webmaster tools good or bad?

[PaullasPaullas is verified member.]

just seeing what peoples thoughts on google webmaster tools is. does having 1 site or 10 sites affect your site/s?? im hearing bad things about google webmaster tools as in dont use it.

so whats your thoughts

 

[stender]

When I started out with mini sites, I had several sites using the same template (different content though) and all ranked well. I added the sites to analytics and webmaster tools and all were penalised.
May be coincidence, but funny how they all went even though they weren't cross linking. may of been as they were all on same IP though, who knows.

 

[PaullasPaullas is verified member.]

so is it best just to have 1 url in then?

 

[stender]

Like I said it may of been unrelated. I'd wait for a few more responses.

 

[ScottJ]

Works well, you get some nice stats from there nowadays too so certainly worth it for adding a good quality site or two.

 

[Fabster]

Never had any problems with Webmaster Tools. You get some good search stats and backlinks info from it.

 

[sijugk]

When I started out with mini sites, I had several sites using the same template (different content though) and all ranked well. I added the sites to analytics and webmaster tools and all were penalised.
May be coincidence, but funny how they all went even though they weren't cross linking. may of been as they were all on same IP though, who knows.

I do not think any reason for penalizing websites for just having verification from same webmaster account. If we are using cross linking or content duplication, there is a chance of penalty.

I work for a company which have more than 35 websites with similar design hosted in a single server. All these websites are verified in single Google account and working fine for last one and half year.

 

[arv]

It's worth adding your site to google webmaster tools as you can get a lot of info regarding your sites. But, to be on a safer side it's better to have limited number of sites per account.

 

[linkr]

The greatest value of GWT in my eyes is geotargeting. I have several .com, .net and .org and I just set that I'm targeting the UK region and that's it.

I never thought GWT could in any way hurt me.