Google Sitemaps is a simple and fast way for your site to be constantly indexed and updated by Google.
This article will discuss the benefits of implementing this new technology, who should use it, how it works and how to create a Google Sitemap for your web site.
Benefits of having a Google Site Map
1. Speeds up the discovery and addition of your web pages in the Google index.
2. Enables Google to quickly find web pages that have been recently changed.
3. A method for your site to be listed and appear quickly in Google.
4. Helps Google to keep search content fresh, so people have the most up to date information available.
Who should use Google Sitemaps?
All site owners can use Google sitemaps whether you have one page or millions of pages, however it's mostly geared towards people that make frequent changes to their web pages.
Normally web pages on a large site will not all get indexed because the links are too deep within the site. By including all your pages in the Google Sitemap you have a better chance of them all being indexed as Google thrives on fresh content. According to Google, it won't increase your site's rankings.
How does it work?
Google sitemaps are created using XML (Extensible Markup Language). This is a coding language similar to HTML(though a little more complex). It is often used these days in syndicated feeds or blogs.
Here is the sample XML code you would include for each page of your site:
http://www.yoursite.com/
2005-07-15
monthly
0.5
(remove periods for code to work)
Here is a breakdown of what each line represents:
location - name of your webpage ie http://www.yoursite.com
last modified - when you last modified the page.
change frequency - tells Google how often you modify that particular page, whether it's never, weekly, daily, hourly, monthly or yearly.
priority - sets the priority you want Google to place for that page on your site. You can prioritize your pages: 0.0 being the least, 1.0 being the highest, 0.5 is in the middle.
This is only relative to your site. It will not affect your rankings. Certain pages on your site may have more significance than others because they are updated more often ie home page, articles page.
How to Create a Dynamic Google SiteMap XML File
It would take a long time to create your Google Sitemap by hand especially if you have a site that contains 1000s of pages.
Fortunately Google provides the Sitemap Generator that allows you to generate a sitemap very quickly. It's a Python script that creates a Sitemap for your site using the Sitemap Protocol. This script can create Sitemaps from URL lists, web server directories, or from access logs.
You can read more about it here:
https://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/login
Other Sitemap Generators.
Google has also compiled a list of third party generators.
Personally I use the free sitemap generator It's simple to use and quickly produces the necessary XML code for your site.
Here are the steps on how to create your Sitemap using this free Sitemap Generator:
1. Go to http://www.sitemapspal.com and enter your site's address.
2. Copy the code that it generates for your site and paste it into notepad.
3. Save the text file as sitemap.xml
4. Upload this file to the root directory (same place as your home page) of your web server.
5. Open up a Google Site Map account and submit your site's address.
6. Every time you modify a page or pages, login to your Google account and click on the resubmit button.
7. Repeat this procedure for all of your web sites.
Conclusion
Google is still the largest and most accessed search engine on Net. Each year millions of web sites get added to Google making your site harder to find. Creating a Google Sitemap will help your web pages stay fresh in Google's index.
Herman Drost is the Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW) owner and author of http://www.isitebuild.com. Affordable Web Site Design and Web Hosting. You can read more of his in-depth articles at: http://www.isitebuild.com
executive chauffeured services Bradford .. Madison to Airport carThe first step to starting a profitable online business of... Read More
Your biggest asset when becoming an internet marketer is to... Read More
Streaming Media?now a well accepted Internet technology. Yet streaming is... Read More
First Generation - The Popup Popups, if you're somehow, strangely,... Read More
Finding the successful keywords is crucial in order to get... Read More
Webmasters are always looking for ways to increase their traffic... Read More
The Google patent application submitted in March, 2005 has generated... Read More
One of the great advantages of advertising and marketing on... Read More
Holding a contest or sweepstakes can draw a lot of... Read More
It's a fact. While most link partners are scrupulously honest... Read More
A great way to get the word out about your... Read More
How to improve conversion rate for your website? How to... Read More
Depending on your site's subject... Read More
If you master these nitty-gritty website promotion tactics, you'll be... Read More
"One in a million". What do I mean by that?... Read More
Over the past couple of months it has been quite... Read More
Many companies after spending a substantial amount of money on... Read More
There was a time when reciprocal linking was a number... Read More
There are 3 basic components to capturing leads on free... Read More
Would you attempt to use a cell phone with a... Read More
The shortcut to succeed in business is to do what... Read More
There's such a thing as taking search engine optimization too... Read More
You have spent hours creating a HTML masterpiece, you have... Read More
How much does an advert in Yellow Pages cost? How... Read More
It's easy to forget the fundamental components of Web site... Read More
O'Hare Chicago prom limo ..In many cases when you start a new website you... Read More
Let's face it. Getting webmasters to link to your site... Read More
Writing effective web copy begins with an understanding of what... Read More
If your website sales are down and you desire to... Read More
Culture and Website Localization With the rise... Read More
Here are some simple and easy tips on how to... Read More
We get so caught up with internet marketing and "web... Read More
How can one get a good ranking in the major... Read More
What is the accepted standard for signatures? Who sets these... Read More
There was a time when reciprocal linking was a number... Read More
Almost anyone who has tried submitting to free-for-all sites will... Read More
Links are the main pillar of your website. To navigate... Read More
Writing articles and submitting them to free content sites is... Read More
Here's a fairly obvious Multi Linking Strategy that is probably... Read More
1. Use reward programs to keep people revisiting your web... Read More
In this article I discuss some ineffective and/or unethical website... Read More
When we ran the contest back in 1998 we had... Read More
If you want to make money on the web, you... Read More
Website owners and webmasters who are trying to improve their... Read More
How to get your business exposed for free!Everybody in the... Read More
After you have built your website the next natural step... Read More
How would like to have an email list of thousands... Read More
Driving traffic to your website can be a time consuming... Read More
Professionals in tend to under-estimate the power of the web... Read More
Every business owner want to attract more orders and have... Read More
Web Site Promotion |