Creative Search Strategies(How to Create and Submit an XML Sitemap)

Steve Wiidemanwww.CreativeSearchStrategies.com

Three Principles of SEOWhat is SEO, in Plain English?

1. Having content to match search terms

2. Other websites referencing a target website

3. User behavior (“click and stay”)

What is XML?

Extensible Markup Language

Wikipedia: a metalanguage that allows users to define their own

customized markup languages, especially in order to display

documents on the World Wide Web.

<h1>This is a Heading Tag per W3C & HTML Language Design</h1>

<steve>This is a tag I made up that can only be read by a program that

has defined “steve” in the database</steve>

What an XML Sitemap is Not

• A way to force search engines to index your content

• A tool that will help you rank higher for specific keywords

• Something you submit more than once or twice per day

• Something you should not have to pay for

So What is an XML Sitemap?

Sitemaps.org

The “Big Three” agreed on a standard way for webmasters to submit a

list of URLs. Google, Bing and the former Yahoo! Search (now

powered by Bing) created several HTML tags in their

system that users can submit webpages with.

A way to provide a list of URLs you’d like indexed

A way to point out important pages to the search engines

A potentially faster way to reduce the time it takes to get indexed

What Does it Look Like?<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">

<url>

<loc>http://www.example.com/</loc>

<lastmod>2005-01-01</lastmod>

<changefreq>monthly</changefreq>

<priority>0.8</priority>

</url>

</urlset>

What Does it Look Like?<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"

xmlns:image="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap-image/1.1"

xmlns:video="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap-video/1.1">

<url>

<loc>http://www.example.com/foo.html</loc>

<image:image>

<image:loc>http://example.com/image.jpg</image:loc>

</image:image>

<video:video>

<video:content_loc>http://www.example.com/video123.flv</video:content_loc>

<video:player_loc allow_embed="yes" autoplay="ap=1">http://www.example.com/videoplayer.swf?video=123</video:player_loc>

<video:thumbnail_loc>http://www.example.com/thumbs/123.jpg</video:thumbnail_loc>

<video:title>Grilling steaks for summer</video:title>

<video:description>Get perfectly done steaks every time</video:description>

</video:video>

</url>

</urlset>

The Best Way to ImplementOur Favorite: Google Sitemap Generator http://code.google.com/p/googlesitemapgenerator/

http://code.google.com/p/sitemap-generators/wiki/SitemapGenerators

The Fast Way to Implement

www.XML-Sitemaps.com

How to Submit

How to Submit

Questions?

Wiideman has been working with Search Engine Optimization Since 2003 and authored several eBooks on the topic while working with Fortune 100 & 500 organizations.

He has been featured in Entrepreneur Magazine, Response Magazine, National Journal, Visibility Magazine and many industry blogs, including the Marketing Sherpa Blog.

He is currently a consultant to several corporate brands. In 2011, Wiideman is working with his team on Creative Search Strategies, an Internet Marketing webinar series and promoting his eBook SEO in a Day, which can be found by searching “free SEO eBook” in Google.

@seosteve

Steve Wiidemanwww.SEOSteve.com Facebook.com/stevewiidemanP. (562) 732-4417E. info@seosteve.com

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