Using GSite Crawler

[ESLI]

I have been using Gsite Crawler for some time now. It is a great program for creating a sitemap (xml). Unfortunately I have not seen my rankings move in the past six months. My questions are…

Does having a XML sitemap help?
Do other search engines look for XML or is it only Google?
Any suggestions on how we can move our website up from a #3 ranking?

Thanks for the help
Michael
eyespyli.com

[Linknz]

Originally Posted by ESLI

I have been using Gsite Crawler for some time now. It is a great program for creating a sitemap (xml).
Thanks for the help
Michael
eyespyli.com

Hi Michael,
I'm just downloading the Gsite crawler onto a pc so that I can test it out to see how good it is because then I can compare it to the webspider we use at my New Zealand based search engine.
It may be useful to tell our users about it if it's good.

I will have a play with it and get back to you..

[ESLI]

Thanks for looking into this. I love the program myself. It is easy to use and best of all little to do but sit back and let the program do its thing.

But to get back to my question, does the XML file help rankings?

Michael

[wige]

Does having a XML sitemap help?

Nope. Not at all. Sitemaps should have no direct effect on rankings - they affect crawls by telling the search engines when content is updated, as well as providing the search engines with deep information about your site. However, your site should not be so complex search engines have to use the site map to find your pages.

Do other search engines look for XML or is it only Google?

Google, MSN and Yahoo have all stated they support Sitemaps. Not sure about Ask.

[espmartin]

In your honest opinion Wige, at what point should a site build out a sitemap, with the constraints that you have
mentioned here (ie: growing many pages and areas)?

[incrediblehelp]

Originally Posted by espmartin

In your honest opinion Wige, at what point should a site build out a sitemap, with the constraints that you have
mentioned here (ie: growing many pages and areas)?

This is up to you. I have websites that do great without a sitemap and I have websites that do poorly with a sitemap. A sitemap simply will help get pages crawled that normally would have difficulty in getting crawled previously.

[ESLI]

Thanks to all! We are still having a problem with our site having a #3 ranking. We have been up and running for over six years. We have a great listing with Yahoo, and MSN (when searching for CCTV equipment). Since our site map will not help what else can we do?

Thanks again for all of the great answers!

Michael

[fernimac]

As other members said before, the sitemap will only help SE to discover your pages, in case you have a complex site, some of your content is only visible after making a search through a search form or if your menu has some crawlability problem: for instance, Javascript menus. But if what you want is improving your positioning, is relevance and links what you need. I think Google relies more on inbound links than Yahoo or MSN so you should focus on getting inbound links with the right anchor text (this is really important). In your case, your anchor text would be the same keyword you want to be positioned for: CCTV equipment. And obviously, a landing page for that link that is coherent with that same concept. Optimally, the landing page should contain this same keyword in its title, as a minimum.

[ESLI]

Thanks fernimac, for the advice. I was wondering why we have decent ratings from Yahoo, and MSN and not Google. I am sure it’s all about the links. We keep seeing this but it is very had in our business to get links from other surveillance companies. We do have a links page Links pg 1 four of them.

Well, thanks for the advice fernimac