Google Sitemaps

[Punkey]

Hello everyone,

Does any one know "Google Sitemaps"?

Have you used it? Does it help to improve ranking?

[Jack_mcs]

Yes, it works great. You should install the Google Sitemap by Chemo.

 

Jack

[Punkey]

Yes, it works great. You should install the Google Sitemap by Chemo.

 

Jack

I am not sure what "Chemo" is, I know the Coffee cup has one.

Can you tell me more about Chemo?

[Silverado05]

Chemo is the name of the member who built the contribution for OSC. You can find it here.

 

http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contri...oogle+Site+maps

 

All you do is upload two simple files with no editing of other files then submit the two links to Google sitemaps and you're done. Google sitemaps where you submit the links can be found below

 

http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/siteoverview

 

 

Couldn't get any eaiser, a must have.

[Jack_mcs]

Chemo is a person. There is more than one contribution for the google sitemap and Chemo's is generally easier to install and work with. The contribution is here. The latest on-the-fly release may not be the best choice though. It is very easy to install but can cause problems with larger sites. The version before that was update works very well and is easy to install (although not as easy).

 

Jack

[Silverado05]

Just keep in mind though that the v1.3 is not Ultimate SEO contribution compatible. So if you plan on using it to have SE friendly links you need to use the latest verison that was released June 20th. I have not problems with it and I have a several thousand products in my catalog. It is to early to tell if it has problems though.

[creativehand]

Hi

 

here is an example sitemap i did for a client http://www.bedcorby.com/sitemap.xml

 

I used http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/ to generate, and then you submit it to google via https://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/

 

here is some info from google groups - http://groups.google.com/group/google-sitemaps

 

you can also read my blog about SEO and sitemaps - http://creativehand.co.uk/blog/

 

Regards

 

Jody

creativeHAND

[knifeman]

Google sitemaps where you submit the links can be found below

 

http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/siteoverview

So submit the following to google?

 

http://mysite.com/googlesitemapcategories.php
and 
http://mysite.com/googlesitemapproducts.php

[Punkey]

Hi Guys, I have a huge problem! I know I should start a new thread BUT!, since you guys are on line and this way I may get your attention faster, I am going to post it here.

Product attributes return this error;

Fatal error: Call to undefined function: link_get_variable() in /home/gxuxmxtx/public_html/admin/products_attributes.php on line 18 :angry:

What do you think is the problem?

:(

THANKS

[shellqc]

Hi, can I not just use Gsitecrawler that works best with google and what google recommends. Or do you have to have some sort of program or module written just for OSC?

 

Just curious. I've done the txt file and the xml files using gsitecrawler and it worked just fine. Why would you need to do anything different for OSC? You just supply the URL and it builds everything you need.

 

If anyone sees that it may not work please let me, let us all know.

[Silverado05]

Hi Guys, I have a huge problem! I know I should start a new thread BUT!, since you guys are on line and this way I may get your attention faster, I am going to post it here.

Product attributes return this error;

Fatal error: Call to undefined function: link_get_variable() in /home/gxuxmxtx/public_html/admin/products_attributes.php on line 18 :angry:

What do you think is the problem?

:(

THANKS

 

 

Hard to say unless we have a file to see so we know what is on or around 18 that is causing the error.

[Silverado05]

Hi, can I not just use Gsitecrawler that works best with google and what google recommends. Or do you have to have some sort of program or module written just for OSC?

 

Just curious. I've done the txt file and the xml files using gsitecrawler and it worked just fine. Why would you need to do anything different for OSC? You just supply the URL and it builds everything you need.

 

If anyone sees that it may not work please let me, let us all know.

 

 

I am not familiar with gsitecrawler, but I know the ones here are built for OSC and are a real simple plug and play, submit the link solution. Real easy and it works without much effort.

[Guest]

Hi

 

here is an example sitemap i did for a client http://www.bedcorby.com/sitemap.xml

 

I used http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/ to generate, and then you submit it to google via https://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/

 

here is some info from google groups - http://groups.google.com/group/google-sitemaps

 

you can also read my blog about SEO and sitemaps - http://creativehand.co.uk/blog/

 

Regards

 

Jody

creativeHAND

 

Kind of confused here. I looked at the website you provided as an example and all it gives is a long page of code. Not a sitemap. It's a .xml file. I went to the xml-sitemaps.com site and it does give you a .php file. Am I missing something obvious here?

 

Also, Chemo's Google Site Map ... the 2 file one ..... how does that produce a site map? And how would I create a link to a site map if there are two different files (categories and products). I'm sorry, but there just wasn't enough information provided with that contribution to know what is going on. No readme file or anything.

[Silverado05]

Yea I think you are confused by the meaning site map. These are sitemaps generate for google submission and yes they are in XML format as needed by google to read. Basicly it just breaks down all the links so you can submit them to be crawled. It's kinda of a simple way to do a hard job by helping out the bots by giving them links to index.

 

Now the site map you are confusing these with are the site maps that is a page like you can find at the bottom of this page. Those site maps are for vistors and yes you can add one to your store as well as one of he XML site maps for Search Engine. You add both it just gives bots more content to crawl and index.

 

So Google XML site map for Search Engines

 

Visual page site maps for visitors.

 

Hope this clears things up some, if not just ask away.

[Guest]

Nick - my new bestest friend! *chuckles*

 

I just installed Jack's Dynamic Sitemap with no problems, so I do have a sitemap for my visitors.

 

So, if I do Chemo's Google Sitemap Feed, that is what I'll submit to Google - both files ... right?

 

If I did both - give Google two ways to read sitemaps (the visitor's version and the XML version), wouldn't that consitute duplicate content - something search engines frown upon?

 

Just want to make sure I don't mess up with the SE gods, ya know?

 

:thumbsup:

[Silverado05]

Nick - my new bestest friend! *chuckles*

 

I just installed Jack's Dynamic Sitemap with no problems, so I do have a sitemap for my visitors.

 

So, if I do Chemo's Google Sitemap Feed, that is what I'll submit to Google - both files ... right?

 

Yes that is correct.

 

 

If I did both - give Google two ways to read sitemaps (the visitor's version and the XML version), wouldn't that consitute duplicate content - something search engines frown upon?

 

 

Not actually because the vistor site map is just a page for vistors kinda like a table of contents so vistors can see the overall site contents and can look for specific things quickly. You are not really actually tricking the search engines, but providing them more and extra ways to index your content. Google knows that a lot of sites have HTML visitor sitemaps. I mean Google wouldn't have created this service if it wasn't right. Also who's to say your HTML site map will actually get index. Besides that if it sees something that is already index it will ignore it depending on your meta cache options.

[Jack_mcs]

Actually, the dynamic sitemap is probably more useful for the SE's than for visitors. The idea with both of these, along with All Products with Images, is to provide a list of links that the SE's can grab quickly without having to search the site. The google sitemap works great, but only for google. The dynamic sitemap works for all SE's.

 

Jack

[Guest]

Thank you Nick and Jack for clearly explaining all that.

 

I've been tossing around the idea of adding All Products (not sure I want the images part yet though). I guess it would be a good ider! :thumbsup:

[Silverado05]

Actually, the dynamic sitemap is probably more useful for the SE's than for visitors. The idea with both of these, along with All Products with Images, is to provide a list of links that the SE's can grab quickly without having to search the site. The google sitemap works great, but only for google. The dynamic sitemap works for all SE's.

 

Jack

 

 

That's true, but it can come in handy for visitors too. It is more for search engines and Jack makes a really good point that the dynamic sitemap is works for all SE where Google is only good for just that google. I think google is the most important one though because SE crawl other engines(So I've been told) for content as well. So if your content is getting indexed more on one then that will help your cause with others on down the road.

 

So if you have the Google Sitemap then the Dynamic (which I wouldn't use that one, I would use a different one) install Chemos SEO Friendly URLS then the Dynamic Meta Tags and you are good to go. You then just need to sit back and hurry up and wait as I like to say. Not much more you can do but do link exchanges with other sites. The more inbound links you the more it will help your cause of getting good page rank and getting your site seen.

[Guest]

google sitemaps haven't done anything to impact my rankings. it brings the googlebot back frequently for the first day or two, then google's traffic is back to normal.

i'm sure it doesn't hurt to use it though :)

[Silverado05]

How long have you been using it and do you have any other SEO work done to your shop?

[Guest]

How long have you been using it and do you have any other SEO work done to your shop?

since they came out

 

i have:

meta tag controls

seo urls

product sitemaps (not google sitemaps)

etc, etc.

 

traffic i receive from the search engines as a whole works perfectly without the google sitemaps.

[Silverado05]

From what I have learned page ranking isn't as important as actually getting vaulable content index. I have come across some sites that have content out the wazoo and traffic galore, but their page ranking is like one 1-3. While others I have seen have 5-7 or higher with not content.

 

For those that are new and not sure what page ranking is. It goes on a scale from 1-10

 

Like my actually web site and forum getting about 1200 hits and page views a day, but my ranking is only 1-3 on any given day.

 

If you ever want to check how my pages are indexed by a certain SE just type this in the search bar

 

site:www.mysite.com and it will return all your pages indexed by that engine

 

Just remember, things are not going to happen over night. While the bot my crawl your site regularly even several times a day and week in my cause on my fourm. It can take weeks if not months to get content index "In most cases" as you have to what I like to call, "earn the trust of the SE".

 

I am by no means and SEO expert, just something things I have learned from trial & erorr and read over times and researched. So anyone feel free to correct me it its not completely correct. You can never stop learning.