Sitemaps are an ideal way for website owners to help search engines crawl deeper and index more pages on their sites.

A lot of websites have a dedicated web page that contains links to all of the sites internal pages. This is primarily used to assist the user in navigating around a website and can be very useful, especially on large websites containing hundreds of pages. Additionally this type of Sitemap provides additional navigation links for search engines, which will help them to find more of your sites internal pages.

However in 2005 Google announced an ‘approved’ XML Sitemap format as the preferred method for indexing websites. This was quickly adopted by Yahoo and MSN. An XML Sitemap is actually a source file which is uploaded to your server. This file will be found by the search engines and used as their preferred navigation route, when indexing your web pages.

I review many websites where a number of internal pages have not been indexed by Google and installing an XML Sitemap will help the search engines to find these non indexed web pages.

Until now, there has been very little research to determine how effective XML Sitemaps really are. However, Google have recently published a detailed XML Sitemaps study, which provides us with an insight into their effectiveness.

The purpose of the Google study was to measure XML Sitemap usage over the last few years in order to determine how Sitemap files have improved the following:

• Coverage – how effective are Sitemaps at assisting Google to crawl the web deeper and find new content that it might not have found previously
• Freshness – do Sitemaps assist Google to crawl new or updated content faster, when compared to the normal crawl.

The study was based on three large websites, Amazon, CNN, and Pubmed.

Amazon’s sitemaps include around 20 million URLs. They also make every effort to indicate the best URL versions, of product pages in their XML sitemap.

CNN’s approach to XML sitemaps focuses upon helping search engines find the many new URLs which are added daily.

Pubmed contains a large archive of URLs listed in their XML sitemaps, however these are only updated on a monthly basis.

This is quite a detailed study with the final paper being 10 pages long. It is a great read if you are interested in understanding how Google Sitemaps work and how they can benefit your website. Download a copy here.

Some interesting facts from the study:

• Approximately 35 million Sitemaps were published, as of October 2008.
• The 35 million Sitemaps include “several billion” URLs.
• Most popular Sitemap formats include XML (77%), Unknown (17.5%), URL list (3.5%), Atom (1.6%) and RSS (0.11%).
• 58% of URLs in Sitemaps contain the last modification date.
• 7% of URLs contain the change frequency field.
• 61% of URLs contain the priority field.

If you are not using XML Sitemaps on your website, then this study highlights the need for you to consider adding them.

If you would like help adding an XML Sitemap to your website please Contact Us or alternatively visit our Professional SEO website for further information.

It has been well over three years since Ask.com decided to retire Jeeves, the well respected and trusted, search engine butler.

However, just like Take That and Spandau Ballet, Jeeves has been tempted out of retirement. For the time being, Jeeves will be restricting his comeback tour to purely UK search assignments and will be the new (albeit resurrected) brand behind the search engine. Apparently Jeeves has no immediate plans to travel overseas and is content, for the time being, to work diligently and tirelessly on behalf of us Brits.

When visiting Ask.com from within the UK you are presented with an updated 3D Jeeves character, which is a major improvement on the original 2D version.

I asked “Why has Jeeves returned” and received the following response to my search question:

“Jeeves is back!
Jeeves has been travelling the world for the past three years on a quest for the knowledge to answer all your questions. Now he is back with even more answers than ever – so go ahead and ask him anything!”

According to Cesar Mascaraque, managing director of Ask Jeeves Europe, Ask.com polled their UK users and realised that Jeeves still had an incredibly strong brand awareness of 83%, even after retiring, over three years ago. When compared to the current 72% awareness of Ask.com, bringing Jeeves back would seem a sensible move.

Ask.com is once again using its original “Ask Jeeves” brand for the UK market and will shortly be launching a multi million dollar Search Engine Advertising campaign across the UK to promote awareness that the butler is back. Jeeves will also be given his own Facebook fan page and Twitter account to help promote the message that he is back for good.

It would appear that Google have now started to list local search results for generic keyword searches, even when the actual search term used does not include a specific town or area. Previously local search results would only appear if the search term included a particular location.

For example, using the search term “electrician manchester” will produce a list of local electricians in Manchester that have registered with Google for a local business listing. However using the single keyword, “electrician” would not have previously produced any local search results. All that has now changed and local search results now appear, even when a location has not been specified.

This change has now made a Local Business Listing even more important.

See my Blog post “The Importance Of Google Local Search Results” for further information and a link to register for your free business listing.

Single keywords that trigger the Google local search results do appear to be limited at the current time. However I am sure that this will be developed and expanded quite quickly.

What appears to be happening is that Google has recognised that my search term has some form of local intent and shows me local business listings based on the geographic location of my IP address. If the local listings do not match your exact location, simply click on “Change Location” and enter your postcode.

Based on my limited research, I was able to see local results for Electrician, Plumber, Restaurant and Doctor. I am sure there are many others.

As an example, here are the local results for the search term “electrician” in my area.

Local business results for electrician near Wisbech, Cambridgeshire PE13 4JW

- Change location - Back to results

		Switch Electrical Solution – maps.google.co.uk 24 Main Rd, Parson Drove, Wisbech – 01945 700896 Directions and more »
		EJ Carter – maps.google.co.uk High Rd, Guyhirn, Wisbech – 01945 450774 Directions and more »
		Anglia Electrical Installations Ltd – maps.google.co.uk High Rd, Guyhirn, Wisbech – 01945 450618 Directions and more »
		More results near Wisbech, Cambridgeshire PE13 4JW »

A Local Business Listing is now essential for every small business!

Appearing on the first page of Google for these incredibly competitive keywords used to be almost impossible without spending a huge amount of time, effort and money on Professional Seo services.

This now offers you the opportunity to achieve a page one listing for competitive single keyword search terms, simply by registering with Google and creating your free business listing.

If you have not already done so, register your business today.

Internet Explorer 8 was launched on 19/03/2009 and according to Net Market Share, has quietly, yet quickly ascended to over 3% usage market share.

I say ‘quietly’ because curiously, Microsoft has not actively promoted the new browser.

Browsers have been released by different companies using different marketing tactics. Google introduced Chrome through a ‘leaked’ report, and followed up with almost no marketing. It almost instantly jumped to 1% usage market share, but it has now been 7 months since the launch and its current market share is just 1.23%.

Mozilla, in contrast, has taken browser feature development and marketing to levels unseen before. Firefox has a loyal and growing following. Upgrades are seamless and well marketed. And, the results have been impressive, with a sustained growth in usage market share currently at 22.05%.

Apple’s Safari has also been growing in usage share steadily, currently at 8.23%. But, that growth has come more from the growth in Mac and iPhone usage than from people switching browsers on the same hardware.

So, it’s curious that Microsoft isn’t taking the Mozilla approach by announcing IE8 with hype and fanfare. That said, IE8 has still gotten off to an impressive start. But, time will tell whether the gains by IE8 come from older versions of Internet Explorer, or if Microsoft can regain some of the lost market share, taken by Mozilla and Apple.

For these and other Net Market Share Statistics, go to netmarketshare.com.

You may also be interested in viewing my blog post “Why Web Browser Compatibility Is Important“.

According to comScore, a leader in measuring the digital world, the number of people using their mobile device to access news and information on the Internet more than doubled from January 2008 to January 2009. Among the audience of 63.2 million people who accessed news and information on their mobile devices in January 2009, 22.4 million (35 percent) did so daily; more than double the size of the audience last year.

“Over the course of the past year, we have seen use of mobile Internet evolve from an occasional activity to being a daily part of people’s lives,” observed Mark Donovan, senior vice president, mobile, comScore. “This underscores the growing importance of the mobile medium as consumers become more reliant on their mobile devices to access time-sensitive and utilitarian information.”

“Social networking and blogging have emerged as very popular daily uses of the mobile Web and these activities are growing at a torrid pace,” observed Donovan. “We also note that much of the growth in news and information usage is driven by the increased popularity of downloaded applications, such as those offered for the iPhone, and by text-based searches. While smartphones and high-end feature phones, like the Samsung Instinct and LG Dare comprise the Top 10 devices used for news and information access,  70 percent of those accessing mobile Internet content are using feature phones.”

In January, 22.3 million people accessed news and information via a downloaded application. Maps are the most popular downloaded application with 8.2 million users, while search was the overwhelmingly favored use for SMS-based news and information access, with 14.1 million users. Overall, 32.4 million people used SMS to access news and information in January.

Young males are the most avid users of mobile news and information, with half of 18 to 34-year-old males engaging in the activity. The mobile Internet is also quite popular among females in the 18 to 24-year-old demographic, with 40 percent accessing it at least once in January.