Google Sitemaps
OK, Adam from Google give me a hard time at SES London because I bad mouthed Google Sitemaps. That’s fine, Matt gives me a hard time now and again, but Adam was very PRO Google Sitemaps. Which I can understand as he works for Google, but his arguments where very strong so I have tested sitemaps on two sites … 
one that’s banned and This one .. lets have a look and see what we can find ..
first the davidnaylor one
HTTP errors .. there are loads ( the site went through a redesign and we dropped stuff ) so far so good, If I really cared about this site I would 301 those 404 pages to the new pages, but I’m lazy and Google will find the new pages in the end anyway.. ( don’t care about link love that much, but a 301 would sort that too)
cool Query Stats ..
| Top search queries | Average top position | |
| 1. kinghost | 7 | |
| 2. buy viagra | 8 | |
| 3. irankicks | 8 | |
| 4. daven | 3 | |
| 5. hahahaha | 9 |
HMMM they don’t seem right, but then is that historical data ??? I don’t know
I get to see the which page has the Highest Page rank.. funny not the one I thought but that’s cool.
OK the banned site….
No pages from your site are currently included in Google’s index. Indexing can take time. You may find it helpful to review our information for webmasters and webmaster guidelines .. ok that’s good ..
But wait a minute, Query stats show keywords and Positions.. but the site is banned??.. The PageRank of your pages in Google .. Is LOW shouldn’t it be NONE/white, not low.
So Overall I like sitemaps.. BUT if a Site is banned in Google, why not give me the Reinclusion request and not data? .. and where did that data come from?… how can I rank #1 for a keyword when the site is Banned !!
DaveN
Phantombookman 2530 days ago
The thing I thought was ridiculous when I looked at sitemaps was, it appeared you had to go to some third party to create a file, granted you could do it yourself if you knew how.
My assumption would be that G would build and supply all that is required for a product they are pushing.
Seems half baked to me
I just looked at it all after registering and thought ‘I can’t be arsed’
amanda 2530 days ago
What doesn’t seem right about your top search queries? I clicked on each of them and saw your site listed on the first page for almost all of those searches. Looks right to me…
Lea 2530 days ago
http://www.whatsmyip.com.auI really do think that Google’s biggest problem is that they have hired a bunch of academic geniuses without a lot of real world experience.
Come on, recently in the news here (down under) they picked up a guy from a Sydney University who had come up with a new engine algorithm. Lovely, but its typical of the rarified talent they hire.
Are they picking up experienced webmasters who know what works, to define their product needs? It really doesn’t look like it and a few Google product managers with on the ground experience might make the world of difference to you and I getting a tool that works in a useful fashion.
Could it really be that easy, or am I just daydreaming?
Adam Lasnik 2530 days ago
http://www.google.com/Hey, Dave, glad you checked out Sitemaps, and thanks for the feedback.
btw, there are services I’m very passionate about at Google and others that I’m less enthusiastic about. When I’m blathering on and visibly excited about something, you can bet it’s because I genuinely think it’s very cool and/or is on the way to being extremely cool
DaveN 2530 days ago
Lea, I think it’s Fair to say Adam As had “Real World Experience”, and Matt well he may not have had the “Real World Experience” but he knows and has been around Many that have.
DaveN
Xenith 2529 days ago
http://ben.wilks.net/I have had a very similar experience with SiteMaps, I thought it was funny that I had PR when the site was banned. Still some bugs Adam.
Benedetto 2529 days ago
http://www.alturawmc.it/blogHi,
sitemap is a cool tool but need to be improved, I mean maybe it’s a useful tool for who is not an experinced SEO or Webmaster.
I am using it on two sites and it’s not giving out any info that I wouldn’t know, would be nice if it would show all the backlinks and more updated info about query terms.
Joseph Hunkins 2526 days ago
http://joeduck.wordpress.comI also have a fun sitemaps thing thing with my old QuickAid Airport Directory which has been under some big downrank at Google for almost a year, and gets pretty much NO Google traffic anymore (probably duplicate content issues but it’s never been a great site so I can’t complain until I fix it up which is underway). Check out this sitemaps data, which may relate to the frames used at the site but still seems crazy:
1. hotels in new york 1
2. airport codes 1
3. ord 1
4. washington dc 1
5. international airports 1
6. hotels 1
7. ord ohare 1
8. chicago 1
9. houston airport 1
10. airport city codes 1
11. airport maps 1
12. charlotte nc airport 1
13. john wayne airport 1
14. orlando 1
15. las 1
16. airline codes 1
17. city codes 1
18. major airports 1
19. salt lake city airport parking 1
Ulrike 2521 days ago
http://www.finefoods24.comHad a funny experience with sitemaps. After registering, my pages got indexed but the sitemaps account didn’t show details until recently. Then, all of a sudden, all pages disappeared from the index and sitemaps said there are no pages indexed yet. Now I changed the sitemap files and I get the message no pages indexed but the stats from before, which where empty in between. I thought maybe my site got banned and that’s why I see the reinclusion link but after creating a new account with no sited added yet, the link is there too so in the end I have no idea if I got punished, banned or whatever. Googlebot is still a regular guest crawling through my pages.