Thought of creating a Google profile? With a Google profile page you can:
· Share your content on the web.
· Links to your blogs.
· Online photos from Picasa and Flickr.
· Links to your other online profiles like Facebook and LinkedIn.
· Create a bio about yourself on your About tab.
· Provide contact information and enable send me a messge.
Create a Google Profile
1. You will need a Google account first.
2. Go to Create Your Profile at Google.
3. Over on the right is a button Create my profile, click it.
Switches to Google account login box
4. Log into your Google account.
Next screen asks you to update your password recovery information. Update it then click Save and continue button at the bottom of the page.
You now are taken to your profile page.
5. In the top right, beside your login name there is a Edit my Profile link, click it.
You are taken to the Edit your profile page. On your Edit your profile page the About tab is activated.
About Tab Google Profile
1. On the About tab the first part is where you:
o Fill in your first and last name.
o Upload a picture of yourself.
o Fill in your nickname.
o Other names.
o What sex you are. There is the option to not to say if you prefer to keep this confidential.
To the right of your name section you have the following choices:
o To display your full name so you can be found in searches.
o Allow people to contact you without knowing your email address.
o To display those who you follow and the people who are following you.
2. The second part of your About tab is where you can enter more personal stuff about you:
o Where you grew up.
o Where you live now and where you have lived.
o What your profession is, current employer, past employers and schools you are currently attending or have attended.
3. There is a box a bit lower down on the About tab where you can add a short bio.
An HTML editor is available to format your text and add links.
4. Below the bio section is where you can add links.
This is where you can add links to your other online profiles and website.
5. Check your information over. Google shows you your profile link to share.
6. Scroll down to the bottom of the page can click Save changes.
That’s it! You have now completed the About tab of your Google profile.
Photos Tab Google Profile
The photos tab is where you add a photo strip at the top of your profile.
1. Click the Photos link beside the About link at the top of the screen.
Switches to the photo editing screen.
2. Picasa is selected by default.
If you do not have a Picasa account yet or if you photos are not public, Google will let you know it can not find one for you using this user name/Google account.
Click add photos if you have a Picasa account under this user account.
3. The next option is Flickr.
Click the circle (radio button) beside Flickr if you want to add photos from your Flickr account.
Enter your Flickr username, ID, or email address the click the Check button to the right.
Click the Add photos button below to add photos from your Flickr account.
4. The third option is where you can add another photo service you use.
Click the circle (radio button) beside Other photo service.
Fill in the url or feed of your photo service you wish to add then click the Find feed button to the right.
Click the Add photos below to add photos from your other photo service.
You are now finished adding photos to your Google profile.
Next thing to fill out is your contact information.
Contact Info Tab Google Profile
There is a note on the this screen that the information you enter on this page is not public unless you decide to make it public.
1. Click the Contact Info link beside the Photo links at the top of the screen.
Switches to the Contact Info screen.
2. On the Contact Info screen you can add:
o Email addresses
o Addresses
o Phone numbers including your mobile
o Instant messenging user name
o Your birthday (just month and day)
3. Next select who can see this contact information.
o Your contacts group
o Your friends group
o Your family group
o Your co-workers group
4. When you are all done, scroll down to the bottom and click Save changes.
With your Google profile now complete, you can start sharing your profile link with friends, family, co-workers and anyone else you wish.
Be sure to keep your Google profile up to date. It is yet another way for people to find you on the net!
Yahoo! Site Explorer gives you detailed information about your website or blog once registered and site ownership has been verified.
To verify ownership of your sites at Yahoo! you need to log into your Yahoo! account first. If you do not have a Yahoo! Id yet, see Create Yahoo! ID Account first to sign up.
Sign into Your Yahoo! Id
1. Go to the Yahoo! Site Explorer page page and sign in via the link at the top right.
Once logged in, you will be taken to your account’s Site Explorer My Sites page.
Add Your Site
1. Enter the url of the website you wish to verify ownership of.
2. Click the Add My Site button to the right.
You will be taken to the authentication page in a moment or two.
Authentication
With Yahoo! Site Explorer you can authenticate ownership of the site submitted using one of two methods:
Of the two methods available we prefer the verification by file upload method. Using the file upload method you just have to remove one file if you decide to withdraw from Yahoo! Site Explorer.
With the verification via meta tag method, you may have to just add the meta tag to the home page file. This can be a problem if you are using a content management system or ecommerce software as these usually use the same head section for all the pages through their template system.
1. Click the link “By uploading a verification file to my site”.
Instructions appear below the link.
2. Click the Download button and save the file to the folder with your website/blog files in it on your computer.
3. Log into your web space using your FTP client or web hosting control panel.
4. Transfer (upload) the file Yahoo! just gave you to the root of your website/blog.
This is the folder where your home page is. This is the same spot as you uploaded yourGoogle site verification file if you have already verified your site for Google Webmaster Tools.
5. Click the Ready to Authenticate button.
The page will refresh. Over on the left in the navigation column you will see your site listed. The page will refresh again and take you to the Site Explorer My Sites page. Your site should be listed in that screen now.
Site Authentication Using a Meta Tag
1. Click the link “By meta tag”.
Instructions appear below the link.
2. Yahoo! composes a special meta tag for you to insert into the head section of your home page.
The head section of your page is surrounded by an opening head tag and a closing head tag.
<head>
</head>
You are to paste your custom meta tag just before the closing head tag of your home page.
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" / >
<title>Title of the document</title>
<meta name="Description" content="Your description" />
<meta name="Keywords" content="first, second, third" / >
<meta name="Copyright" content="Copyright Statement" / >
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="styles/stylesht.css">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" / >
<title>Title of the document</title>
<meta name="Description" content="Your description" />
<meta name="Keywords" content="first, second, third" / >
<meta name="Copyright" content="Copyright Statement" / >
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="styles/stylesht.css">
Put meta tag here
</head>
</head>
The example above is for a site using XHTML DOCTYPE declaration. The tags between the opening and closing heads for your site template might be a bit different.
3. Upload the updated home page to your web space.
You can do this using a FTP client.
4. Click the Ready to Authenticate button.
The page will refresh. Over on the left in the navigation column you will see your site listed. The page will refresh again and take you to the Site Explorer My Sites page. Your site should be listed in that screen now.
Add Your Site Feed
While you are in Site Explorer you may as well add any feeds you have for the site too.
1. Click the 0 under the Feeds column beside the url of the site you just added.
You are taken to the Feeds page.
2. The url of your site is already filled in. Add the feed name to the box beside your url.
3. Select the type of feed you are submitting.
To the right of the box where you just put the feed file name is a selection box with the type of feed you are submitting.
o Website feed
o Mobile feed – XHTML
o Mobile feed – WML
o Structured data feed
Select the type of feed you are submitting.
4. Click the Add Feed button to the right.
Screen refreshes with your feed added.
Once your feed is submitted you will notice there is a note “pending submission to Microsoft”. This is good! Now you don’t have to submit the feed to Bing.
With your site submitted and site ownership verified within Yahoo! Site Explorer after a few days you will see all the stats covered in our Yahoo! Site Explorer Overview article.
This post was created as part of the 30 Day Blogging Challenge
To use some of the services provided by Yahoo! you need a Yahoo! id. This id is used for things like your Yahoo! profile, Yahoo! Messenger, a Yahoo! email address and Yahoo! Site Explorer to name a few.
Sign Up for a Yahoo! Id
1. Yahoo! Account Registration Page
Go to the Yahoo! registration page.
2. Personal Information
The top section of the registration covers:
o Your name
o Gender
o Birthday
o Country you are from.
o Your postal code/zip code.
3. Select an ID and Password
o First is you Yahoo! id and email address.
The id portion is to have 4 to 32 characters. Your id must start with a letter and can contain numbers, letters, underscores (not hyphens) and a dot.
Once you have filled in your chosen name (id) click the check link to the right of the email address line to verify it is formatted correctly and available.
If not available or done incorrectly, the page will show you it is incorrect or not available. If everything is ok, the password box will appear below the email address line.
o Enter your password.
o Re enter your password to confirm
4. Alternate Email Address
Enter an alternative email address. One that you check and will be keeping like an email address at your website.
This email address will be used if you should need to recover your password
5. Secret Questions
These secret questions are used to confirm your identity when recovering your password or id.
Select a secret question and type in the answer below.
Select a second secret question and type in the answer below.
6. Fill in the Captcha and Submit
Fill in the Captcha, and you are done once you click the Create My Account button below it.
You are returned to the Yahoo! home page if it did now work. If it did work, you will be presented with the Yahoo! Registration Confirmation page.
Once you log into Yahoo! as you move around different sections of the site you maybe asked to login again. This is a security procaution.
Now that you have a Yahoo! id you can customize things like your Yahoo! home page, create your Yahoo! profile and other services Yahoo! provides.
To start using Google Webmaster Tools you first have to add your site to your Webmaster Tools account then verify site ownership. We will be covering the two easier ways to verify site ownership for the average website/blog owner.
Verifying ownership for Google Webmaster Tools seems to be a problem for some people. Not sure what they do wrong but if you follow the instructions below carefully you should not have any problem.
Add Site to Google Webmaster Tools
1. You need a Google Account if you don’t already have one.
2. Go to Google Webmaster Tools and login using your Google Account.
You are taken to the Home page of your Webmaster Tools account.
3. There is a button called Add a Site on your Home page, click it.
A small screen pops up under the Add a Site button with a spot for the url of the site.
4. Type in your website address.
e.g. www.mydomainname.com
Click the Continue button to complete.
Refreshes to the Verify Ownership Screen.
There are 4 ways to verify site ownership available.
Options for Site Ownership Verification
· Using a meta tag in the head of your home page.
· Using a file uploaded to your web server.
· Adding a DNS record to your domain’s configuration
· Link to an existing Google Analytics account.
Using a meta tag or using a file uploaded to your web server are the two easier ones for the average website/blog owner so we will be covering those.
Instructions for verifying by DNS record are available at Verification: DNS TXT record.
Instructions for verifying by an existing Google Analytics account are available atVerification: Google Analytics tracking code
Site Ownership Verfication Using Meta Tag
With the verification using meta tag method, you will be given a specific meta tag to put in home page. This might be used where you do not have access to the root of your site (a hosted ecommerce solution or hosted blogging solution for example). You can use this method for any site but it does require you editing head section of your home page. If you have a site using a content management system try to make sure this tag gets added to the head section of the home page.
The problem with this method is that you need a separate head section just for the home page. When using includes or a DWT (Dynamic Web Template) this is extra work. We prefer the HTML method.
1. Click the radio button (circle) beside Add a meta tag to your site’s home page.
You custom meta tag appears at the bottom of the screen.
2. Copy the meta tag shown into a plain text editor (Notepad for example) and save for safe keeping.
3. You now have to paste this custom meta tag into the head section of your home page. The idea is that you keep Google Webmaster Tools open while you do this.
The head section of your page is surrounded by an opening head tag and a closing head tag.
<head>
</head>
You are to paste your custom meta tag just before the closing head tag of your home page.
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" / >
<title>Title of the document</title>
<meta name="Description" content="Your description" />
<meta name="Keywords" content="first, second, third" / >
<meta name="Copyright" content="Copyright Statement" / >
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="styles/stylesht.css">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" / >
<title>Title of the document</title>
<meta name="Description" content="Your description" />
<meta name="Keywords" content="first, second, third" / >
<meta name="Copyright" content="Copyright Statement" / >
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="styles/stylesht.css">
Put meta tag here
</head>
</head>
The example above is for a site using XHTML DOCTYPE declaration. The tags between the opening and closing heads for your site template might be a bit different.
4. Upload the updated home page to your web space. You can do this using a FTP client.
5. Go back to your browser with Google Webmaster Tools open and click the Verify button at the bottom of the screen.
If Google has problems verifying the meta tag they will give you information on what is the problem.
Once the site ownership has been verified you should see a Add or remove owners note beside your website listing on your Webmaster Tools Home page.
Using the HTML file verification method to verify site ownership requires downloading the file provided by Google, uploading it to your web hosting account and then verifying with Google.
If you can upload the file either by using a FTP client or through the control panel at your web hosting this is our method of choice.
1. On the Verify ownership screen click the radio button (circle) beside Upload an HTML file to your server
The instructions appear at the bottom of the screen
2. The first instruction says to download the file provided.
Click the link and you will get a screen asking you where you want to save it.
Save this file in the folder that contains the files for your website. You do have a backup copy of your website, right? It goes in the root of your website files. This is where your index/default page file is (your home page).
You can proceed to the next step without closing Google Webmaster Tools, minimize the browser if you are using the FTP client method to upload or open a new window/tab if you are going to use the web hosting control panel to upload.
3. Start up your FTP client or log into your web hosting account’s control then to the file manager.
When using the web hosting file manager, make sure you navigate to folder that contains the root of the site, where your home page is.
Likewise for when you are using a FTP client. Make sure you have navigated to the root folder of the website before starting to upload.
4. Upload the file you just got from Google to the root of your website.
Once the file has been uploaded, you can close the program or web hosting control panel, which ever you used to upload.
5. Maximize the browser/go back to the tab with Google Webmaster Tools in it.
6. There is a link in the Verify ownership screen to click which will verify you have uploade the file to the right spot.
A new tab/window will open. You will see a web page with just google-site-verification: the name of the file you just uploaded. This verifies you uploaded the file to the right spot and you can close this window/tab now.
If you don’t see this, then you uploaded the file to the wrong spot.
7. The next step is verification.
Click the Verify button at the bottom of the screen.
Screen refreshes and takes you to the Dashboard screen. There is not going to be any data here yet because Google hasn’t had time to produce any for you yet.
8. That is it. You can click the Back to Home link at the top right to go back to the home page.
Once the site ownership has been verified you should see a Add or remove owners note beside your website listing on your Webmaster Tools Home page.
You have now verified site ownership with Google Webmaster Tools. Log back in in a couple of days to see if there are any stats yet as described in our Google Webmaster Tools Overview article.
The idea is that you keep Google Webmaster Tools open while you do this.
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