| Top Web Hosting Provider of The Month: |
 |
| Visit Bluehost.com | Read Bluehost Review |
|
|
| >> Web Hosting Geeks // Web Hosting Articles // SEO - Search Engine Optimization |
|
|
 |
Sitemaps 101 - Back to SEO School
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. uman 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. 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.
MORE RESOURCES:
Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
A Way for Search Engines to Improve Wouldn't it be nice if the search engines could comprehend our impressions of search results and adjust their databases accordingly? Properly optimized web pages would show up well in contextual searches and be rewarded with favorable reviews and listings. Pages which were spam or which had content that did not properly match the query would get negative responses and be pushed down in the search results. Ten Steps To A Well Optimized Website - Step 4: Content Optimization Welcome to part four in this search engine positioning series. Last week we discussed the importance of the structure of your website and the best practices for creating an easily spidered and easily read site. Should You Buy Text Links? You can rank number one (Or at least in the top ten) for just about any search phrase by just buying text link ads, even if the web site isn't related to the search phrase in anyway, it can still rank in the top ten of the search results. Some web site owners see this as the only true way to the top ten. Cache in the Bank: Understanding Googles Advanced Operators If you would like to know when your site was last indexed by Google, you can find out easily by using the Google cache command. By typing "cache:www. SEO: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly I seem to have created quite a stir, on a particular SEO forum recently. In fact, rumor has it, at one point, my article, "Google's Trap, DMOZ's Nap, And Yahoo!'s Crap" was the hottest topic discussed on this particular forum. Local Customers Know Where to Find Local Businesses... the Internet Through search engines and directories, the Internet provides a quick and easy place to choose a local merchant or business.Just because the Internet is worldwide doesn't mean local businesses can't benefit from having a website and a presence in the search engines. All about SEO or SFO? First let's start with definitions:SEO: Search Engine Optimization, SFO: Search Friendly Optimization.These two things are what most webmasters have trouble balancing. SEO Tips - Google Has Changed - Learn Why And What To Do Google now checks the year your domain name was first registered.This just makes sense. Boost Your Website Rankings with Expert Content The chase for a high web ranking is constantly on and is in fact very demanding given the tough competition provided by all the other websites out there who happen to be putting up material on the same subject as you. All websites with average or below average content become victims of isolation and cyber ostracism. How to Create Killer Keywords to Get FREE Traffic to Your Website When exploring good keyword choices there are several steps one must consider. The most important step is putting your self in the shoes of the type of customer you want to target. Determining the Value of Your SEO Service Every once in a while--and probably more often than we should--we find ourselves reviewing our SEO pricing models. Pricing SEO has always been a real sticking point for me because there is no one-size-fits-all pricing metric. Five Tips for Search Engine Optimization Search engine optimization sounds so daunting for most young companies. Who has time for dealing with metatags and keyword density when you're trying to get a company off the ground? Below is a simple list of five things you can easily do to improve your visibility on search engines. List Building vs. Search Engine Optimization It seems the excitement about search engine optimization fades in and out from time to time. The more people talk about search engine optimization (SEO) the more it seems to be the logical choice for bringing customers to your site. Google has an Achilles Heal - Will Their Competitors Notice? Even though Google Revenues continue to soar, the hidden problem that may stifle growth and may even allow Yahoo or MSN to overtake the paid search market in the future lies in two critical phrases: Customer Support, and Customer TrainingApproximately 40% of the small businesses we have surveyed have tried Adwords in the past and failed, and some of them have tried multiple times. In some markets the percentage is closer to 60%. The Best 7 Steps To Get A Top Google Ranking Guaranteed Google returns more search results then any other search engine. Clearly if you can get a Top Ranking in Google you will drive highly targeted traffic to your web page. How to Get a Website Indexed Fast Get Indexed FastWhat does getting indexed mean?The search engines keep a cache of every web page in their index.In English, this means: The search engines make a copy of every web page they visit and put in their records? ummm, I think that's what I mean. Its All in the Title Unfortunately, we don't live in a perfect world. You may be the most intelligent writer in the world, and have breaking information, which, if people actually read it, would benefit them and their business. These 7 Back Link Strategies Will Get You a Top Ranking on Google Guaranteed Google use a very complex function to determine which search results to return, Google is always changing and Modifying that function to better Serve the Search Engine User. The one constant is quality back links. 5 Extremely Valuable Search Engine Optimization Tips Search engine optimization is THE most cost effective way for a company to market their products and services. Below are 5 extremely valuable search engine optimization tips:1. Even More Tips For Getting A Top 10 Search Engine Ranking! I have spent some time discussing the 5 different options you have for getting your web site listed in the search engines. Just to make sure that we're all on the same page, let's quickly review?1.
|
|
|
|
|
| © 2004 - 2008 "Web Hosting Geeks" | Web Hosting Reviews | Customer Reviews | RealMetrics Reviews | Hosting Articles | Directory | Partners | Contacts Over 7000 articles: web hosting, web development, domain names, ecommerce, web design, site promotion, ppc advertising, seo, site promotion and many others. Web hosting reviews, ratings and awards are not based on any incentives or commissions. Names and trademarks are the properties of their respective owners. A direct link to Web Hosting Geeks (http://webhostinggeeks.com) must be provided in order to use any of the above information. Contact us for more info. Partners: Hosts by speed, Cheap Website Hosting, Free Website Hosting, Cheap Web Hosting, Top 10 Web Hosts, Top 10 Web Hosting Deals, Best Website Hosting, Free Web Hosting, Free Web Hosting, Dedicated Server Hosting, Adult Web Hosting, Web Hosting Discussions, Dedicated Server Reviews, Best Web Hosting, Web Hosting Discounts, HostProfessor.com, rsuog, halyava, PHP Website Hosting Services, Web Hosting Reviews, Hosting Uptime, Best Web Hosting Reviews, Cheap Webhosting, Web Hosting, Flash Templates, CMS Templates, Web Hosting Reviews, Website Hosting Reviews, Web Hosting Providers, Best Web Hosting, Top Web Hosting, RSUOG Web Hosting |
