Ed. Tech Practices

WebQuest is a great way to design a lesson plan and put it online using online resources and software found on the user's PC. This tutorial shows you how to edit a picture in PhotoShop™. It also includes a lesson on maybe why you shouldn't. There is a limit of 1 download per 24 hrs.

The lesson plan provides an overview of Google^® Webmaster Tools. The file includes a description of what the tutorial teaches.

WebQuest

Lesson Plan (partial)

Google Webmaster Tools

Topic/Grade Level:

An introduction to Google Webmaster Tools

Standards:

W3C Level 2 Revision 2 (CSS 2.2), W3C CSS 3 Candidate Version, Google Search Standards, W3C HTML 4 & 5.

Goals and Student Learning Outcomes (Objectives):

Goal 1: Students will be able to register their site (s) and properly verify it/them in order to start utilizing Google Webmaster Tools.

Student Learning Outcome 1: Students will be able to use Google’s Recommended Method verification tool to properly register their site and prove they have access to the root of the site’s (sites’) files. They will download a file from Google and then upload it to the root of their site (s) and use Google verifier to confirm they own or manage the site.

Student Learning Outcome 2: Students will be able to use Google’s Alternate Methods verification tool as a way to verify their site if for some reason they cannot use the Recommended Method. Students will be able to use any of the following four methods as an alternate way to verify their site (s).

Students will be able to use the HTML Tag method by adding a special meta tag in the <head> section of their homepage.
Students will be able to use the Domain Name Provider method and create a specific Google provided subdomain and CNAME alias that points to Google.
Students will be able to add Google tracking code to the <head> section of their homepage.
Students will be able to use the Google Tag Manager method by creating a Tag Manager account along with a container and then copying / pasting the container code inside the <body> tag of their site.

Goal 2: Students will be able to use Google Webmaster Tools to analyze, track, and fix issues of their verified site (s) in order to improve search rankings.

Student Learning Outcome 1: Students will be able to use the following six features in Google Webmaster Tools (GWT) in order to assess and make changes to their site (s) based on Google’s recommendations.

Search Appearance: Students will be able to improve the appearance of search results in Google by tagging the desired information in their site (s).
Search Traffic: Students will be able to analyze their pages and assess the popularity of each page based on the number of visitor clicks and improve or remove the pages that have too few clicks based on GWT recommendations.
Google Index: Students will be able to verify how many pages Google has indexed and will be able to remove any unwanted pages from the index.
Crawl: Students will be able to view which pages, if any, Google could not crawl and fix them based on GWT recommendations so they can be added to the index.
Security Issues: Students will be able to determine if their site (s) have been hacked and include malware and will be able to fix them based on GWT recommendations.
Other Resources: Students will be able to use Google’s rich guide on various site topics for edification and to customize their site (s).

Student Learning Outcome 2: Students will use Messages and Mobile Usability in order to inspect their site for handheld / mobile device readiness and compatibility, and make changes based on GWT recommendations. This may include, but is definitely not limited to, adding space between elements, resizing fonts, minifying scripts and CSS, and adjusting the responsive settings.