I'm writing to you today to run a little experiment... I want to find out who's using an XML Sitemap. Do you know whether or not you have an active sitemap on your website? Don't know? Check out the bottom section to find out how to know if you have an active sitemap.
Let me tell you a bit about what a sitemap does, and why it's important to have one.
Your website has various pages on it, telling users about you, your company, your services, your products... but how does Google find these pages?
Yes, Google will stumble upon web pages as it crawls the web, but there's no real definitive source that you can control that says to Google "Look! My pages are here! Pretty please index them!"
An XML Sitemap can be filled with all of the pages on your website, and then that sitemap can be submitted through the wonder that is Google Webmaster Tools.
Now, keeping a Sitemap updated can be an arduous task. You need to stay on top of new pages on your site, make sure they're added to the sitemap.xml document on your website then you need to check that it's being updated in Google... it becomes more of a chore than a useful exercise, and we more-than-often find that people keep it updated for a little while, and then it gets left by the wayside.
Well, that's where we can help!
We have a range of Sitemap Generation and Submission services where we can maintain your sitemap for you, and ensure it's being correctly submitted to Google... we'll even alert you if we find a problem!
These services start from just £25/month, so give me a buzz on 01923 201855 to see how we can help you.
Thanks for reading and have a great day,
Matt Wall
How to find out if your website has a Sitemap
- Repeatedly prod your webmaster with a stick until he tells you.
- Prod your webmaster further if you don't have one to make him do it.
- Go to http://www.yourwebsite.com/sitemap.xml - If a page appears with lots of techno-baffle and a load of website links, you're in!
- Call me on 01923 201855 and I'll take a quick look-see!