Posts Tagged ‘XML Sitemaps’

The Google Webmaster Tools website allows website owners to register details of their own website to Google and includes several tools which allow you to further improve Google’s understanding of your website and its target audience.

One of these tools allows you to set up your geographic target when it is not obvious which region your website should be served to in Google’s search results.

Search engines generally operate within geographic regions so, depending on which country you are searching from, you will receive more relevant results. To gain the information on which country your website is targeted towards, the search engine generally look at details such as which country your website is hosted in, the location of websites that link to your website and most importantly which country your domain name is targeted towards. So if your domain name is a .co.uk then it is obvious to the search engines that you are targeting the UK, if your domain was a .de then obviously Germany. The problems arise when you have a .com (.net, .org etc.) domain, this is when search engine will look more towards the hosting location and incoming links to gain the geographical information.

But now Google Webmaster Tools allows you to override this information, if you have a .com or similar domain name, and choose which geographical location you are targeting. The advantages of this are that you do not have to change hosting locations or concentrate on gaining incoming links from other websites within your region. Plus there is also the option to change your geographic target location at a later date if necessary.

Again Google are leading the way when it comes to innovation within search engines and search results and hopefully the other big players such as Yahoo! and MSN will catch on and offer something similar soon.

Linking with Search Terms Rather than ‘Click Here’

It has been a common mistake since the Internet began for websites to use ‘click here’ or ‘read more’ links to take the visitor to internal webpages. Not only is this bad for accessibility, as it does not say where the link is taking the visitor, but it will also provide no benefit in the optimisation of your website in the search engines. By adding search terms into the anchor text of the link you will help describe to both users and search engines what the subject of the page you are linking to is about.

Use HTML Links that Search Engine Bots can Follow.

To help search engines find all of your website’s webpages it is important that you provide their bots with a path to the webpages using HTML links. Search engine bots currently cannot read JavaScript links, Flash links or form drop-down menu links and by using these types of navigation you will prevent your webpages from being indexed. It is best to structure your navigation well and provide top level and sub-level HTML navigation links relevant to each section of your website.

Site Map Alternative

If (for some obscure reason) it is not possible to use HTML links within your main website then you should provide users and search engines with a HTML site map alternative that provides a list of links to all the webpages within your website. Search engine bots automatically look for site maps when they visit a website so providing this service will only benefit the indexing of your webpages.

Cross-Link Pages to Help Pass Relevancy and Pagerank

Search engines give more weight (PageRank as Google names it) to pages that are nearer to the top level of your website than pages tucked away in some remote location. This weight can help increase your rankings for search terms related to that page. By cross linking pages with other pages in your website you will help evenly pass this weight around your website helping all pages rank well. An excellent example of this is Wikipedia. You will see that the text in a single Wikipedia page contains many links to other pages and sections of the Wikipedia website all with relevant anchor text.

Avoid Using Popup Windows and Frames

Do not add important information within a popup window link. To create the popup window the link is likely to use JavaScript which will block the search engine bots and then even if the popup window webpage is found and indexed it is likely that when a user visits that page they will have no navigation to take them through the rest of your website. The same problem happens when using HTML frames where you have your navigation in one frame and the content in another.

Conclusion

Keep it simple, organize your website structure into top level, categories, sub-categories and so on. Provide users and search engines with a clear path to your webpages using descriptive anchor text and HTML links. Where you can, provide links within your webpage’s content to other pages within your website. If all else fails, provide a site map page which is clearly linked from your website’s homepage.

This post will detail the actions you should take when trying to include your new website within the search engine results of Google.co.uk, Yahoo.co.uk and Live.co.uk.

1) Submit your New Website through “Add URL” Interface

The three main search engines listed above each have their own “Add URL” page which will allow you to suggest your website URL so that next time their bots crawl the web searching for new web pages to index then your website will be on the list:

• Add URL to Google
• Add URL to Yahoo!
• Add URL to MSN (Live Search)

2) Create a Sitemap.xml

Search engines now universally recognise XML sitemaps as a standard way to supplement the data found through crawlers finding your website. To allow crawlers that support sitemaps to pick up all URLs in the sitemap you should firstly add a sitemap link within your robots.txt, for example:

Sitemap: http://www.bal4.co.uk/sitemap.xml

You can then also submit your XML sitemap through Google’s Webmaster Tools and Yahoo!’s Site Explorer.

3) Obtain Inbound Links to your New Website

The quickest and most beneficial way to have your new website indexed with the search engines is to gain as many inbound links to your website as possible. This will help your site be found by search engine bots especially if they are finding your website through a link from a popular website that is regularly crawled and re-indexed.

Some Final Suggestions

The main thing you should remember about search engines is that they need to find your new web pages through links, so by creating and structured navigation and including sitemaps on your website you are giving the search engine bots every chance to dig deeper into your website. Search engine bots do have problems with reading some forms of navigation such as JavaScript drop downs, Flash and HTML form menus, so it is always best to keep it simple and provide alternatives if the previous items must be used. Gaining inbound links to your website will help the search engine bots index your web pages quicker and more regularly which will help keep your results in the search engine listings fresh and relevant.