As a blogger or website owner your probably already realise that XML sitemaps are a vital tool in increasing your site’s profile.
But here at OmniBlog we’ve just learned a valuable lesson in just how important they are – the hard way!
We use – and are happy to recommend – a WordPress plugin called Google XML Sitemaps, developed by Arne Brachhold, which not only automatically updates your sitemap whenever you update your site, but also send the new information direct to Google and other leading search engines.
A few weeks ago we were alarmed to see our daily visitor rates to OmniFootball plummet by nearly 70%!
We couldn’t work out why, after all we were adding sites faster than ever, until we realised that the Google XML Sitemap plugin had stopped working due to a glitch in our site.
Well, having restored the sitemap to its full potential again, we are happy to report that visitors and pageviews are back up to their normal levels. An important lesson learned in the value of an up-to-date XML file we felt we should pass on.
We’re also passing on the news that UK memorial website Lasting Tribute has just launched a range of blog content widgets and are offering free links on their site to any blogs who take up the offer. Free content and a link from a site with a decent Page Rank. Worth checking out.
