I don?t mind admitting that every time some new fangled idea or
piece of technology arrives online, I have a small fit and
wonder how long it?s going to take me to understand what it is,
what it?s for and whether I need to use it to stay ?up there?.
It?s even more frightening when the experts start explaining it
and really only serve to confuse the matter when they use their
'techno-speak'.
Here I am still wrestling with RSS and along comes Google with
their Sitemap program. I must admit, it sounds simple enough
until you read a couple of articles about how to generate your
sitemap or go to Google?s instructions and manage to get
completely confused. I don?t know what it is, although I know
it?s not just me. I know too many people who work online and
have the same problem. Maybe we just went to school in the wrong
decade (seventies or maybe earlier). But then, we can spell and
write, can?t we?
For those who need to know what the Google Sitemap program is
about, here it is in the nutshell and in MY language - English.
At least, what I think it is, anyway:
Google, I imagine have become tired of crawling billions of
websites, most of which are largely inactive or abandoned or
both. So they are giving webmasters (website owners) the
opportunity to play a part in the frequency and importance
placed on the crawling of our websites. Even to the point of
giving us the ability to prioritize these aspects of the
individual pages. In doing so, they are also having us do some
of their work for them, which is OK, seeing as they are our
websites. I think it's grand.
In their instructions, Google give a few different methods by
which you can generate a suitable Sitemap and how to get it onto
your server etc. To be honest, I found it totally confusing.
They do suggest that we use their Sitemap generator, but it is
only compatible if your server uses a thing called ?Python 2.2?
and you need to know the command that launches it? WHAT???
There?s that ?nerd stuff? again. Every time I send a simple
question to my webhost, like, ?what?s your name?, I get three
paragraphs of unintelligable ?techno-speak?, so how do I find
out if I have some 'Snake-thingy' on my server? So, Google?s
instructions are no good to me, or anyone like me. Even their
alternatives, although slightly simpler, don?t answer ALL the
questions I need answered in order to get through it in one
piece.
Fortunately, through trial and error (or maybe because I may
actually be turning into a ?nerd?), I can tell you how to
generate a Sitemap, upload it to you server (and more
importantly, WHERE to put it) and how to submit it to Google.
First, you go to this website -
http://www.blocklayer.com/googlesitemap/ and you will find that
all you need to do is put the URL of you website (the main
domain name) into the appropriate field and click ?Create map?.
It will create a list of the pages in your website and will,
helpfully, also list any broken or inactive links (which you can
go about fixing). You can change the frequency that each page is
crawled and rate it's importance. Obviously, pages which change
often, need to be crawled more often etc. When you?re happy with
your list of pages, you click on ?XML Sitemap? and it creates a
coded XML Sitemap. XML is the code that?s used in RSS, which
looks much like HTML.
Now, and this is the magic bit, you need to do one more thing
before you can upload to your server. You need to copy and paste
the XML code to a ?Notepad? document. You call the file
?sitemap.xml?. Now the WHOLE of that file name goes in the
?Filename? box,. The ?.xml? doesn?t go into the ?file type? box,
like it would in a Word, Excel or any other program. Low and
behold, the little ?Notepad? program magically recognizes the
fact that it is XML format (I don?t know how, probably mirrors?)
and the file you end up with has the '.xml' file extension. That
is what you upload to your server.
It?s very easy. You just place it under what they call the ?Root
Directory?. I?ve learned that this is the ?Main Folder? (I don?t
know why they just don?t say ?Main Folder?, but?). So, it goes
into the very first folder of your website. If using cPanelX?
it?s called ?html public?. If using Frontpage?, it?s simply the
folder with the main URL as it?s name.
My first question was, ?What about Sub-Domains?? Do I have to
submit separate Sitemaps or will they be included in the one I
generate for the Main Domain? The answer is that Sub Domains
won?t be included in the Main Sitemap, you need to generate a
separate one by simply using the Sub-Domain URL in the
generator. This is handy because each Sub-Domain will usually
have unique needs and it would be more than awkward if they were
all included in the main Sitemap.
Obviously, in the case of a Sub Domain, the ?Root Directory? or
?Main Folder? you put this Sitemap into is the Main Sub-Domain
folder, that is, the first one under the Main Domain folder.
Submitting to Google is a really easy process. You just log into
your Google account (you have to have one) and go to the ?Add a
Sitemap? section and enter the COMPLETE filename of the sitemap,
which will be: http://www.mydomain.com/sitemap.xml and click on
?Submit URL?.
Although I have had a little fun with the fact that I still,
after several years earning a living online, don't understand a
lot of the 'lingo'. To those of you who are in the same position
or those who are new to this Internet business thing, I can
honestly say, you will get a handle on it and find that all
these things, which may seem completely overwhelming at first,
will make sense and come more easily if you take the time to
read a little and find out. I've obviously surrendered to this
concept and it has made things much easier.
Oh God! I think I'm a Nerd!
About the author:
Stephen Brennan is the author of the popular ebook title ?The Affiliate Guide
Book? - The Definitive guide to Affiliate SUCCESS. He also
runs The Home Based
Business and Affiliate Center and HomeBasedBiz
Safelist
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