Google Sitemaps URL Feed
Monday, 06 June 2005
Google has launched a new service called Google Sitemaps. A few articles are proclaiming it to be the end to site level optimisation, however that would be over simplifying what is actually involved in this complex process. Google Sitemaps provide a method for submitting URL feeds to Google for indexing, along with additional parameters such as page importance within the context of the website. Google Sitemaps is very useful for websites that have extremely complex URL's, or primarily form based content which would otherwise be unindexable.
So as a site owner Google Sitemaps seems marvelous and is a great service, but it isn’t an instant solution to all your problems. Googles ranking algorithm and localisation filters and not access to URL's is the major issue faced by many enterprise websites.
Additionally creating a feed for Google would mean it would still be wrong for users and other search engines, and hence link value to particular products or sections wouldn't get calculated properly as they'd reference different locations, hence your pages wouldn't rank as high as they otherwise might.
Used in the context of solving purely indexing issues Google Sitemaps is a good move, and will surely prove a very useful tool in managing the search engine/site content relationship and improving relevancy for users.
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