Google Webmaster Tools (GWT) has become a standard for website owners who need better insight into how Google views and treats their site.

That’s why Google Webmaster Tools is now available to all Raven accounts. All you need is a Google Account associated with GWT. You can access GWT in the Site section of Raven.

Add and verify sites

When you first access GWT in Raven, you will have to authorize your account with Google to communicate with our system. Once you authorize your account, our system will look for a site in your GWT account that matches the one you’re managing in Raven.

If our system recognizes a matching domain, it will automatically choose it. If it doesn’t recognize the domain, or finds variants (different subdomains using the same root domain), it will give you the option to choose a variant, add a new domain or re-authorize with a different Google account.

Sites that haven’t been verified are provided with verification options. Complete the instructions, click the Verify button and you’re done — all from inside of Raven!

View messages and crawling issues

One of the great things about GWT is its communication to site owners. If Google detects problems with your site, like phishing, it will send a message to your account. GWT will also notify you about changes to site in your account, like new verification owners and changes to a preferred domain. All of those messages are available in Raven. The system also provides a list of all of site crawling issues.

View and add sitemaps

If you have added sitemaps to GWT, you’ll be able to view them and also see if there are any warnings associated with them. You can also add new Web, News and Mobile sitemaps.

View related keywords and add to Keyword Manager

One of my favorite features with Raven’s GWT integration is its ability to retrieve site-relevant keywords. Raven pulls in all of the related keywords for your site and then provides an easy way to add them to the Keyword Manager and/or the SERP Tracker. You can add keywords individually or in bulk.

Update preferred domain settings

The integration also enables you to change your Preferred Domain Setting.

You may be asking, “Where are all of the other features that GWT has to offer?” Good question! The GWT API doesn’t support every feature that’s available in Google’s version of GWT. However, as they update their API with more features, we’ll quickly try to add them to Raven.