Saying that it wants to help website owners prioritize their work, Google has added a new “site health” view to the Webmaster Tools home page.

The next time you visit Webmaster Tools, Google will show the sites in your account sorted with those in need of work at the top. Here’s a screenshot of Google’s sample WMT account:

Google is currently using three issues/concerns to determine when a site is in poor health:

• when malware has been detected
• when important pages have been removed via Google’s URL removal tool (as RipoffReport.com did last month)
• when important pages are blocked in the robots.txt file

In its announcement, Google says “important pages” are currently being defined by the number of clicks that pages get; other factors may be added in the future.

Google also says it hopes to expand the health check beyond the three issues listed above.

Webmasters may continue to see the health warnings in Webmaster Tools for several days after fixing problems. That’s how long it should take for Google to recrawl the site/pages, recognize the changes and process that through the Webmaster Tools system.

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: Webmaster Central | Top News

About The Author: Matt McGee is Editor-In-Chief of Search Engine Land. His news career includes time spent in TV, radio, and print journalism. His web career continues to include a small number of SEO and social media consulting clients, as well as regular speaking engagements at marketing events around the U.S. He blogs at Small Business Search Marketing and can be found on Twitter at @MattMcGee and/or on Google Plus. You can read Matt's disclosures on his personal blog. See more articles by Matt McGee

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