobile Pages is one of those latest developments by Google which has tremendous importance on the web. So, I would like to see some AMP data on to the Dashboard (in the old interface as many like me are still using the old version). No matter, whether you’ve applied AMP on your website or not, the situation is, the Sitemaps section is still appearing on the Dashboard even when not used by us, then why not AMP? I believe, importance wise showing the AMP status snapshot is equally very important.

Prediction (on Search Console)

Google team is thinking about accommodating the AMP chart on Dashboard (in the old version) as it is gaining huge importance and will definitely allot a space for AMP onto the Dashboard screen within the next 12 months.

Google Search Console and Search Engine Optimization

To me, Search Console is the question bank where you can get most of the answers (data analysis and testing) that are useful to build and optimize Google-friendly websites.

Here are some of the things you can do once you add your website –

• Analyze click data to determine your users’ behavior on Google search
• Get alerts from Google in your email inbox directly for critical errors or emergency issues
• Leverage features available inside Search Console to ensure your website is in compliance with Google search engine

I’m sure many of you’ve to find Search Console useful in many more ways – the data available there, are food for your thoughts and make you productive too in terms of providing actionable suggestions to run a website. And unless we keep updating our knowledge with how Google search algorithm works time-to-time, our website’s health issues reported in Search Console will constantly be there. Not to forget, there is some hint (on how to tackle ethically any website-related issue reported by Google in Search Console) given for maintaining a website for webmasters.

If you are wondering, how to be aligned with Google’s search technology? Then I’m telling you, there is no one magic formula!

Following practical tips shared by team Google on their official blogs and social media channels, will help you to understand how Google search works and take necessary precautions. The benefits of reviewing Google’s own support/help articles aside from other forums/blogs/articles will help you find your custom methods of solving a problem. Those valuable advice/hints will inspire you to take action. All you have to remain curious enough to run your website effectively.

Each of those content pieces contains insight (some are definite and some are indefinite) that can help us to become successful webmasters. But that doesn’t mean we should completely rely on the internet all the time. Sometimes away from our screens will help us find the best way to solve a problem or following sheer gut feeling. Anyways that’s a different story.

Great websites are the combination of smart thinking and hard work of website owners. Be the owner of a website nowadays is not big news anymore. In fact, many of you are now owners of multiple websites. But a few years ago, it was a bit tricky. Even today, managing a website (no matter how small it is) properly, requires adequate time and sense. This is why Google has decided to let the website owners spend time optimally on building the most useful website for their users, while Google takes care of the rest – i.e., helping users find that website. Obviously, the medium for all (website owner + Google + user) will be the content in a different form.

Many website owners/entrepreneurs still think they don’t have to worry much about how Google search works. But then that’s not an example of smart thinking. Even if you work hard on creating content, knowing at least the basics about how bots are working (discovers, crawls, indexes, and understands that content) on direct users to relevant website pages is essential. You may not know all the technical details (an explanation for why something works a particular way, or why things appear in a particular way, or how to fix what looks like a technical glitch, etc.), but that’s fine – for that you can always contact a freelancer or hire a professional.

Are there special activities you are doing that others should try that would help a website get the most out of search? Please let all know in the comments.

Hope you’ve enjoyed this edition of my post. I know, only time can answer how realistic are my predictions (and thoughts) which I shared in this blog? They may or may not be considered by Google’s team; they may or may not be regarded as serious thoughts, even though, I’m feeling happy to share my honest outlook about the Google Search Console.

See you again!

NB: I'm a soccer fan and FIFA World Cup 2018 is going on. So all the images/memes I've used in my post dedicated to the fantastic event happening in Russia.