Joomla update warnings via Google Webmaster Tools

Now you have one more extra reason to use Google's very useful Webmaster Tools. Recently Google added to his arsenal of Joomla related enhancements a useful one: In the Google Webmaster Tools you will see a warning with useful details on what to do each time yor Joomla site gets outdated!

So, what to do to get full advantage of this new tool?

First of all, go to http://google.com/webmasters/tools/ and register an account if you don't have already one.

Then, add your site in a couple of easy steps:

  • click Add Site button
  • type the URL of your Joomla site you want to track
  • verify your site

The latest is the tricky part, but fortunately you have lots of ways to do it. I recommend you to use verifying it using Google Analytics - and you will hit more, than one rabbit with a stone, but you can download a verification file from Google, upload to your WEBROOT, and use that to verify the site, or you can add a metatag to your site - using either one of available Site Verification/Metatag plugins from JED or simply by adding the line of code provided by Google to your template, or you can even verify your site by manipulating your DNS records - so there are solutions for every taste.

Once your site is verified, you can examine your site, and do tweaks to match your preferences. You can control a lot of aspects of how Google deals with your site... maybe on another article will go deeper in details. But not is the scope of this article!

To benefit from the above mentioned tool you need to do one single thing from now: to check time-to-time your Webmaster Tools account. If a new version of Joomla is rolled outm you will see in the admin interface a warning:

Joomla Update Available View details

By clicking the View Details link you will be presented with a popup window with details of what happened and what you should do to fix the situation.

It might be an overkill for really conscious webmasters, who are signed to Joomla Security Updates for example, but it is a nice touch from the Google, and a clear sign, that Google considers Joomla being an important player in website building market. And this alone is a good enough reason to be proud to be part of the Joomla family!