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Setting up a Sitemap for Google

dbriggs1950
Dabbler
Posts: 22
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎16-04-2007

Setting up a Sitemap for Google

I have created a couple of web sites and am learning how to get them into Google. This appears to involve the creation of a sitemap file for each of them. Google provides a Python script to help do this but that has to run in CGI space, which is not on the same server. I've not tried running Python - I've only recently learnt XHTML and haven't enabled CGI support yet!
Assuming I figure out how to do that, is it possible to access 'my' web server from the CGI server? If so, what access paths are required?
Alternatively, is there a better way to get indexed?
The web sites have one domain name (each) that is configured to target a subdirectory in the corresponding web space.
Thanks for any suggestions,
David
15 REPLIES 15
astarsolutions
Grafter
Posts: 393
Registered: ‎26-07-2007

Re: Setting up a Sitemap for Google

The sitemap isn't really a method of getting pages indexed, it simply helps Google index your site properly.
To get a site listed in any search engine you need to get yourself linked to from other websites, they also provide a method for submitting a single link but this will only have limited success.
dbriggs1950
Dabbler
Posts: 22
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎16-04-2007

Re: Setting up a Sitemap for Google

Thanks for the comments, Arthur.
I have linked both web sites to the other, legitimately, but they aren't connected from any others, yet, as far as I am aware.
I suspect this is going to take some time!
David
astarsolutions
Grafter
Posts: 393
Registered: ‎26-07-2007

Re: Setting up a Sitemap for Google

Its worth using the manual site submit and the same goes for the sitemap although I doubt it will help much.
http://www.google.com/addurl/
There are some useful tips here as well.
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=34397
dbriggs1950
Dabbler
Posts: 22
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎16-04-2007

Re: Setting up a Sitemap for Google

I think I have effectively added both sites by registering a Google Account and adding them to it. I can check crawl status from there, so I will find out when they are 'seen'.
Of course, the difficult bit is getting those incoming links to improve my ratings. Outgoing links are easy!
Thanks again,
David
Portsmouth
Dabbler
Posts: 12
Registered: ‎09-08-2007

Re: Setting up a Sitemap for Google

Hi
Have a look at www.xml-sitemaps.com it worked for me. Basically its a on line sitemap creator which works great with Google.
Thanks
Barry
Oldjim
Resting Legend
Posts: 38,460
Thanks: 787
Fixes: 63
Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: Setting up a Sitemap for Google

It will be interesting to see if this works as manual submission of the site hasn't.
The Google report doesn't show any errors - it just hasn't crawled it.
dbriggs1950
Dabbler
Posts: 22
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎16-04-2007

Re: Setting up a Sitemap for Google

Thanks Barry,
That looks good. I have created xml and gz sitemaps for both sites and will submit them to Google later.
I'll report progress when there is some.
David
dbriggs1950
Dabbler
Posts: 22
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎16-04-2007

Re: Setting up a Sitemap for Google

I have registered the sitemap.xml files for both web sites with Google. It was necessary to upload the generated file to the root directory of each site, but that was no big deal.
Now we wait for the crawler to arrive!
Thanks everyone,
David
Oldjim
Resting Legend
Posts: 38,460
Thanks: 787
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Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: Setting up a Sitemap for Google

One thing which came out of this is that Google wasn't picking up all my pages correctly so I installed the Lynx text browser and found the problem.
Odd that I hadn't found that suggested before but it appears that it works the same way as most web crawlers and allows you to pick up problems.
Oldjim
Resting Legend
Posts: 38,460
Thanks: 787
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Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: Setting up a Sitemap for Google

Update - my site is now coming up on Google - excellent
dbriggs1950
Dabbler
Posts: 22
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎16-04-2007

Re: Setting up a Sitemap for Google

I've just checked and my site has appeared too. I noticed from my webstats that googlebot visited a week or so ago but it took a few more days to work through. Now I can check the index entries... and there are bound to be some updates and corrections to do!
Thanks everyone,
David
LiamM
Grafter
Posts: 5,636
Registered: ‎12-08-2007

Re: Setting up a Sitemap for Google

These sitemaps, are you supposed to regenerate them everytime the page content changes?
Oldjim
Resting Legend
Posts: 38,460
Thanks: 787
Fixes: 63
Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: Setting up a Sitemap for Google

Probably not necessary unless you add pages.
If you create the site map using the link earlier you can view the content and see what is included. In my case it was only links to other pages. Note the site map is only on the main index page.
Adam1V
Grafter
Posts: 223
Registered: ‎31-07-2007

Re: Setting up a Sitemap for Google

some very useful comments above.
Infact you dont actually need to submit your site to the google URL page anymore, you can bet they'll find you within hours.
How ever, two MUST have programs are:
Google Webmaster Tools used for website analysis, search engine position on keywords etc
Google Analytics. Sorry but the Force9 Stats are a million miles away from analytics. Such a comprehensive site full of as much information as you could possibly want about visitors, their PCs, the pages they visit etc.
I personally use this site for creating my free sitemap. Very easy and simple to use.
hope that helps