Table of contents for increasing-rankings-basics

1. Keep It Simple: Google Simple Sitemap Submission

The first step to ranking well, is solid SEO.  Most search marketers focus so heavily on link building the shrewd fundamentals of SEO are overlooked.  It doesn’t matter how many links you build, if the site is not a quality site, built with solid architecture and a good internal linking structure, the site will not perform to the best of its abilities.

After your site is live, step 1. to getting high rankings is indexation.  Getting Google to notice your website isn’t very difficult, however, getting it to notice your entire website, all the pages that could potentially add value and bring in long tail niche traffic…well, that’s a different matter.  Making Googlebot’s life easier and aiding it in getting all your important and valuable pages indexed is easier than waiting around for it to do all the work on its own.

Sitemaps are a great answer, as to how you can assist Googlebot in indexing more of your site in less time!

What is a sitemap?

A sitemap is a file that is uploaded to your server to catalog the pages available sitewide.  It is very much like the index of a book and can be displayed as different file types dependant upon its proposed use.

Different Sitemap Types:

• XML – the most commonly used to feed a list of urls to google and other search engines.

• RSS 2.0/Atom 1.0 – an automatically generated feed which is typically associated with blogging platforms, that lists pages/posts.

• HTML – a static file that is intended for users but also serves as a resource for search engines to catalog/reach all available pages on the site.

• Text File – a text file containing all the site urls.

Google allows you to submit these various types of sitemap files, alongside others, with ease.  My suggestion for those who are not very familiar with webmastering or accessing your site host, is to have a professional compile your sitemap file to ensure it is properly validated, then submit it using the two easiest, and most prominent methods.

1.  Sign up for Google webmasters tools.  Verify your site.  Then follow instructions for submitting your sitemap.  It’s simply entering the url location of your sitemap file on your server/host.

2.  Indicate your sitemap file via robots.txt.

Locate more information on Google sitemap submissions.

Taking these general steps allows for higher levels of indexation.  Next step, increasing visibility of your indexed pages.