For organizations that are dependent on Web traffic and site visibility, nothing is more important than being clearly seen by the Google search engine. Luckily, Sitemaps, a free beta tool from Google, makes it easier for Web masters to ensure that Google is always up-to-date with new content and changes to Web sites.
eWeek Labs put Sitemaps through its paces by creating an XML Sitemap file—basically, a long index of content on a site—for each of our test Web sites. Google provides a Sitemap generator tool, and many content management and blogging systems have add-ons for Sitemap creation.
Once a Sitemap file was installed, we could view a variety of information about our Web site from the Google Sitemaps console, including search terms, word rankings and URL errors. But, most importantly, Sitemaps made sure that our newest pages were getting indexed as quickly as possible by Google. To try out Google Sitemaps, go to www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps.
Check out eWEEK.coms for the latest news, reviews and analysis in Web services.