February 2, 2012 – Google has just updated the Sitemaps Feature in Google Webmaster Tools.
Now, the latest version of Sitemap features a dashboard which displays the data separated into content types – web pages, images, video and news. It also features prominently the statistics from the Web, News and Videos.
Each of these content types will allow you to see how many items of each type were submitted to Google (if any), and for some content types, will allow you to see how many items have been indexed by Google. Sitemap errors and warnings are now also grouped.
Webmaster Tools engineer, Kamila Primke, discussed that with these improvements, the new Sitemaps page will now replace the Video Sitemaps Labs feature, which will be shut down.
Moreover, the updated Sitemaps page now also enables Search Engine Optimization Experts to test their sitemaps before they submit them. This is probably the best thing about the update as they can now upload one and test whether it has errors or warnings and then fix them before submitting it to Google.
According to Google, it will only take a few seconds for the test to come back with results as unlike an actual submission, testing does not submit your Sitemap to Google but only requires a live fetch by Googlebot as it only checks it for errors. This is good news for Search Engine Optimization Firms as they would easily know the errors at no time at all. But Google also tells webmasters to take note that the initial testing is not exhaustive and that not all errors or warnings will show up in the test, so they are advised to check Webmaster Tools after they’ve actually submitted their sitemap to make sure.
Moreover, for sitemap index files, Google had also aggregated errors and warnings from the child sitemaps that the sitemap index encloses, so users won’t have to click through each one at a time.
Likewise, the functionality of the delete button has changed as well. It will now remove the sitemap from Webmaster Tools from both your account and the accounts of the other owners of a site.
Posted by SEO Australia
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