Getting your site listed in Google is easier than ever now, since Google offers sitemaps. By using a sitemap, you can make it very easy to get all of your pages indexed by Google. This can help you raise your rankings in Google as well as help searchers find you. The beauty of sitemaps is that once you've set it, you can basically forget about it until you make updates to your site. Then you will need to add the new entries to your sitemap. Google will take care of the rest. However, if you're a non-techie, or the idea of setting up scripts or learning new software doesn't appeal to you, there are other ways to get the job done without stressing yourself.
There are plenty of online tools you can use that are absolutely free. Although these sites won't help you if you have a really large site (usually over 1,000 pages), for the average site owner, these tools will get the job done and, at most, all you'll need to know how to do is cut and paste, save, and then upload your sitemap to your site.
Below are some tools you can use to help you get started. Try the various tools out first to see which ones you like best. These are the easiest solutions I've found for creating sitemaps and it will only take you a few minutes to get your sitemap created and submitted.
1. Sitemap Doc—This site will create a sitemap for sites up to 750 pages. All you have to do is enter your URL for the main page for your site, click the create map button, and this site will extract your urls and create your sitemap. It also allows you to customize your map by adding additional urls, as well as changing time, date, and priority settings.
2. Audit My PC—This sitemap creator actually gives you two options: you can create a sitemap for Google and you can create a sitemap for your visitors. The sitemap you create for your visitors can help you in getting spidered by the newer spiders offered by MSN and Yahoo.
3. ROR—ROR is very similar to XML, which is the formatting used in sitemaps. You can use it to create your sitemaps. Unlike most sitemap utilities, this tool does more. It will help you more fully describe the content on your website. You can also use it to create feeds for your products and services, as well as feeds for your site.
Article comments