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Google Sitemaps

  • January 26th, 2007

If you own a web site and are interested in search engine results, you should definitely use Google Sitemaps. This is a free service that Google introduced some time back to help web site owners make sure their site is getting indexed properly by Google.

The process is fairly simple. First of all you will need a Google account. If you use any of the other Google services (such as Gmail or Google Checkout) you already have an account. If you don’t have an account, you can sign up for one. Once you’ve signed up, go to Google Sitemaps and sign in.

Once you’ve signed in, you should see the words “Add Site” with a box for you to enter your site’s main URL and an example below it to show you how it’s done. Enter your site address and then click OK. If your site is already in Google’s index, you’ll now see some basic information about your site. However, to unlock the REAL power of Google sitemaps you need to do two more things: VERIFY and SUBMIT A SITEMAP.

Verifying is a simple process that PROVES to Google that you own the site and are authorized to make changes to the site. It also opens the way for Google to give you lots more information about the indexing of your site.

The simplest way to verify your site is to click “Verify” and then follow the instructions for creating a blank html file and then uploading it to your webserver. Be careful to name the file exactly as they say (you can do this by copying and pasting the filename). Then, click on “verify” again and you’re done.

If your site is already in Google’s index, you’ll now be able to view much more information than before verification, such as the distribution of pagerank throughout your site, any errors encountered as your site was crawled, query stats (what people typed in to find your site), etc. The diagnostic information is crucial if Google is having problems indexing your site.

If your site isn’t already in Google’s index, there obviously won’t be any information.

One of the ways you can help Google find out more about your site is by using a properly formatted sitemap. I’ll explain how to do that in my next post.

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