03.02.06
The Google Sitemaps Trio Of Goodies
 By
David A. Utter
Webmasters who use Google Sitemaps to ensure their sites get indexed properly by the search engine now have some new features available to them.
Google described its Sitemaps project as a way to tell Google how to navigate a site. The Sitemap file tells the spiders about dynamic content and pages that spiders may not find by following links. Google provided more information about Sitemaps on that site:
This program does not replace our normal methods of crawling the web. Google still searches and indexes your sites the same way it has done in the past whether or not you use this program. A Sitemap simply gives Google additional information that we may not otherwise discover. Sites are never penalized for using this service.
Engineer Vanessa Fox blogged about the three new features newly included in Sitemaps. First, webmasters can now see the top position for the site in queries that returned it in results and those that searchers clicked. "This position is the average over the last three weeks," Fox wrote.
Sitemaps now includes the top queries from mobile devices that returned the site in results. Right now, Google Sitemaps only shows the queries and not the clicks that came from mobiles.
Various information from Sitemaps, like details, errors, or stats, can be downloaded in a comma-separated value file. Users can open the format in a simple text editor, or import it into a spreadsheet or database for analysis and reporting purposes.
About
the Author:
David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.
|
|
