Google webmaster tools

[Dannyboy12]

Im a noob with SEO and I have 2 questions regarding google webmaster tools.

1.What does it do exactly?! Im assuming it gives me my sites stats etc..

2.When I try to add my site, It asks me to upload a verification html file to my website. When I do I get this error:

Verify ownership
Verification failed for ******s | ******* using the HTML file method (less than a minute ago). Your verification file was not found.
There are several ways to prove to Google that you own http://www.***.com/. Select the option that is easiest for you.
Recommended method
Alternate methods History
Recommended: Upload an HTML file to your server
You can use this option if you can upload new files to your site.
Instructions:
1. Download this HTML verification file. [*****]
2. Upload the file to http://www.***.com/
3. Confirm successful upload by visiting http://www.*****.com/google*****.html in your browser.
4. Click Verify below.
To stay verified, don't remove the HTML file, even after verification succeeds.

Ive gone into my hostgator CP and just uploaded it in the home file. Im thinking that maybe I need to put it ina certain file? Because when I click on the link at #3(highlighted in red) It brings up my website with a 404 error.

Any Ideas on whats going wrong? Or subsequently, If I even need to be doing this?

[eltonovereasy]

You have to put the file into the "/public_html/" directory for it to show up.

In short, GWT will give you stats about your site as Google sees them--basically, it'll give you stats relevant to Google's crawlers--aka 404 errors, indexed pages, etc...

[Dannyboy12]

oh ok, cool. Thanks man!

[duetzFanz1]

It also shows you if there are any problems with your site that you can attempt to correct. I really like how it shows how many impressions you are getting and how many people actually click through your site. It's great for tweaking and optimizing.