Is using Google Webmaster Tools a Good Idea?

Ok i wanna start getting serious in SEO WH and maybe a little BH to help me with automatic backlinking, but making it look natural.

With that in mind, would it be a good idea for me to grab a google webmaster tools account?

Like i think i wanna start following google and doing what they say, someone told me the other day that SEO if very very simple, people just make it complicated themselves.

But for some reason i have it in my head that getting a google webmaster account may not be such a great thing, because i think google will be able to see everything im doing. And i personally cannot decide if thats a good thing or a bad thing when getting serious about WH SEO and mixing that with a little BH.

And when i say BH im mainly talking about automatic backlinking, and not cloaking/ doorway pages ect.

What do you guys think?

yes we can use it...

sitemap,posts indexed, like that we can track out more information's about the site

I personally don't like to use G's webmaster tools, but at some point may prove to be useful if you're looking to gather various kind of info about your sites / visitors.. try it with one site and see if is useful to your needs

Just use it to track your visitor.
An alternative to the webmaster tool is statscounter.com

thanks guys, does anyone have any other input?

There are usually two schools of thoughts.

1. It's a great tool and can give you a lot of info.
2. We don't want to let G know EVERTHING that we are doing.

Thus I use it to a degree, but not on all my sites, since mine are spread amongst different names and bank accounts. I wouldn't want to use something that would quickly give G the full extent of my network.

If you are not doing anything too "blackhat" then I think using Google Webmaster Tools is very useful.

I see someone mentioned to monitor traffic - well Google Analytics can handle that...

What Webmaster Tools can help you with is making sure your site structure and loading time etc... are optimized how Google likes it.

It finds dead links, screwed up URLs etc.. It can diagnose loading time issues on your site as well.

IMO if you are being completely legit - you should always use Webmaster Tools...if you don't want Google to know everything about your site though, like mentioned above maybe skip it.

I use it and it does give you a lot of (free) information that can be very helpful. I don't know of a downside to using it. From some of the answers, though, it appears that some people confuse Webmaster Tools and Google Analytics. They are two separate systems that provide different data.

Personally, I try to to avoid Google services if possible.

You don't need Google Webmaster Tools to get your site indexed quickly, which is one of the main reasons for people to use it (xml sitemap submission). If that's the only motivation to use the service, don't do it. It's a waste of time.

A good alternative to Google Analytics, for instance, is Piwik. Just check out piwik.org. I use it for the vast majority of my sites. I don't use Google Analytics at all.

ill use it on sites which are totally white hat and for clients who want to kinda see a sites been done properly...

other than that i dont use it... if for some reason i was seeing zero traffic to the site or i wasnt getting good placement in the serps or not even indexed then i may consider seeing if theres a problem with it other by using GWT

i havent see it have a positive or negative effect on any my sites performance for me i have the same thought process as what showbizvet said i dont want to hand them on a plate intentionally telling them what i am doing

hth

it can be useful, but if you are going to doing something against google's quality standards, then better not...