A Google Sitemap is a very simple XML document that lists all the pages in your website, but the Google Sitemaps program is actually much more important than that. In fact, the Sitemaps program provides a little peek inside Google's mind - and it can tell you a lot about what Google thinks of your website.
Google has extended the penalty notification experiment that was started last year. Google's Webspam team now works with the Google Sitemaps team to alert some (but not all) site owners of penalties for their site.
Last week was much anticipated for me, not only did the NHL hockey playoffs start (with my favorite team the Edmonton Oilers taking on the Detroit Red Wings), but Google Sitemaps also rolled out some new features. (Strange that the two get me equally excited.)
I have used Google Sitemaps pretty much since it was released. The one thing that irked me with the application was the verification process, so I'm pleased to see that Google has listened to some feedback and now offers an alternate method of verification that uses a meta tag on the root page of your site. According to the Webmaster Help Center on Google's site, the process is relatively simple:
Anti-Google sentiment is on the rise. Web pundits have tossed around monopoly theories and privacy advocates have warned of a day of reckoning. While Google has made friends on Wallstreet, it has disappointed the technical evangelists who were once its fiercest followers. Google has grown into a big scary company and web watchers are expressing their concerns about the information Google gleans from their various services.
Google Analytics is free, no one can beat the price, but what is the real cost? The cost is your data. While not terribly important when analyzed alone, when aggregated with other information Google has access to, it could be damaging. Data mining has made the collection of data meaningful. It has become easier to find patterns and trends in large volumes of data.
In the PubCon Publishers Search and Marketing Conferences in Boston, Google's Matt Cutts revealed interesting information about Mediabot and how it could influence your Google rankings.
On April 5, fellow Search Insider Max Kalehoff wrote about the likelihood of search continuing to be dominated by three players. Max, very convincingly, argued that our search activity could fragment over a number of properties, some of them vertical engines that offer more functionality, some of them alternative online properties, like social networking sites.
As search becomes an increasingly important online staple, I believe the question of where all that activity will take place also takes on increased importance. For that reason, I'd like to play devil's advocate (in this case, the devil being the established search players, Google, Yahoo and MSN) and offer some reasons why we might continue to consolidate our search activity on these familiar partners.
Every few months Google updates the algorithm it uses to rank websites in its index. Some of these updates are more significant than others, but because of Google's market leading position these updates can be extremely significant to many online businesses.
Internet Marketers assign names to these updates much the same way the weather service names hurricanes. Last October it was Jagger, before that we had the infamous Florida Update in late 2003, and Austin in early 2004.
Each update is designed to improve search results by either doing a better job of identifying high-quality content on the Internet, or by doing a better job of suppressing low-quality content.
Google has recently acquired an advanced text search algorithm that has been invented by University of New South Wales PhD student Ori Allon.
Although the acquisition has not been confirmed yet, Google has confirmed that Ori Allon is now employed at Google headquarters in Mountain View, California.
Google has released Google Related Links which is a new feature that would allow Google to add dynamic relevant content links to your website. These related links will be placed on the side of your site offering users with navigation to related content. These links may go to related news, related searches or related pages based on the topics found on that page.
There are various formats that webmasters can select and implementing Google Related Links is quick and easy. All that you need to do is copy and past the javascript coding to the page and when visitors come to the page, Google will provide dynamic links to other sources of information that is related to the content on your page.
Coursing through the carpeted hallways of the Hilton NYC convention center, thousands of people from every demographic were either entering or exiting the various lecture halls. This was not to say that the traffic at the booths was small, but the numbers of people who were there just to gather information was dizzying. The 2006 Search Engine Strategies Convention in New York City was everything an attendee or sponsor could hope for. Kicked off by a keynote speech given by Ask.com's Barry Diller, it's been awhile since rumor circulated concerning the possible sale of Ask.com. However, when Diller says: "search will be everywhere," in regards to the future, it may be assumed that the seasoned media vet has no plans to retire his jersey in the near future. More players mean more competition. This bodes very well for the niche players, too. The torch of search innovation will be carried forward by the 'have-nots;' companies still hungry to improve search in order to attract new users, because the game is far from over.