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Improve your Search Engine Position with Sitemaps
Improve your Search Engine Position with Sitemaps
A sitemap is a little-known secret to enhancing your Web site's position in the search engine listings. No, it's not a killer secret that will draw in thousands of new visitors overnight, but it is an important addition to your toolset, and not hard to implement. This article will tell you why you need a sitemap, and how to create one and submit it to the search engines.
The term "sitemap" can refer to two different things. Many large, complex Web sites provide a visual sitemap that visitors can use for quick navigation, if they already know roughly where they want to go. If your site is large or complex, you should provide one of these sitemaps for your visitors.
But this article is about the other kind of sitemap: The kind that is made for the search engines, like Google, to use in indexing your site. There are several forms that these sitemaps can take, but we'll get to that a little later.
First of all, let's consider why you even need a sitemap. Google and the other search engines will index your site even if you don't have a sitemap. However, there are four main advantages to having a sitemap:
1. If your site uses non-HTML links, such as Macromedia Flash menus or JavaScript menus, the search engines will not be able to follow these links, and so they will not find all of your pages. A code-driven site must use a sitemap.
2. A sitemap tells the search engines which pages on your site are more important, and which are less important. This prevents the less important pages from competing with your own pages in the listings.
3. A sitemap tells the search engines which pages on your site are updated more frequently than others. This enables the search engines to ignore your static pages, increasing the likelihood that they will have the most current data on your most dynamic pages.
4. A sitemap enables you to tell the search engines when you have added or updated your site's content. To some extent, this puts you in control of making the search engines aware of your latest content. Of course, it doesn't force the search engines to do your bidding, but it tends to make it easier for users to find your new pages more quickly.
So, what is a sitemap?
As mentioned above, there are many possible forms of sitemaps, but we'll concentrate on the most useful kind, the XML sitemap format created and promulgated by sitemaps.org. This protocol, currently known as "Sitemap 0.90," is maintained and endorsed jointly by Google, MSN, Yahoo, and Ask, so you know it is pretty much a universal standard.
An XML sitemap consists of a list of pages on your Web site, and standard information about each page. Here is an example:
< url >
< loc >http://www.freelancesubmit.com/Index.htm/a>; /loc >
< lastmod >2008-04-07< /lastmod >
< changefreq >never
< priority >0.3
< /url >
...
< url >
< loc >http://www.freelancesubmit.com/Services.htm/a>; /loc >
< lastmod >2008-04-07
< changefreq >weekly
< priority >0.8
< /url >
...
Don't worry about the technical details of formatting the XML. We'll talk about tools that will create this for you in a moment.
There are three things to notice about each entry:
1. LastMod. Tell the search engines the last date (and time) you changed this page. That will tell them which ones they ought to index right away, and which ones they can ignore.
2. ChangeFreq. In case you're not updating your sitemap all the time, this will give the search engines a clue as to how often they ought to check each page.
3. Priority. This tells the search engines the relative importance of this page, compared to all the other pages in your site.
In assigning a value for "Priority," on a scale of 0.0 to 1.0, determine which pages are most important and which are least important within your site. We're not telling the search engines that this "Services" page is in the 80th percentile of all pages on the Web, but it is far more important than the "Index" page within this site. That's where we want our visitors to end up.
It's easy to identify pages within your site which are lowest priority. Some examples:
- Privacy Policy - "Contact us" - "About us"
Please don't misunderstand this. It's not that your "Privacy Policy" page is unimportant and so you might as well not have one. It's that your "Privacy Policy" is important enough to take for granted: Your visitors will find it when they need it. But for search engine purposes, you'd rather direct them to the pages where you actually do your business.
So, how do you create a sitemap?
There are a number of software tools that will create a sitemap by reading your site's content. You will have to adjust the results, especially the "Priority" settings, but most of these do a pretty good job. Search the Web for "sitemap generator," or for any of the following specific free tools:
- SitemapDoc - XML-Sitemaps - AuditMyPC Google Sitemap Generator
And once you have your sitemap, what do you do with it?
There are three things to do, in sequence:
1. Place the sitemap file into the root directory of your Web server, alongside your main "index" file. And each time you update it, place the new copy there.
2. Notify the major search engines of your new sitemap file each time you update it. For Google, this means to submit it from within "Webmaster Tools." For other major search engines, search on that search engine for "submit sitemap," and you'll probably find where to enter the URL of your sitemap file.
3. Place a reference to the sitemap file in your robots.txt file, as "Sitemap: http://www.freelancesubmit.com/sitemap.xml". This will make sure that any search engine will find it, even those that you did not submit it to directly. You only need to do this once, unless you change the name or location of your sitemap file.
Once you have your sitemap created and submitted, don't forget to maintain it. Each time you add a page to your Web site, add it to your sitemap. Each time you update a page on your Web site, update its "lastmod" setting in your sitemap. Try adjusting the "priority" of your pages from time to time to see if it improves the performance of that particular page. And each time you modify your sitemap, resubmit it to the major search engines.
________________________________________
About the Author: Charles J. Bonner is the founder and principal project manager of www.FreeLanceSubmit.com. For a complete list of resources for creating and using sitemaps, visit http://www.FreeLanceSubmit.com/ArticleBuildASitemap.htm
A sitemap is a little-known secret to enhancing your Web site's position in the search engine listings. No, it's not a killer secret that will draw in thousands of new visitors overnight, but it is an important addition to your toolset, and not hard to implement. This article will tell you why you need a sitemap, and how to create one and submit it to the search engines.
The term "sitemap" can refer to two different things. Many large, complex Web sites provide a visual sitemap that visitors can use for quick navigation, if they already know roughly where they want to go. If your site is large or complex, you should provide one of these sitemaps for your visitors.
But this article is about the other kind of sitemap: The kind that is made for the search engines, like Google, to use in indexing your site. There are several forms that these sitemaps can take, but we'll get to that a little later.
First of all, let's consider why you even need a sitemap. Google and the other search engines will index your site even if you don't have a sitemap. However, there are four main advantages to having a sitemap:
1. If your site uses non-HTML links, such as Macromedia Flash menus or JavaScript menus, the search engines will not be able to follow these links, and so they will not find all of your pages. A code-driven site must use a sitemap.
2. A sitemap tells the search engines which pages on your site are more important, and which are less important. This prevents the less important pages from competing with your own pages in the listings.
3. A sitemap tells the search engines which pages on your site are updated more frequently than others. This enables the search engines to ignore your static pages, increasing the likelihood that they will have the most current data on your most dynamic pages.
4. A sitemap enables you to tell the search engines when you have added or updated your site's content. To some extent, this puts you in control of making the search engines aware of your latest content. Of course, it doesn't force the search engines to do your bidding, but it tends to make it easier for users to find your new pages more quickly.
So, what is a sitemap?
As mentioned above, there are many possible forms of sitemaps, but we'll concentrate on the most useful kind, the XML sitemap format created and promulgated by sitemaps.org. This protocol, currently known as "Sitemap 0.90," is maintained and endorsed jointly by Google, MSN, Yahoo, and Ask, so you know it is pretty much a universal standard.
An XML sitemap consists of a list of pages on your Web site, and standard information about each page. Here is an example:
< url >
< loc >http://www.freelancesubmit.com/Index.htm/a>; /loc >
< lastmod >2008-04-07< /lastmod >
< changefreq >never
< priority >0.3
< /url >
...
< url >
< loc >http://www.freelancesubmit.com/Services.htm/a>; /loc >
< lastmod >2008-04-07
< changefreq >weekly
< priority >0.8
< /url >
...
Don't worry about the technical details of formatting the XML. We'll talk about tools that will create this for you in a moment.
There are three things to notice about each entry:
1. LastMod. Tell the search engines the last date (and time) you changed this page. That will tell them which ones they ought to index right away, and which ones they can ignore.
2. ChangeFreq. In case you're not updating your sitemap all the time, this will give the search engines a clue as to how often they ought to check each page.
3. Priority. This tells the search engines the relative importance of this page, compared to all the other pages in your site.
In assigning a value for "Priority," on a scale of 0.0 to 1.0, determine which pages are most important and which are least important within your site. We're not telling the search engines that this "Services" page is in the 80th percentile of all pages on the Web, but it is far more important than the "Index" page within this site. That's where we want our visitors to end up.
It's easy to identify pages within your site which are lowest priority. Some examples:
- Privacy Policy - "Contact us" - "About us"
Please don't misunderstand this. It's not that your "Privacy Policy" page is unimportant and so you might as well not have one. It's that your "Privacy Policy" is important enough to take for granted: Your visitors will find it when they need it. But for search engine purposes, you'd rather direct them to the pages where you actually do your business.
So, how do you create a sitemap?
There are a number of software tools that will create a sitemap by reading your site's content. You will have to adjust the results, especially the "Priority" settings, but most of these do a pretty good job. Search the Web for "sitemap generator," or for any of the following specific free tools:
- SitemapDoc - XML-Sitemaps - AuditMyPC Google Sitemap Generator
And once you have your sitemap, what do you do with it?
There are three things to do, in sequence:
1. Place the sitemap file into the root directory of your Web server, alongside your main "index" file. And each time you update it, place the new copy there.
2. Notify the major search engines of your new sitemap file each time you update it. For Google, this means to submit it from within "Webmaster Tools." For other major search engines, search on that search engine for "submit sitemap," and you'll probably find where to enter the URL of your sitemap file.
3. Place a reference to the sitemap file in your robots.txt file, as "Sitemap: http://www.freelancesubmit.com/sitemap.xml". This will make sure that any search engine will find it, even those that you did not submit it to directly. You only need to do this once, unless you change the name or location of your sitemap file.
Once you have your sitemap created and submitted, don't forget to maintain it. Each time you add a page to your Web site, add it to your sitemap. Each time you update a page on your Web site, update its "lastmod" setting in your sitemap. Try adjusting the "priority" of your pages from time to time to see if it improves the performance of that particular page. And each time you modify your sitemap, resubmit it to the major search engines.
________________________________________
About the Author: Charles J. Bonner is the founder and principal project manager of www.FreeLanceSubmit.com. For a complete list of resources for creating and using sitemaps, visit http://www.FreeLanceSubmit.com/ArticleBuildASitemap.htm
Tags: ask, engine, google, html, javascript, msn, search, sitemap, web, yahoo
Captain Kick-Back
Watch This Space!
Lebedev in the MoneyIt seemed at best an unlikely plan when it was announced last year that Alexander Lebedev and his team intended to move the Evening Standard from paid to free distribution. However after just 9 months the paper has begun making money. Doubling the print costs and bidding farewell to the revenue made from newspaper sales, in the middle of a recession no less, was a tremendously bold move. But research has shown that all those additional copies are actually being read, and the beneficial effect this has had for advertisers has seen the coffers filling up once more.
Captain Kickback says: “with politicians stopping you in the street and patting down your pockets for loose change before taking your shoes and sending you on your way, this switch to free distribution was an intuitive masterstroke. The Standard used to sell 1,600 papers at Oxford Circus on a good day. Today, they can easily give away 20,000 copies there. Although owned and managed by the same team, it’s doubtful that the ailing Independent will follow the Standard into free distribution, but there are bound to be some interesting changes afoot.”
Metr0
Associated spent a day in court recently, taking out an injunction against the humorous politickists who published a spoof version of their free commuter newspaper, Metro. Metr0, as it was called, drew attention to the new government’s stance on immigration law by leading with a fake story that Gordon Brown was being forcibly repatriated to Scotland. 20,000 copies of the paper were given out in central London, none of the paper’s other 32 areas of distribution were targeted.
Ad Decline slowing
Reports on ad spend for the first quarter of 2010 have shown that the news for local newspapers is still bad, but is getting worse slower than it has been of late. The amount spent on local press advertising Jan-March was 5.2% down on the same period last year. So far, so bad, but if you consider that Oct-Dec 2009 was 14.1% down on Oct-Dec 2008, things suddenly start to look like they might be bottoming out.
Captain Kickback says: “much of this almost-improvement will be due to classified advertisers finding the money once more to do more than just pay the wage bill and hope that nobody asks for the rent, however media mix is also playing a part here. Over the last 2-3 years many advertisers will have eschewed print media in favour of an entirely digital campaign. Now that the budget allows it, many will now be recognising the value of a more varied schedule.”
6Music
No real news for advertisers here you might think, but BBC 6Music’s 11th hour rescue is solid news for DAB broadcasting. The BBC’s commitment to raise the station’s profile and listener base rather than close it down is shoe in foot with the government re-opening discussions on a switch off date for FM broadcasting: if we are all finally going to make the switch to DAB, the Beeb will have a vital role to play in creating and promoting DAB content worth listening to. The station’s survival could also be seen as a victory for social media, as campaigns on Facebook and activity on Twitter contributed to the BBC Trust receiving more than 25,000 emails asking that the station be kept open.
Captain Kickback says: “we need to either conclude our ablutions promptly or get off the pot with all this DAB business. The technology is nearly 30 years old and we’re still arguing about the switchover. It’s chickens and eggs though- the investment in signal strength will only come when listenership is high enough, but listenership will only be high enough once the signal strength is sufficient for DAB car stereos to be worth having. While we’re on the subject, since it is necessary by definition that a chicken has to have been born from an egg, but not similarly inherent in the nature of eggs that they must be laid by a chicken, clearly the egg came first. Furthermore, since mutation occurs only during reproduction, it’s surely inescapable that the first chicken as we know it will have been born from an egg laid by a not-quite chicken. But I digress.”
The Manchester Wall has Fallen
Having the confidence and the business acumen to beat Murdoch to the punch and put a paywall around your website is terrific. Not realising that almost nobody will pay up to £60 a year to read local gossip and restaurant reviews on Manchester Confidential is a terrific way to alienate users, lose face all over the shop and save yourself the bother of having to send out invoices to advertisers. Publisher Mark Garner won’t reveal how many of ManCon’s 260,000 free readers signed up to be paid-for subscribers to his website, but having reverted to a free model, is no doubt relieved that instead of being termed ‘a failure’ in the trade press it’s largely being described as ‘an experiment’.
Captain Kickback says: “It’s both unfair and inaccurate to compare ManCon to the Times, but nuts anyway. So long as a similar product is available elsewhere for free, it’s difficult to see why anybody would pay for their news online. It’s a brave or foolish imaginary media superhero who suggests that Murdoch has it wrong, but nuts anyway. Forcing users to pay for content will put a huge dent in user numbers, impacting advertising revenue, and while people can visit the BBC’s offering free of charge, why wouldn’t they?”
If you would like more detail on any of the issues discussed in this email, your Space and Time contact will be delighted to help.
See You Next Time!!
Captain Kickback
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