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Last week, Google released its new Google Sitemaps service. Despite the name, Google Sitemaps is not a tool that creates sitemaps for your web site. Google Sitemaps is another way to submit your web pages to Google.

What is Google Sitemaps?

Google calls it "a beta 'ecosystem' that may help webmasters with two current challenges: keeping Google informed about all of your new web pages or updates, and increasing the coverage of your web pages in the Google index".

Google SiteMaps allows you to tell Google which web sites it should crawl and it allows you to tell Google that the content on your site has changed.

How do you submit your sitemap to Google Sitemaps?

The easiest way to submit your web page URLs to Google Sitemaps is to create a list of URLs in plain text format:

http://www.example.com/index.htm
http://www.example.com/page1.htm
http://www.example.com/page2.htm
http://www.example.com/directory/whatever.htm

Enter one URL per line and save that list with the file ending .xml. Then login to Google Sitemaps and upload that file.

Google also offers a more sophisticated tool (which is rather complicated) that allows you to create a sitemap but a plain list will also do. Third party tools are also available.

Does this increase your Google rankings?

No, it doesn't. Using Google Sitemaps will not influence your rankings. You just tell Google that your web pages exist. Google still uses its normal ranking algorithms to determine the ranking of your web pages.

Google even makes no guarantees about when or if your URLs will be crawled or added to the index if you use Google Sitemaps.

What does this mean to your web site?

Google Sitemaps might be useful to you if your web pages aren't crawled by Google's spider. However, you won't increase your Google rankings by using Google Sitemaps.

If Google's spider hasn't crawled your web site yet, your web site probably doesn't have enough good incoming links. If your web site has many good incoming links, Google's spider will find your web site anyway.

In addition, good incoming links tell Google that your web site is important and that it deserves high rankings.

Detailed information about Google Sitemaps can be found on this page. To make sure that Google gives your web pages high rankings after indexing them, take a look at the recommended resources.

Miva Inc. unifies Espotting and FindWhat

"MIVA, Inc. [...] announced the launch of its new website - www.miva.com. MIVA, Inc., which previously operated as Espotting and the FindWhat group of companies, also introduced various new products and features."

Smile for the Google 3D mapping truck

"Google plans to use trucks equipped with lasers and digital photographic equipment to create a realistic 3D online version of San Francisco, and eventually other major US cities."

Google readying Web-only video search

"Google is expected to unveil a search engine for Web-only video this summer that will let people preview media clips from its Web site."

Microsoft adds tabbed browsing to MSN Search toolbar

"Microsoft [...] made tab browsing available to the masses -- but not via its upcoming Internet Explorer 7 release. The software giant is offering the feature through its MSN Search toolbar instead."

"The Federal Aviation Administration is supporting the development of a new search engine by University at Buffalo researchers designed to detect 'hidden' information that can be gleaned from public websites."

Search engine newslets

• MyMena is a new directory for the Middle East and North Africa.
• Microsoft censors blogs at Chinese portal.
• Take a look at the "Google will eat itself" art project.
• Acronyma is a search engine for acronyms.
• You can now add a Yahoo search box to your web site.
• Google has released new AdWords ad formats.
• AOL adds partners for video search engine.
• Google may build site in Ann Arbor.

Searching for a reason to buy Google

"Usually a generation passes before investors stung in a mania make the same mistake again, but anyone looking at a chart of Google's stock price might think that its shareholders don't have that kind of time."

Google, Yahoo seen boosted by ad surge

"The two companies are expected to benefit from strength in search advertising, which is generated when Web users type in certain keywords. A report from Merrill Lynch & Co. projects search advertising will generate about $5.6 billion this year — then more than double to $12.3 billion by 2009."

Study: Search engines still fail to disclose ads

"Search engines continue to inadequately inform consumers about the influence that advertising dollars have on placement and rankings of search results, according to a report released today by Consumer Reports WebWatch."

Increase your rankings on Google

Submitting your web site to Google is not enough if you want to have high rankings. Your web pages also must be optimized for Google.

Your web page content must be search engine ready so that search engines can find out what your web site is about. In addition, other web sites should link to your web site so that search engines can see that your web site deserves high rankings.

It is difficult for a web site with optimized content to get high search engine rankings if it doesn't have good incoming links. It's also difficult to get high rankings if you have incoming links but no optimized content.

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