Google Webmaster Tools - the lowdown
By Walt on Thursday, November 29 2007, 11:45 - Technical info - Permalink
Firstly, sorry for going quiet on you in the forum with regards to some requests. The truth is we have been listening but we've been busy over the last few weeks discussing what we could offer, how it would be presented and when we would find time to develop it. So in answer to your many questions about Google Webmaster tools on Moonfruit, please read on...
From what we hear (on the forum) the main requests are for Google Verify and Google Sitemaps. Let's look at them one at a time.
Google Verify Just to be clear, site verification is a process that Google uses to ensure that only site owners can see detailed diagnostics, statistics and other information. It is worth also noting that Verification doesn't affect Page Rank or improve your site's performance in Google's search results. This is from the horse's mouth.
What we currently offer: Google Analytics, which is the statistics element you would be using to monitor your site stats once verification is enabled. Analytics allows you to find out where your visitors come from and how they interact with your site.
What we are looking to implement: We've already started looking at how we can enable Verify on users' sites. Inserting the meta tag which Google provide may be the best solution for us and the quickest for you. We're looking at doing this at the moment, so if you're lucky you may find it in your Xmas stockings.
Google SiteMaps When it comes to Sitemaps you have a choice of generating different types of files which can then be submitted or uploaded to Google or Yahoo or having some code included in your site which is read by the various search engines. Simply put, a sitemap using the Sitemap Protocol is an XML file that lists URLs (unique pages) for a site. It also permits the inclusion of additional information about each URL (when it was last updated; how often it changes; how important it is in relation to other URLs in your site) so that search engines can more intelligently crawl the site.
What we currently do: We render all the content (publicly available on your site) into the HTML for each page so that they can be read by the search engines along with page title, links, meta keywords and meta description for those pages.
What we are looking to implement: We are currently working on using the Sitemap Protocol to publish a sitemap for each site so that every page URL (that you wish displayed) is listed for not just Google to crawl and index, but Yahoo and any other search engine that will read this widely accepted protocol.
This is being worked on at present although we make no promises about Xmas stockings. But, you never know!
Comments
That really is fantastic news. It will no doubt make a huge impact on the success of any moonfruit site (if used to its full potential) and therefore indirectly impact the financial success of Monnfruit. Good work and thanks for listening.
(Ps. Finally, the chance of a christmas present that I actually want.... Sad huh)
This is HUGE.
Probably one of the finest ideas I've seen here.
Now just to push that Title-Tage character limit up to 65-70
Thanks for the hard work guys
Jeff
This would solve sooooo many problems, and moonfruit will then be PERFECT.
I love moonfruit, I find its easy to use and I love the effect, but moonfruit and google combined....... at the moment its rubbish. So I am looking forward to hearing you have made some changes. Thanks for listening.
I wasn't sure where to put this for a wish list but it is related to Google AdSense. If you take a look at the blog I use to promote my Moonfruit site: http://thirsty13.vox.com/
You will see a few of the YouTube/AdSense custom players I put up. If you are not familiar, they allow you to run randomly generated content from YouTube that relates to your site (you pick the subjects or channels) and then they run ads across the bottom and top of the player. Since Moonfruit works with both YouTube and Google AdSense, is there any chance we could be able to use something like this in the future? The issue might be the HTML code that is needed to embed the player on sites.
Thanks!
you legends keep working hard! Sam
If you missed the 'New release' article by Joe, you'll find we have now provided all users with the ability to use Google Verify and we also now publish a sitemap for your website. More details will follow shortly (another blog) on how to set up Verify and how to check for the sitemap file.
At This current time, Google Webmaster is telling me i dont have a sitemap, Is there a way for me to do this yet?
Hi Express Tech,
It is automatically published to an .xml file that all search engines will read. Although you may have to tell them to look for that file as sitemaps can be published in many different ways.
If you've gone to Google's Webmaster tools home page then just ensure you have done the following:
1. clicked 'Add' against your website
2. choosen the 'Add General Web Sitemap' option from the drop down
3. added 'sitemap.xml' into the blank field that is placed at the end of your sitename
4. click on the 'Add General Web Sitemap' button
You will now see a 'Pending' message. As with all search engines it may take time for them to spider or index your site.
You can see your sitemap by copying this address into your web browser: http://expresstechnologyllc.t83.net...
So give it time and check it again every week or so and if necessary, just return to this page and resubmit your sitemap to Google using the button provided. You will find that eventually the search engines will revisit your site and pick up the sitemap.
Good luck, and Merry Christmas.