Why is it important to submit your sitemap to Google?

[kgun]

It may be relatively new to somebody, but it is important to have a good sitemap for your site. It is important for
1. Clearity of your site.
2. Internal linking.

So if you do not have a sitemap, make one and then submit it to Google via their sitmaps Beta:

http://www.google.com/webmasters/sit...cs/en/faq.html

Google also provides tools to generate a sitemap.

If you need more information or need help with thechnical issues, Google Group for Google
Sitemaps

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/google-sitemaps

may be the right forum to consult.

Related post:

http://www.webproworld.com/viewtopic.php?t=46621

Kjell Bleivik
http://www.multifinanceit.com/

[cspelts]

Originally Posted by kgun

So if you do not have a sitemap, make one and then submit it to Google via their sitmaps Beta

I'd suggest creating a sitemap AND joining Google's Sitemaps program - because they really are two seperate things. A sitemap is useful for human visitors and spiders, and it's a regular page on your site with links to all your pages.

Google Sitemaps is a program where you submit an XML or plain text file that lists URLs for your site.

[cbp]

kgun - you seem confused between a sitemap that every site should have to aid navigatation around a site and the Google Sitemap program which are more useful for larger and dynamic sites - they are both 2 very different beasts and have NO relationship to each other.

CBP

[kgun]

http://www.google.com/webmasters/sit...en/faq.html#s2

I know that, but when I submitted my

http://www.multifinanceit.com/sitemap.htm

it was accepted.

Do you need to have an XML version generated by

http://www.google.com/webmasters/sit...generator.html


"Google-supported formats

Google can accept Sitemaps in a number of formats, but Google encourages the use of Sitemaps that use the Google Sitemap protocol, both because it enables site owners to provide additional information about site pages beyond just the URLs, and because Google offers this protocol under the terms of the Attribution-ShareAlike Creative Commons License so that other search engines can make use of it. We hope that site owners can create a single Sitemap for all search engines to use.

You can submit a Sitemap to Google in a number of formats:

Sitemap protocol This is an open-source Google-created protocol in XML format. A Sitemap file that uses the Sitemap protocol can contain a list of URLs for your site, along with useful information about those URLs. You can use the Google Sitemap Generator to create a Sitemap that uses this protocol, or you can create it manually or use a third-party generation tool. Google recommends this protocol, since it's scalable and it enables you to provide specific information to Google about each of your URLs (such as when each page was last modified and which pages have the highest priority).

OAI-PMH (Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting) This is an application-independent interoperability framework based on metadata harvesting. Generally, you would use this format only if you already have a site that uses this protocol. You can't use this format for mobile Sitemaps.

Syndication feed Google accepts RSS (Real Simple Syndication) 2.0 and Atom 0.3 feeds. Generally, you would use this format only if your site already has a syndication feed. Note that the feed may only provide information on recent URLs.

Text file You can provide Google with a simple text file that contains one URL per line. The text file format contains only a list of URLs and unlike the Sitemap Protocol format does not give you the opportunity to provide information about each URL's relative importance or change frequency".

http://www.google.com/webmasters/sit.../overview.html

Not .htm ? Should it be .txt?

[khurramali]

I should warn people before getting into Google Sitemaps.

First of all, getting a properly working sitemap.xml is very difficult for new comers, please don't sign up until your sitemap is verified / working properly.

Join the Google Sitemap mailing list and understand its workings first and the issues involved.
http://groups.google.com/group/google-sitemaps

Secondly, you are risking having your website being dropped completely out of the index for anywhere from 1 to 3 weeks. (no guarantee when they will re-appear and take their old position back)

It is Still in Beta. And prone to issues. Don't be a Guinea Pig.

I am a stanch advocate for Google sitemaps, but my clients have suffered because of it so I don't want others to jump in without checking the water first.

My advice is that if you already have top rankings then you don’t need Google Sitemap.

If you are impatient, then please, wait until it comes out of beta.

[kgun]

1. Good advice.
2. If you use the Google Sitemap Generator
https://www.google.com/webmasters/si...generator.html

you should be fairly safe.

3. I used my sitemap as is, since there was no indication that it could not be used.

4. May be I should have taken the time to use the Sitemap Genartor. My sitemap were not rejected. I have not logged in to check the status.

Good enough is best.

[ash]

Until the latest update I didn't believe in the value of Google sitemaps. I am a half-believer so far, anyway, because my traffic hasn't improved, but one newish site now has many thousand pages indexed. An older one has over xxx,000 pages indexed.

I am waiting to see how Yahoo Sitemaps (same XML file as used to feed Google) performs for me.

[kgun]

Nobel price winner, Trygve Haavelmo used to say:
"How had the situation been without doing it?"

Can it be page rank 1 (0) instead of 2 (1)?

How long time does it take to become effective?

[khurramali]

Google Sitemaps is an indispensable resource for big websites with thousands of pages that need indexing.

Another advantage is that it shows you if there are any errors with any of your documents / files.

Either they are missing or corrupt in uploading.

And best of all, Its FREE.

[cspelts]

Originally Posted by khurramali

I should warn people before getting into Google Sitemaps.

First of all, getting a properly working sitemap.xml is very difficult for new comers, please don't sign up until your sitemap is verified / working properly.

It doesn't have to be that complicated. You can submit a TXT file if you're not comfortable with XML. I've submitted several TXT files with over 5000 URLs, and Google is fine with it. And there's no reason to wait - if you have a mistake in your file, Google lets you know.

I've gotten good results from Google Sitemaps. If you have a large site with hundreds or thousands of pages, it helps Google find everything - and for me that's a HUGE deal.

I would hate for anyone to read the posts above and think they should hold off on participating - it's VERY simple to implement and it can give a huge boost to a large site.

[kgun]

and there are XML Validators like:
http://www.smart-it-consulting.com/i...idate-sitemap/

[dion2]

Google returned an error for my sitemap submission. When I click on the error I see the following

Sitemap Errors
HTTP error

The server returned an error when we tried to access the URL provided. Please make sure the Sitemap URL is correct and resubmit your Sitemap.


When I access the URL www.contactyourcpa.com/sitemap.htm I access it with no problem.

Can anyone give me some advice.

Thanks

Dion

[buddhu]

Originally Posted by dion2

Google returned an error for my sitemap submission. When I click on the error I see the following

Sitemap Errors
HTTP error

The server returned an error when we tried to access the URL provided. Please make sure the Sitemap URL is correct and resubmit your Sitemap.


When I access the URL www.contactyourcpa.com/sitemap.htm I access it with no problem.

Can anyone give me some advice.

Thanks

Dion

Do you need an XML sitemap for such a simple site? If Google is having problems with that file why not do as cspelts suggests and submit a simple .txt version.

Just put one URL on each line and no other content. It's dead simple and there's little scope for errors to choke Google.

Text works great for us on a site with hundreds of pages.

Oh, the other thing to look out for is that Google insists on UTF-8 encoding... Might be a good idea to check that you save your files correctly.

[kgun]

When I access the URL www.contactyourcpa.com/sitemap.htm I access it with no problem.

Can anyone give me some advice.

1. The URL gives a page with: xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8
Should it be www.contactyourcpa.com/sitemap.xml

There are some blank lines in the code. Why?

2. It may be the code.
I see the following difference:

When I type in

http://www.contactyourcpa.com/business.htm/

I am redirected to:
http://www.contactyourcpa.com

When I type in

http://www.contactyourcpa.com/business.htm

I get to the business subpage. So the difference may be the / at the end of the code? But try to change to .xml before you change the / I do not know the Google sitemap function in detail.

3. More advanced.
Question: How did you create it? With the Google sitemap creator:

https://www.google.com/webmasters/si...generator.html ?

Also look on the Stats page
http://www.google.com/webmasters/sit.../en/stats.html

Heading Troubleshooting

Example:
We've detected that your 404 (file not found) error page returns a status of 200 (OK) in the header.
This configuration presents a security risk for site verification and therefore, we can't verify your site. If your web server is configured to return a status of 200 in the header of 404 pages, and we enabled you to verify your site with this configuration, others would be able to take advantage of this and verify your site as well. This would allow others to see your site statistics. To ensure that no one can take advantage of this configuration to view statistics to sites they don't own, we only verify sites that return a status of 404 in the header of 404 pages.

Please modify your web server configuration to return a status of 404 in the header of 404 pages. Note that we do a HEAD request (and not a GET request) when we check for this. Once your web server is configured correctly, try to verify the site again. If your web server is configured this way and you receive this error, click Check Status again and we'll recheck your configuration.

Do you have a robots.txt file? Have you tested it with http://tool.motoricerca.info/robots-checker.phtml ?


4. If you need more help:
http://sitemaps.blogspot.com/ Inside Google Sitemaps