Setting up a Sitemap for Google Webmaster Tools and Yahoo! Site Explorer

May 11, 2007 | In SEO/SEM | 6 Comments

Duncan wrote about the Sitemap feature available for all merchants back in June of last year and also in October when SiteExplorer added the ability to authenticate a site. However, since that time, both Yahoo! SiteExplorer and Google Webmaster Tools have added features to benefit webmasters. Karl Ribas, author of a Search Engine Marketing blog and a Project Manager for All Web Promotion, really emphasizes the usefulness of authenticating your site with Google and Yahoo! in two excellent recently created posts about setting up the Sitemap feature for a Yahoo! Store:

Both of these posts discuss the type of information merchants can get from Google and Yahoo! about how your site is crawled, indexed, and viewed by these search engines. This information is invaluable in identifying potential problems, and also what may be working in your site that you can repeat across other pages not being indexed or ranked well. The posts also feature detailed step by step instructions with screenshots.

And while you are reading those posts, I also recommend browsing some of Karl’s other posts. He has a knack for landing interviews with some big names in the SEO field such as his recent interview with Lisa Barone of Bruce Clay Inc.

Paul Boisvert
Yahoo! Small Business

6 Comments »

RSS feed for comments on this post.

  1. I followed the easy-to-follow directions and was able to get Google to quickly recognize the site map. However, I can’t get Google to verify my Yahoo store despite . I keep getting the following error message:
    “Verification status: NOT VERIFIED
    Last attempt May 16, 2007: We’ve detected that your verification file returns a status of 404 (Not found) in the header.”

    Do you have any suggestions on what I may be doing wrong and how to get verified?

    Thank you.

    Comment by Harold Poliskin — May 16, 2007 #

  2. Hi Harold,

    I would recommend publishing your Order Settings again and then trying once again to verify your site in Google.

    Paul

    Comment by Administrator — May 16, 2007 #

  3. Thanks Paul but I republished my Yahoo store order settings and then retried on Google several times but no success. I keep getting the same error message.
    Thanks,
    Harold

    Comment by Harold Poliskin — May 16, 2007 #

  4. Harold,

    Hard problem to find but easy to fix. In copying your verification file name you added a space to the end. The space has been removed and your verification file should now be found by Google when you verify with them.

    Paul

    Comment by Administrator — May 17, 2007 #

  5. It works – Thanks Paul! Great customer service by you!!! Sorry I didn’t catch that extra space!

    Comment by Harold Poliskin — May 17, 2007 #

  6. I can’t stress enough the importance of a site map. This is a great tool, thanks!

    Comment by Business Financing Guru — March 2, 2008 #

Leave a comment

XHTML: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

Disclaimer and Reminder. The opinions expressed here are not necessarily the opinions of Yahoo! and we assume no responsibility for such content. Yahoo! may, in our sole discretion, remove comments that are off topic, inappropriate or otherwise violate our Terms of Service. Please do not post any private information unless you want it to be available publicly and never assume that you are completely anonymous and cannot be identified by your comments.

Copyright © 2006 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy - Terms of Service

Powered by WordPress on Yahoo! Web Hosting.
Copyright © 2006 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy - Terms of Service