Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Google XML Sitemaps - The Basics - Brought by Jesus Moreno.

I've found a very useful article regarding sitemaps. Anyone
advertising their website should check this out.

By Scott Van Achte, Senior SEO, StepForth Placement Inc. (c) 2006

Google XML Sitemaps have been around for a while now and many
webmasters are starting to become familiar with them. They can
help you to achieve up to date indexing in Google, and, in a
round about way, play a small roll in assisting with rankings.
Sitemaps are not needed by everyone, but can be of significant
use for many websites. This article will touch on the basics of
what they are, who can use them, and how to implement them.

What is a Google XML Sitemap?

In short a Google XML Sitemap allows webmasters to submit a
master list of all their site’s pages to Google for indexing.
This information is stored in an XML file along with other
relevant information where specified by the webmaster. It can be
as simple as a list of URL’s belonging to the site, or can
include, last modified date, update frequency, and priority. The
purpose of this Sitemap is to have the most recent version of
your URL’s indexed in Google at all times.

Who needs a Google XML Sitemap?

XML sitemaps can generally help any site needing to be indexed
by Google; however, small sites may not see the need for this.
For example, if you have a small 10 page website that seldom
sees any of its pages updated and your entire site is already in
Google’s index, the XML Sitemap is not necessarily going to help
much. It is best used when trying to keep the latest versions of
your pages current in Google. Large sites with an extensive list
of URL’s will also benefit, especially if 100% of their pages
are not appearing in the index. So a general rule of thumb, if
you have either a dynamic or large site, Google XML Sitemaps
just may benefit you.

Will using XML Sitemaps improve my Google Ranking?

In most cases this will not improve your rankings, however it
can help. By having the most current version of your site in
Google’s index, this can speed up your movement in the results
pages. This is because if you make an update to a page for
optimization purposes, Google’s index will have this page
updated more quickly than without the XML sitemap. What this
essentially means is that with more frequent spidering you can
help influence what version of your site is in the index, and
ultimately, help with rankings by decreasing response time.

How do you create the XML Sitemap?

If you have a very small site, or a lot of time on your hands
you can create your XML sitemap manually, but for the vast
majority of webmasters, automated tools are an absolute must.
There are a number of available solutions for this. One of the
simplest methods of creating XML sitemaps is through the use of
VIGOS GSitemap (http://www.vigos.com/products/gsitemap/). This
is a free, easy to use tool that will help you create your XML
sitemaps with ease. There are also number of downloadable and
online tools listed on Google’s site
(http://code.google.com/sm_thirdparty.html) which cater to both
beginners and seasoned professionals alike.

Submitting your XML Sitemap to Google is relatively
straightforward. After the file has been created the first thing
you want to do is upload the file to your server, preferably at
the root level. Log into the Sitemap console using your Google
account login. From here you can add a site to your account.
Simply enter your top level domain where it says "Add Site" (see
fig 1.0). This will add the domain to your account and allow you
to then submit the XML sitemap.

Figure 1.0

http://www.sitepronews.com/images2/addsite.jpg

After this is done it will take you to a screen with the summary
for this site. You will see a text link that says "Submit a
Sitemap". Clicking here will take you to a screen to enter the
online location of the XML sitemap. (see fig 1.1 below). Click
"Add Web Sitemap" and you are on your way.

Figure 1.1

http://www.sitepronews.com/images2/addsite3.jpg

Once this is complete you have the option of verifying your
Sitemap. This can be done by placing a specific meta tag on your
home page, or by uploading a blank html file with a file name
provided by Google. Verification will allow you to access crawl
stats, and other valuable information regarding your Google
listing.

Below is a basic example of an XML Sitemap.


< urlset xmlns="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap/0.84"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap/0.84
http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap/0.84/ sitemap.xsd">


< loc>http://www.stepforth.com/
< lastmod>2006-08-09T04:46:26+00:00
< changefreq>Weekly
< priority>1.0
< /url>
...
...
< url>
< loc>http://www.stepforth.com/company/contact.html
< lastmod>2006-08-08T04:46:26+00:00
< changefreq>Never
< priority>0.5
< /url>



Implementing an XML Sitemap is generally straightforward and
worth the effort. Taking the time to implement them is well
worth it as there is no negative down side to this tool provided
by Google. Every little thing adds up in terms of obtaining site
rankings and frequent spidering by Google is certainly one of
them.
===========================================
Scott Van Achte is the Senior SEO at StepForth Search Engine
Placement (http://www.stepforth.com). Since graduating from
Camosun College several years ago, Scott has been working with
StepForth Placement and has thoroughly enjoyed his position in
the search engine industry. When he's not busy working he can be
found spending quality time with his wife Lyndsay, or out on the
golf course. Scott would be happy to answer any questions, and
can be reached at scott@stepforth.com
===========================================
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