Google Sitemaps More Important than Ever

Sat, 30 May 2009 00:48:00 GMT

A Google sitemap is becoming an important tool in your SEO strategies, both because of what it does and also because of Google's continuing dominance of the overall search market.

If you haven't heard of the sitemap before, or don't quite understand what it is or does, a sitemap is an XML file of your website's structure. Basically it is a table, written in a format that computers can easily digest (an XML file), which lists each of your pages along with helpful information for Google such as the last update date of the page, the page's overall importance to your website and the frequency at which you think Google should re-index the page (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.). With this information, the sitemap basically gives Google everything it needs to understand your website's structure and to navigate through it quickly and efficiently.

A sitemap is viewed by Google as a list of suggestions only. In other words, just because you may indicate that you believe a certain page should be re-indexed every week, if Google's own analysis of that page shows that it only changes content every other month they will use their own analysis as a guideline for setting their re-indexing schedule, regardless of how often you would like them to revisit. Google will use your sitemap as a guide, therefore, but they are on the alert for unscrupulous webmasters and site owners who provide misleading information in an effort to improve their rankings.

So where does that leave you? As always, content is king, and the more relevant and fresh your content is, the better your chances of ranking highly. A Google sitemap, however, can assist Google to efficiently index your site, pointing them to pages which have changed since their last visit, alerting them to new pages, and providing them with a good, overall view of your website.

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Google Sitemaps More Important than Ever