Sitemaps are without doubt one of the most often ignored and undervalued aspects of search engine optimization. You’ve probably spent a huge amount of time working on pages of original content, keyword density and getting incoming links but never once spared a thought for a sitemap for your new creation. 

What is a sitemap? 

Put simply it’s a page or pages that contain a list of and link to all the other documents on your site. This is useful on two levels: 

1. Your visitor can quickly reference all the documents on your site to find exactly what they’re looking for. 

2. Search engine spiders can also quickly find and index every single page of your site in the least amount of time. The SEO benefits of using a sitemap far considerable and should not be ignored. 

This is a win-win situation for you, your website visitors and the search engines. Put simply you’re nuts if you’ve not included a sitemap as part of your overall website promotion strategy.

The good news is that it’s never too late to start. You can create a sitemap page today but there are some rules to creating an effective sitemap that you need to follow: 

Your sitemap must only be linked to from your homepage and no other page. Why? You want the search engine spiders to find this link directly from your homepage and follow it from there. Your sitemap MUST NOT be linked to from every other page of your site. Also from a Google Pagerank point of view only linking to your sitemap from your homepage can also “funnel” PR quickly to pages all over your site. 

If you have a large website of 50 pages or more limit the number of pages listed on your sitemap to a maximum of 30. This is to prevent your sitemap from being misinterpreted as a link farm by the search engines. It also makes the sitemap a lot easier for real human visitors to read through. Limiting the number of pages listed on each sitemap to 30 might mean splitting your sitemap over 5, 10 or 20 pages. This has to be done and the long term benefits are worth it. Bear in mind that if you do create a 20 page sitemap you’ve just created an extra 20 pages of content for your website! 

Make absolutely sure that each of your sitemap pages links to the next. If you have 10 sitemap pages in total then each of those needs to link to every other sitemap page. Otherwise both visitors and search engine spiders will find a broken link, lose interest and go away. 

Test your sitemap thoroughly. Make sure all the links works. Make sure it’s easy to read and navigate through. Your sitemap is there to assist your visitor and not confuse them. 

How should you structure your sitemap? The following tips must be adhered to in order for your site to gain the maximum possible benefit from having a sitemap. 

1. The title of each sitemap link should be keyword rich and link directly back to the original page. 

2. Include 10 – 20 words of text from the original page of content underneath the relevant sitemap link. This creates more content for search engine spiders and human visitors can see exactly what each page is about in advance of clicking. 

The human visitor benefit is that they can see what the pages is about in advance. 

3. Ensure that the look and feel of your sitemap page is consistent with the rest of your site. Use the same basic HTML template you used for every other page of your site. 

So now you understand the importance of building a sitemap for your website. There is work involved but the long term benefits for your websites far outweigh any effort you have to make right now. 

About the author:

This article was provided courtesy of Search-Engine-Fuel.com where you’ll find tons of information on search engine optimization. Check out our page on SEO sitemaps

If you have been unsuccessfully trying to get listed in Google or just hitting roadblocks when trying to get more of your pages listed in Google, then you need to read this short article. I am about to reveal a simple SEO secret that can save you a lot of time, money and effort without the need to be an seo expert.

Google has a preferred search submission format that it actually asks webmasters to use, It’s called a Google SiteMap.

Admittedly, creating and using XML is no easy task for anyone who is non-technical or inexperienced with web coding, however there is a site or two on the web that can actually help you create an XML sitemap and then submit it to Google so that this venerable search engine can crawl your previously unknown web site and get you listed.

Of course there are no guarantees that your site will get high ranks or that it will meet Google’s guidelines for inclusion, so be sure to make sure that your site is properly optimized and meets their guidelines before using these tools.

Before I reveal these tools and show you where to go to find out how to use them, let’s take a look at the basics.

XML (Extensible Markup Language) is a special document formatted created to allow communication between applications and also between organizations. XML is a practical system that structurally defines the format and composition of intricate documents and data such as invoices, news feeds, inventory reports, catalog listings and other complex documents. A seasoned programmer who understands XML can easily create XML applications that know how to pull data from XML sources and then format it for presentation to end users.

In the case of Google, this same XML data format can be used to define your site’s pages and their position in relation to each other. So for example, your “about_us.html” page is usually connected only one click away from your “index.html” page. When used in this manner to define pages and their positions we are creating what is commonly known as a sitemap.

Google says in their own words, “Google Sitemaps is an easy way for you to help improve your coverage in the Google index. It’s a collaborative crawling system that enables you to communicate directly with Google to keep us informed of all your web pages, and when you make changes to these pages.”

So in essence, Google is asking us to help them index the web by using this simple technique that will no doubt become a major help to struggling webmasters everywhere.

Google, by the way, will accept simple text file based sitemaps. Please consult their site for more information.

How to get your sitemap indexed.

Once your sitemap has been created and uploaded to the main directory of your web site, simply use this URL to submit it:

www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/ping?sitemap=sitemap_url

Just replace the parameter, “sitemap_url” with the actual URL of your sitemap. Example:
www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/ping?sitemap=http://www.mywebsiteabc.com/
sitemap.xml

You can also open a Google account before submitting to make sure that you can actually track your submission to check your sitemap status.

https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount

I promised to reveal the tools used to facilitate the creation of XML sitemaps and here they are…

The SEO Tools Revealed:

SiteMapspal:

Use this Google recommended online tool to generate a Google friendly xml sitemap that you can simple cut/paste and then upload to your site. Simply provide your site URL and select a few optional settings and with one-click ease you will have a sitemap, ready to go.

http://www.sitemapspal.com/

Google SiteMap Generator:

Provided by Google themselves, this is not for the faint of heart, it requires some knowledge of working with Python scripts (a web coding format) and will require installation on your site.

https://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/docs/en/sitemap-generator.html

SiteMap Validator:

Use this Google recommended tool to validate your sitemap for accuracy.

http://www.smart-it-consulting.com/internet/google/submit-validate-sitemap/

About the author:
Certified Guerilla Marketing Coach and speaker, Richard Bailey is an Internet Marketing consultant who develops methods and technology to attract customers. Serving large and small business from Real Estate Marketing to the Chemical Industry. Contact Richard by visiting http://www.ClientByDesign.com