I have noted in previous articles that I possess webmaster tools for The New Leaf Journal for Google (see reference), Bing, Yandex (see article one and article two). (Fun fact: I also have webmaster tools for Seznam.) I am aware that Google renamed the “Webmaster” portal the “Google Search Console” – but I am not giving up my cool “Webmaster” title. Bing and Yandex still recognize my status as Webmaster. Google is out-voted.
But I digress.
The only one of the Webmaster tools that I check regularly is Google. We have vastly more visitors from Google than from Bing or Yandex (Google is our largest source of traffic by a good margin). In fact, our second-largest search engine referrer is not Bing, but instead DuckDuckGo. Alas, DuckDuckGo does not provide webmaster tools.
While I do check the Google Search Console regularly and bask in the glory of being a true Webmaster, I do not do so from either of my primary browsers. While I use Firefox for most general internet purposes, I handle my New Leaf Journal affairs in Brave because the WordPress admin panel works better in Chromium-based browsers than it does in Firefox (I was previously using Ungoogled Chromium for the task). But I do not use Google Webmaster in Brave. Instead, I used a useful Linux utility called Webapp Manager – which is designed to “run websites as if they were apps” – to create a “webapp” for Google Search Console and run it in an isolated Firefox profile. (Note: Although Webapp Manager is a Linux Mint utility, I use it on Manjaro Linux, where it is available in Manjaro’s own repositories.) Webapp Manager works well for this purpose since it opens up to the main Search Console Hub and I can easily navigate to other areas in the Search Console to perform cool Webmaster tasks.
I almost never do anything as Webmaster other than check in on the Search Console and occasionally perform some clerical tasks related to indexing and de-indexing, trouble-shooting, and traffic checks. Very rarely do I venture outside of the Search Console in my proverbial web-app to do anything else while logged into my Webmaster account. Before continuing, I note that I generally do not use Google Search outside of a few limited cases.
Events converged the other day when I had a reason to navigate away from Google Search Console in my isolated browser window and conduct a search in Google. I happened to search for a term for which The New Leaf Journal had Google search impressions. I was surprised to find above my query not sponsored results, but instead Search Console statistics for that specific query.
I have been a proud Google webmaster since May 2020, but I had not known until know that Search Console integrates with Google Search.
Mind. Blown.
While The New Leaf Journal loves and relies upon open source, I have made it a policy to keep our precise traffic statistics proprietary. But I would feel bad if I did not grace the commoners (you, the readers) with a taste of the Webmaster life. Thus, I performed a search for one of my favorite search queries and made some lazy redactions. Behold, the power of a Webmaster:
Who knew that I would have a reason to use “constantine xi last stand” for a search screenshot twice in one week You can see my article checking in at number-one below the Webmaster box. That is exactly how it should be.
I was amused to only discover now, after two years of being a Google Webmaster, that I could use Google Search to check how The New Leaf Journal is ranking for different queries. I could see this being very useful for people who are regularly logged into their Webmaster accounts. However, I will continue to run Search Console in an isolated browser, and while the search integration is fun, I can effectively check different queries from the Search Console proper. Even though I will not make too much use of the tool as Webmaster, I was able to make use of it for some content that some people may find on Google.
(Or so I hope.)
