[Web4lib] Sitemap.xml

[Cary Gordon]

AFAIK. this just affects being found, perhaps on page 10,032.

Google rank is determined by many things, but a big factor is the number of
links into your site. That is why when you mistype a popular URL, you almost
always get a page full of links. Domain squatters register these domains
using domain kiting (so they never have to pay), then sell links through SEO
companies.

Cary Gordon
The Cherry Hill Company
Los Angeles, CA 90064
310-397-2999 (voice)
866-375-2191 (fax)
http://www.chillco.com


-----Original Message-----
From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Tim Spalding
Sent: Friday, March 30, 2007 10:29 AM
To: web4lib at webjunction.org
Subject: Re: [Web4lib] Sitemap.xml

It's really not that important. SEO people-I was one of them, once, but a
good one-tend to present what they do as black magic, and something you
certainly need their help for. Coming up with a valid sitemap.xml is a
service they sell. But, while it can help a bit on the margins, most
high-ranking sites don't have one either, and your time is usually time
better spent making your site better in other, visitor-focused ways.

Incidentally, you can change the spider rate by signing up for Google
Webmaster Tools. Sitemaps allows you to control it area-by-area.

The main reason libraries don't score well in search engines are the
session-based URLs in their OPACs.

Tim

On 3/30/07, Thomas Dowling <tdowling at ohiolink.edu> wrote:
> On 3/30/2007 12:38 PM, VanderHart, Robert wrote:
>
> > A speaker on SEO at the IA Summit earlier this week stated that it's 
> > very important to have a sitemap.xml file for your website to 
> > indicate to spiders how often to visit your site.  I know from 
> > reviewing our server access logs that spiders should request a 
> > robots.txt file before indexing a site, and when I grep the logs I 
> > see plenty of requests for that file.  But when I grep "sitemap.xml", I
don't see a single request.
> >
> >
> > So the question is, if a sitemap.xml file is so important, why 
> > aren't any spiders looking for the file?  I didn't raise the 
> > question to the speaker because I couldn't view our log files while 
> > I was at the Summit, so I wasn't certain whether we were getting any 
> > requests for sitemap.xml or not.
>
>
> Unlike robots.txt, you have to explicitly tell the search engines 
> about your sitemap.xml files.
>
>
> https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/docs/en/sitemap-generator.html
> #submitting
>
> https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/submit
>
>
> --
> Thomas Dowling
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> Web4lib at webjunction.org
> http://lists.webjunction.org/web4lib/
>
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