Happy belated 4th of July everyone!! Hope you had a wonderful long weekend with your families and friends.

In my last posting, I urged all of you to submit the sitemap to search engines. This time, I’d like to share with all of you the importance of sitemap and why do we need to submit the sitemap to major search engines such as Google, Yahoo!, and Bing.

Q: What is sitemap anyway?
A: It is a map of your website.

Q: Why sitemap?
A: Two simple reasons:  (1) Sitemap helps visitors to find pages of your website.  (2) Better visibility for search engine.

Q: Why do I need to submit the sitemap to Google, Yahoo!, and Bing search engines?
A: Submitting your sitemap allows your pages to be indexed quickly by the search engine. Very important if you have a brand new website!

Q: What other benefits can I get by submitting the sitemap through Google Webmaster Tool, Yahoo! Site Explorer, and Bing Webmaster Tool?
A: A lot! With Google Webmaster Tools, we can: submit the robots.txt, change geographic target setting, analyze search queries, and many more! (see image below)

(Google Webmaster Tools – click image to enlarge)

Reminder:
If you don’t have a sitemap, create one!
If you have a new website – submit the sitemap!
If you have make changes to your current website – submit the sitemap!

Google Webmaster Tools, Yahoo! Site Explorer, and Bing Webmaster Tools are FREE. Why not utilize them!