Google: Have You Tried Our WordPress Plugin Today?

For those of you obsessed with all things SEO (at least from Google’s vantage point), the search engine giant has released a new plugin to help make it easier to verify your self hosted WordPress blog with Webmaster Tools.

For webmasters with self-hosted Wordpress [sic] blogs, there’s now a Webmaster Tools site verifcation plugin for WordPress [sic] that completely automates our verification process! […]

With verified ownership of your site in Webmaster Tools, you can receive specific statistics and information (e.g. relevant search queries, malware notices) about your site directly from Google. (Google Webmaster Central Blog)

The plugin only works for blogs running WordPress 3.0 (or higher) as well as PHP 5.2 (which you can verify with your hosting provider).

It is also recommended that WordPress fans create an account upon Webmaster Tools first before activating the plugin, otherwise you may encounter a few irritating errors afterwards (something I discovered on my personal blog).

The verification plugin allows you to easily submit a WordPress blog to Google in 2 simple clicks, although unfortunately a few users are encountering “fatal errors” when attempting to verify their blog.

Note: If you are unable to verify your blog via the plugin, you can submit your site to Webmaster Tools by clicking the “Add a site” button, typing in your domain, then clicking on the “Alternate methods” tab.

Select the “Link to your Google Analytics account” option, then click the “Verify” button below.

Author: Darnell Clayton

Darnell Clayton is a geek who discovered blogging long before he heard of the word “blog” (he called them “web journals” then). When he is not tweeting, Facebooking, or blogging about space and his beloved iPhone, he enjoys running, reading and describing himself in third person.