What is a Google Sitemap?
A Google Sitemap is a very simple XML document that lists all the pages in your website, but the Google Sitemaps program is actually much more important than that. In fact, the Sitemaps program provides a little peek inside Google’s mind – and it can tell you a lot about what Google thinks of your website!
Why Should You Use Google Sitemaps?
Google recently announced a change to their “Sitemaps” program. It went from a protocol meant for Python programmers and XML wizards to a much kinder, gentler (and friendlier to webmasters) program to help get all of your pages crawled and indexed. It’s called “Google Webmaster Central. The tools can now be used and understood by most small business site owners.
Google explains everything and lists Sitemaps resources at:
Whether you use Google, Yahoo, MSN or Dogpile, searching the web can be both rewarding and frustrating. If you don’t have a few tips under your belt, you can waste needless time sorting and sifting through results which are all over the board. Everyone knows that you type words into your search engine and it returns pages upon pages of information about websites containing answers you might be seeking. Unfortunately, if you just type a few words into the search bar, you’re going to receive a jumble of both relevant and irrelevant results.
So how do you pare down your Googles? Let’s take a look at two of the biggest search engines: Google. Now, I’m a Google nut, but I have also used Yahoo from time to time.