Google Does RSS

Has Google finally embraced RSS with their new XML powered Sitemaps program? Well, sort of, but it seems more like a hug than a strong impassioned embrace!

It does use XML technology which allows for the crawling and updating of your site's web pages. You can even include your entire web site (all urls) with this indexing program. For anyone targeting the search engines, especially Google, this program (still in beta) is a MUST HAVE.

If you require timely updating of your most popular pages Google's new Sitemaps may prove indispensable. It's a littlepremature to assess the importance or impact of Google's new program but anyone wanting to give their site a competitive edge should be gearing up.

How it works:

There are several ways to set-up a XML Sitemap, perhaps the easiest way is to use the open-source Generator which you can download from Google. This is a Python file that you can upload to your webserver and this generator will create a sitemap from your 'URL lists, webserver directories, or your access logs'.

It would probably be wise to check with your hosting provider to see if they can accommodate this Generator on your webserver. It you have a small site there should be no problem but if your site runs into the 1,000's of URLs or pages -- check to see how much bandwidth such a system will take up. It's better to be safe than sorry!

Once done, you have to then submit your newly generated XML Sitemap to Google and the search engine will use this XML Sitemap to update and index your site whenever you make changes on your site. You will need to have a Google account.

You may also submit text files containing URLs from your web site to be included in Google Sitemaps but these text files will have or will be given low priority for the time being.

To get started on your own Google Sitemaps Account you can click here:Google's Sitemaps

What's great about it:

Besides seeing Google finally grab the RSS wildcard, itgives you better control of how and when the search engines update your web site pages. Perhaps, the most important aspect for Internet Marketers, you can now assign the importance that's given to any of your particular pages. As most marketers know, certain pages on your web site are more important than others; these pages earn money, build your contact list, or direct your site's visitors in the right direction. In other words, you can now place more emphasis on your web site's 'bread and butter' pages. A BIG Plus!

With Google Sitemaps you can decide the importance placed on these pages by using the priority XML tag. This rating system is relative, it only relates to the pages on your own site.

Likewise, you can also indicate how frequently your pages changes by using the changefreq XML tag. More or less instructing Google when your page will be updated or changed. This is a win-win situation for everyone; Google gets the freshest content for its users and you gain more control of the frequency of the updates done with your site or web pages. This may have a direct influence on the profitability of your web site.

For those who are actively marketing thru the search engines and keywords -- Santa may have come a little early this year. Of course, the jury will be out for awhile but Google Sitemaps will probably have a positive impact on your bottom line.

What it means for Google:

For those of us who have been following and watching the RSS wildcard for the past couple of years, it takes away some of the frustration and a little of the puzzlement from Google seemingly total disregard of RSS.

RSS is not a fad, it is not a trend and it's not going away. Instead, its importance is growing. It is fast becoming 'the' way data is moved on the web. One could even speculate that in the very near future all web pages will have an RSS component, perhaps a hybrid of 'XML/HMTL' or an embedded XML code that will work with all browsers, search engines and servers.

For Google to ignore the growing importance of RSS, blogging, podcasting, broadcatching, the RSS featured Firefox browser, MyYahoo, not to mention all those orange XML logos popping up on most of the major sites on the web -- is beyond comprehension. Why Google does not have an RSS search on its main search enginepage still seems baffling. Bringing out a homepage and not including an RSS feature is just foolhardy (They may introduce this feature later).

For those firmly in the RSS corner, Google's continued disregard for RSS became more than a little frustrating to observe. It was downright rude! Perhaps Google was waiting to incorporate RSS in a program like this new XML Sitemaps? Can this mean that Google has finally accepted the importance of RSS and they're starting to make amends? More importantly, could there still be a few more RSS goodies in the Google Jar left to be announced?

One can only speculate but when it comes to RSS and Google, lets just hope this is the start of a beautiful friendship.

----------------------------------------------------
To add RSS to your Site within minutes - download this
simple RSS Report and Guide.

Copyright © 2005 Titus Hoskins of BWMagic's Free Marketing Tools & Guides

This article may be freely distributed if this resource
box stays attached.
----------------------------------------------------

More Resources

Unable to open RSS Feed $XMLfilename with error HTTP ERROR: 404, exiting

More Blogging/RSS Information:

Related Articles

RSS Explained
What is RSS? To begin with, it's one of those things everyone says is easy to understand. And it is, as soon as you have your own 'ah-ha' moment.
If an RSS Feed is the Yahoo Backdoor, is a Blog Google's?
Though the answer is in a book I wrote this July, the question is still asked of me repeatedly. Why does it work for some sites and not others? And how come some blogs get indexed in a day and then are dropped, and others stay in Google indefinitely?Well, let's take one question at a time.
A Basic Introduction to Blogging
Web logging first appeared on the net in the mid-1990s. The term "web log" was initially coined refer to a server's log file and then expanded to include the meaning of online personal journaling.
How To Make A Cool Xanga
A xanga is something akin to a blog. It all began in 1999 and the xanga community is 2.
How to Cash In on Blogs
Over the past year or so, more and more webmasters have been creating their own blogs (web-logs). If you don't already know, a blog is sort of an online diary which is updated at regular intervals by the author(s), and can be viewed by the public.
Blogging will Soon Take Over the World
In recent years, it's been pretty obvious that "blogging" (Web + Log = Blog) has simply taken over the internet.Early blogs were first used by creative (bored?) indivuals, and larger news companies.
Utilize The Power Of Blogs To Market Your Business On A Budget
Budget marketing with blogs is one of today's top methods for cost-effective advertising to the consumers you want to reach, whether they're in your neighborhood or across the global community.'Blogging' is a fairly recent addition to our vocabulary, and it's exactly what you'll be doing if you pursue budget marketing via blogs.
Article Marketing For Bloggers - 4 Tips To Build Traffic For Your Blog
Bloggers blog. That's what they do.
How to Create an RSS Feed
An RSS news feed can be used to communicate with your target audience. It is an ideal means of notifying people of new content on your website without the need for them to keep on visiting your site.
Blogging for Profit Using AdSense
This article is designed to teach you how to profit from blogging, writing to a website in the form of regular posts, without spending anything. The keys to this idea lie in two of Google's programs, Blogger.
Its A Blog, Not A Sales Letter
The recent spurt of interest in blogging has begun to ignite the hope that people can make a full-time income from blogging. Although there are a few people actually doing this, there aren't too many business models yet that can support someone making a full-time income from their blogs.
Blog Problems
What in the world is up with the world of blogs? Blogs are meant to be this great new technology where people can share their ideas and interests with others around the globe. As far as I'm concerned the state of blogs is one of chaos, confusion, and anti-interactivity.
Blogging Your Way To Success Part 2
(Continued from Blogging Your Way To Success Part 1)By now, you have already configured your blog name, description, personal profile, and the page template. As soon as you set up your blogging account with Blogger, you will need to do this next:Post At Least 20 Articles=====================While this may sound like hard work, there is no short cut around it.
RSS - The Intelligent Marketing Medium
Are you new to RSS? If so here is a introduction to what RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is and how your website will benefit from offering an RSS feed to your visitor's.RSS is a smooth channel of communication between publishers and visitor's.
The Idiot's Step-By-Step Guide To Blogging for Profit
Blogging is easy, blogging is fun. And what's more?it can help your business in a lot of ways.
RSS Meets the Needs of Direct Marketers
Contrary to general opinion, RSS meets the needs of even the most demanding direct marketer, actually providing most of what e-mail marketing does, except for the strong push factor.Most direct marketing reasons against RSS are in fact the result of inadequate understanding of RSS by most marketers.
Blogging - Whats It All About
A blog usually is a web page that contains brief, discrete hunks of information called posts. These posts are arranged in reverse-chronological order (the most recent come first) and each is uniquely identified by an anchor tag which is marked with a permanent link that can be referred to by others who wish to link to it.
RSS and Blog Marketing for Real Estate
Earlier this month, Realtor Magazine announced that they would be featuring an article about Tampa Bay Realtor John Mudd and the success he has been having in attracting prospects and media attention with his blog on real estate.Since then, many others in the Real Estate market have been curious about how to implement similar strategies to capture leads in their areas.
Strategies to Make Your Blog More Interesting
Putting up your business blog is an advantageous way of establishing your presence on web. It's no longer just about putting plain texts up on your blog.
What Is RSS?
Recently I did an interview with a well known email Internet Marketer. He wanted to share with his readers a viewpoint on what RSS is from someone who is using it in place of traditional email marketing.