I ran across a great article today that explains the benefits of using Google Sitemaps as an SEO tool.  I’ve alluded to using Sitemaps as an SEO tools in other posts, but this article does a great job of explaining the hows and whys.  Sitemaps has gone from a simple submission tool to a tool that allows one to glimpse at how Google views your site.  You’ll need to “verify” your site with Google before all of the tools will work, but this can be done pretty simply, if you need your webmaster to do it you can just pass on a meta tag snippet to him/her and they can stick it on your home page for you.

The most valuable tools in Sitemaps, I think, is the ability to see what keywords Google thinks your site is about, it’s a bit limited naturally - Google wouldn’t want to give up too much info, and a series of tools that allow you to identify if Google is having problems seeing/crawling your pages and which pages. Also, at the WebmasterWorld Conference this year the Sitemaps team indicated that Sitemaps users may be notified if their site has been banned or penalized by Google if it appears that they may inadvertently be doing something that violates Google’s guidelines. That may be worth the price of admission alone, which is free by the way.

SiteProNews: SEO With Google Sitemaps


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