Google Sitemaps` Big May Update
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Although sometimes it seems like search engines are working against you, Google has been putting a lot of effort into working with and helping webmasters. About a month ago, I took a look at Google’s continued improvement of its Sitemaps program. Recently Sitemaps improved again, with some noteworthy changes. Take a look at what updates Google Sitemaps has in store.
To be sure we're all on the same page, you can visit our SEO Chat review of Google sitemaps here. This is mostly a recap for seasoned webmasters who constantly use the service, but worth checking out for anyone trying to decide if it is worth their time.
For those who want the quick and dirty news, here it is. Jill Lindenbaum from the Google Sitemaps crew sent SEO Chat the following list of improvements to the service. This is the basic rundown, and we'll start talking about the improvements in a bit more depth on the following pages.
- Updated interface based on user feedback
- New verification method
- Indexing snapshot, including:
- If site is in the index
- When the Googlebot last accessed the home page
- If some pages of the site are partially indexed
- If the home page is currently inaccessible
- If Googlebot has encountered a large number of errors when trying to crawl the site
- Notification of violations of the webmaster guidelines
- Re-inclusion request form
- Spam report
- New webmaster help center
This is obviously more than just a minor makeover. Some of these things are new and some were available elsewhere before, but it seems Google is working to make Sitemaps a webmaster hub. They are pulling all the resources you need to manage your Google presence under the Sitemaps umbrella.
So keep reading, and take a quick look at these new tools and the new layout.
Next: Welcome to The New Sitemaps >>
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