Three Ways To Index Your
Site With Google Sitemaps [Difficult, Hard, And Easy]
Google has recently implemented a program where any
webmaster can create a Sitemap of their Site and submit
it for indexing by Google. It is a quick and easy way
for you to keep your site constantly indexed and updated
in Google.
The program is appropriately called Google Sitemaps.
In order for you to best use Sitemaps, you must have
an XML generated file on your site that will transmit
or send any updates, changes, and data to Google. XML
(Extensible Markup Language)is everywhere these days,
you have probably seen the orange XML icon on many websites and its often associated with Blogging because
Blogs use XML/RSS feeds to syndicate their content.
Today RSS is known mostly as 'Really Simple Syndication'
but its original acronym stood for 'Rich Site Summary'.
XML is only simple code like HTML and it is used to
syndicate your content to all interested parties.
And the interested party in this case is Google. By
creating Sitemaps Google is really asking webmasters
to take charge of the indexing and updating of their
sites. Basically, doing the Googlebot's job!
This is a 'Good' thing! With the steady influx of new
websites growing rapidly, indexing all this material
will become a challenge, even with the resources of
Google. With Sitemaps, websmasters can now take charge
and make sure their site is crawled and indexed.
Please note, indexing your site with Sitemaps WON'T
improve your rankings in Google. You will still be competing
with the other sites in Google for top positions. But
with Sitemaps you can make sure all your pages are crawled
and indexed quickly by Google.
There are some other big advantages of using Google's
Sitemaps - mainly you have control over a few key variables,
attributes or tags. To explain this as simply as possible,
your XML powered sitemap file will have this simple
code for each page of your site:
< url> < loc>http://www.yoursite.com/< / loc>
< priority>1.0< /priority> < lastmod>2005-07-03T16:18:09+00:00<
/lastmod> < changefreq>daily< /changefreq>
< /url>
Along with 'urlset' tags at the beginning and end of
your code, and an XML version indication - that's basically
your XML file! File size will depend on the number of
webpages you have.
Taking a closer look at this XML file:
location - http://www.yoursite.com/ - name of your
webpage
priority - you set the priority you want Google
to place on that page in 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. Why is
this important? You have certain pages on your site
that are more important than others, (home page, high
profit page, opt-in page, etc.) by placing high priority
on these pages, you will increase their importance in
Google.
last modified - when you last modified that page,
this timestamp allows crawlers to avoid recrawling pages
that haven't changed.
change frequency - you can tell Google how often
you change that particular page. Never, weekly, daily,
hourly, and so on - if you frequently update your page
this could be extremely important.
Why do I need a XML Generator?
In order for this XML sitemap file on your site to be
constantly updated, you need a Generator that will spider
your site, list all the urls and automatically feed
them to Google. Thus constantly updating your site in
Google's massive index or database. Keep in mind, Google
also gives you the option of submitting a simple
text file with all your URLs.
Now there is already a flood of these generators popping
up! Different ways of generating your XML powered sitemap
file. More are probably appearing as you read this.
For your convenience, three ways to generate your XML
Sitemaps file are listed below:
Difficult - Google's Python Generator
That's a relative term, if you know your server like
the back of your hand and installing scripts doesn't
scare the bejesus out of you, you're probably smiling
at the word difficult. Google supplies a link to a generator
which you can download and set up on your server. It
will cough up your sitemap XML file and automatically
feed it to Google. Google
XML Generator
In order for this Generator to work, Python version
2.2 must be installed on your web server - many servers
don't have this. If you know what you're doing, this
will probably be a good choice.
You don't need a Google Account to use Sitemaps but
it's encouraged because you can track your sitemap's
progress and view diagnostic information. If you already
have another Google Account gmail, Google Alerts, etc.
just use that one to sign in and follow directions from
there.
To submit your Sitemap using an HTTP request, issue
your request to the following URL:
www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/ping?sitemap=sitemap_url
Hard - A PHP Code Generator
This is a php generator that you can place on your server.
This generator will spider your site, and produce your
XML sitemap file. Download the phpSitemapNG and upload
it your server. Run the generator to get your XML sitemap
file and send it to Google. PHP Generator
Again, this is only hard to do if you don't know your
way around PHP files or scripts.
Easy - Free Online Generator
These Generators are popping up everywhere, and Google
now keeps a list of these 'third party suppliers' of
generators on their site. Find them here: Google's List of Third Party
Generators
One of the easiest to use is http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/%20<a%20href=">www.xml-sitemaps.com,
and you can index up to 500 pages with this online Generator
very quickly and it will give you the sitemap XML file
Google needs to index your site. It will go into your
site, spider it and index all your pages into an XML
sitemap of your site. You can download this file, Compressed
or Non- compressed and make minor changes such as setting
the priority, changing frequency, etc.
Then upload this file to your site as sitemap.xml to
the root directory of your server i.e. where you have
your homepage. Then notify Google Sitemaps of your XML
file and you're in business.
Of course, the only drawback, if you constantly
add pages to your site you will need to also add these
pages to your XML sitemap file. This won't be much of
a problem unless you're daily adding pages to your site
- then you will need something like the PHP or Python
generator to do all this for you automatically.
Google is still the major search engine on the web so
getting your pages indexed and updated quickly is the
major reason to use Google Sitemaps. If you want your
site to remain competitive it's probably the wisest
route to take.
---- To learn more about the different Services and
Programs offered by Google click here: Google Adsense &
Google Adwords Copyright © 2005 Titus Hoskins of
www.bizwaremagic.com This article may be freely distributed
if this resource box stays attached. ----
About
the Author: To learn more about the different Services
and Programs offered by Google click here: Google Adsense &
Google Adwords Copyright © 2005 Titus Hoskins of
www.bizwaremagic.com This article may be freely distributed
if this resource box stays attached. |
