Search Engine Optimization, Website Development and Search Engine Spiders - Sitemaps
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Google has a free feature in its Webmaster Tools called "SiteMaps."
XML sitemaps notify Google whenever you add a new page to your website, and Google in turn schedules Googlebot to crawl new page.
Sitemaps are especially useful if:
Your site has dynamic pages.
Your site pages are tricky for Google to crawl (AJAX, Flash).
You have a load of poorly inwardly linked content that you want G-bot to eat.
Sitemaps document a lot of cool data, including:
How often you change your pages (daily, hourly, yearly, etc)
The date each page was modified.
Google doesn't guarantee inclusion of new pages in the index. This is usually due to low trust from Google, which is normal for new websites. Sometimes pages will only be included in the supplemental index, until a site gains more authority links.
The supplemental index is sort of a junkyard of all pages that are okay, but don't have enough trust to be featured in main search results. If there aren't enough results in the main index, pages from the supplemental index come to help. As for you, the webmaster, being in the supplemental index sucks, but there's little you can do if the site is new.
To create Sitemaps, go to the "SiteMap" section of Google Webmaster Tools. Follow the instructions.
There's also software available on the web that does the exact same thing as Google Sitemaps. Some even charge you money for it, which is weird; who pays when they can get it for free?
Conclusion
This stuff is very straightforward. You will learn a lot more once you actually get down to doing SEO. The sooner you start doing it, the better. In fact, I suggest you stop reading and actually do some optimization. You may be clueless at first, but that's what the SEO chat forums are for. Ask and get answers!
Check "The Web Developer's SEO Cheat Sheet" for more tips and a review of what I discussed above.
Good luck.
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