Sitemaps and Google Webmaster Tools

[CatherineMay]

I read here and there that your sitemap needs to be submitted to Google's Webmaster Tools.

On my Wordpress sites (the only ones I have) I use the Google XML Sitemap Plug-In, which automatically notifies Google, Bing, etc., of any changes.

If I'm supposed to be doing something beyond this, will someone please clearly explain what it is. I have Google Analytics, but when I look at the Webmaster Tools section, I don't see how to "submit" anything.

Any clarity for this very non-technical person would be greatly appreciated.

[thecableguy]

Log into your account and click on your email address in the upper right hand corner, then go to Account settings/Webmaster Tools. If the Webmaster Tools isn't displaying you may have to click on "More"

you should see a "Add New Site" button. Add your site and when you've added the site there should be a link to "Submit your sitemap". (sitemap.xml.gz)

I usually choose to upload a file to my site to verify it by clicking on the "Alternate methods" tab. Once you upload it click to verify the site.

If you can't find the link to add your sitemap link you should see a "Verify this site" when you log into your account again.

[CatherineMay]

Thanks, Cableguy, for the details on how to go about this, but I'm still asking myself what the purpose of it is since the Wordpress plug in for xlm sitemap says that Google and everyone else is being informed about any changes or updates to my site.

What exactly is the advantage to me as a webmaster to go through this additional process with Webmaster Tools? Google Analytics gives me plenty of
information. What else will webmaster tools do? Will I receive suggestions for better on-site SEO, for instance? I could go for that.

[thecableguy]

IMO Wordpress gets automatically pinged when you update it, but it pings the homepage and not the URL the post is on. So sometimes it gets indexed and sometimes it doesn't. I noticed this on some of the blog network link packages that's going around, they showed up when originally pinged, but eventually scrolled of of the page and "disappeared", sometimes the post url would eventually show up as a link again, but most of the time it wouldn't. By submitting the sitemap and having Google actually spider the url there's a better chance of getting it indexed than having the spiders try and find the url on it's own. IMO

[Brian Alaway]

Originally Posted by CatherineMay

Thanks, Cableguy, for the details on how to go about this, but I'm still asking myself what the purpose of it is since the Wordpress plug in for xlm sitemap says that Google and everyone else is being informed about any changes or updates to my site.

What exactly is the advantage to me as a webmaster to go through this additional process with Webmaster Tools? Google Analytics gives me plenty of
information. What else will webmaster tools do? Will I receive suggestions for better on-site SEO, for instance? I could go for that.

Here's one big advantage. Webmaster tools will show you if there are problems with your sitemap and what those problems are. For example - I transferred a domain to a different registrar and forgot about a redirect. The plugin happily built the sitemap.xml file but I didn't realize there was a problem until I went to Webmaster tools and saw the error. A bad sitemap could affect your indexing. Not good. Plugins and automation are great but the ability to double check things is never a bad thing.