The Easiest Way to Your Google Sitemap

Google Sitemaps is a new tool for website owners and publishers, released by Google themselves. It allows you to submit a sitemap (a document that contains links to every page of your site) from your own homepage in .XML or in plain .TXT format that will help Google to spider your pages. This again should result in a faster indexing process of your site and could therefore even result in better search engine placements. You can learn more about the program and sign up for a free account here.

Create A Sitemap For WordPress Blogs

If your site or weblog is published with WordPress you are very lucky because it didn't take long until the first Google Sitemaps plugin for it was released. The tool, that you can find on the website of the creator, Arne Brachhold, does not only create your xml sitemap totally automatically and update it every time you add new content to your site but does then also ping Google directly to tell them that there are new pages to spider.

Create A Sitemap For Every Other Site

Don't worry now if your website does not use WordPress because this doesn't change the fact that it's very easy to create the sitemap. You could for example use the free program "Google Sitemap Generator" that is programmed in Java (so you need the Java plugin for your browser) and can be found here. It will automatically spider your website and index up to 50000 different links. When it's finished creating the sitemap you can assign each found link a priority and update frequency value and then save it either in .xml or .txt format.

Do I Need A Google Sitemap?

Thats a good question. If your website is already well indexed in Google and gets spidered frequently a Google Sitemap will probably not help you much but especially for newer sites or sites that get updates very often I would recommend to make use of them. It is not a big hassle anyway.

Thomas Höfter is the webmaster and publisher of the Metal Music Portal Metally.net and the Smartphone Software Directory Smartphony. You can find more of his articles and tips at his personal website Lunatic Studios.

You may republish this article as long as the above message stays intact.

---

SEO: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

I seem to have created quite a stir, on a... Read More

Page Rank - A Quick Overview for Beginners

Page Rank (PR) is a specific value for a website... Read More

The Business Case for SEO

It's interesting how potential clients have preconceived notions about which... Read More

Your Top Search Rankings at Yahoo & MSN Search are Worthless

It seems I now do this rant every single year... Read More

How to Prevent Duplicate Content with Effective Use of the Robots.txt and Robots Meta Tag

Duplicate content is one of the problems that we regularly... Read More

Affordable Small Business SEO: 5 Common SEO Errors and How to Fix Them

Don't put the cart before the horse.You can't do SEO... Read More

Google Zombies Need To Wake Up

Over the last couple of weeks, I've received more e-mails... Read More

How To Really SEO Your Site

Search engine optimization is one of most popular online marketing... Read More

Increase Your Link Popularity for Free

Among the many things you need to worry about for... Read More

Understanding Google - What You Need To Know To Conquer This Search Engine Giant

Use a keyword density of about 1 to 2%. Use... Read More

Dont Submit Your Website To Any Search Engines

We all want to get our websites high up in... Read More

Keyword Targeting Strategy In Your Site

Once the keywords have been decided for the site one... Read More

One Way Link Building Secures Long Term Ranking Results

One-way link building is a great way to improve your... Read More

Things You Must Realize When Searching

For the uninitiated, searching for web pages can seem a... Read More

SEO Expert Guide - Paid Site Promotion (Marketing) (part 7/10)

In parts 1 - 6 you learnt how to develop... Read More

Duplicate Content Penalty - How to Lose Google Ranking Fast!

Duplicate content penalty. Ever heard of it? This penalty is... Read More

Developing A List Of Keywords For Marketing

Keywords aren't just some words that allow search engines, like... Read More

Ten Steps To A Well Optimized Website - Step 2: Content Creation

Welcome to part two in this search engine optimization series.... Read More

Is My Search Engine Optimization Working?

You've just built a website and can't wait to start... Read More

Ten Steps To A Well Optimized Website - Step Seven ? Website Submissions

Welcome to part seven in this ten-part search engine positioning... Read More

Easy SEO in 6 Simple Steps

If you want to increase traffic to your website and... Read More

60 Day Sandbox for Google & AskJeeves; MSN Indexes Quickest, Yahoo Next

Search engine listing delays have come to be called the... Read More

Search Engine Marketing 101: What Search Engines See When They Visit Your Web Site

If you have a Web site, have you ever wondered... Read More

How to Use the Google Patent to Get More Traffic

According to the recent release of the Google Patent Application,... Read More

King + Queen = Royal Success

Ever wonder how or why your competitor gets better search... Read More

Search Engine Optimization With Sitemaps

I just wanted to share a little Search Engine Optimization... Read More

SEO Facts

The internet is the largest market place on earth. It... Read More

SEO: When Being Optimized Can Hurt

It's a marketing dream come true: A potential customer, looking... Read More

Seek Engines: What If Seek Had Bumped Out Search?

In the early days of the World Wide Web, when... Read More

Basic Search Engine Optimization For Dummies

OK, you published your site, now you just sit by... Read More

How to Get a Website Indexed Fast

Get Indexed FastWhat does getting indexed mean?The search engines keep... Read More

More Hits are Good for My Website - A Myth You Should Avoid

I hear this all the time. "I can get you... Read More

Google Loosing Fan Base?

"Nothing last forever but the Earth and sky." - from... Read More