Thread: New-bee needing help with all that Google has to offer

Good morning my new friends, I have been with BlueVoda for several weeks now and I managed to get my web page all done. (Yes, I'm slow) Anyway, I've tried asking for help via a support ticket and got no results there so now I decided to seek out fellow webbies. Has anyone added any of Googles, webmater tools? They sound great and I would love to take advantage of all they have to offer but am having a dickins of a time with the sitemaps. Anyone with know how out there, please respond and i will go into more detail of what I need help with. Thanks ever so much, looking forwrd to "pickin" your brain, thanks, Chris

Why not use the built in sitemap maker in blue voda? It will even upload it to your website for you. Then you simply provide a very discrete text link to sitemap.xml on your index page.
(TOOLS - Sitemap)

Good morning David, I have used BV Sitemap. I've published it and have no problems with it. But I'm trying to get noticed by Google and in order for them to see me, I need to put their info into my page. Which I have done, (at least I thought I did) but for some reason, google is picking up 3page errors out 5 pages. That is what I don't understand. How to fix that part

A link to your site, and specific error information would be needed in order to give you any sort of answer.

Karen

Good morning again, I've read the above advice, I've read 100's of other messages. And either I'm dumb as a rug, or I'm doing something wrong over and over again. This time, I compleatly deleted my Google account and started all fresh and new. I did what David said above, just use BV Sitemaps. Then upon finishing, clicked on BV link to send it to Google. Went to bed as it was the wee hours, woke up this morning and now all my pages have errors. At least yesterday, 2 out of 5 were good. All I'm finding in any Google information is ....this does that, and you can do this, But it doesn't tell you how to do it or where to put these HML codes into your BV pages. OH PLEASE, I'm really stuck. I'm sure it's not that difficult, it's just I CAN'T figure it out. Thanks, Chris

Chris,

Yes Google webmaster tools are a must...that answers your first question.

As for your sitemap.

1) You are not telling us what the errors are????

2) You are still not giving us any url's as requested by Karen above


We are not psychic.... Help US to help YOU!

I am so sorry, here is the info I think you need:
https://Oaktreasures.com
and this is what is says when I click on the word errors:
Sitemap summary

Most sites will not have all of their pages indexed.
Improve how Google crawls and indexes your site. More information.
Property Status Sitemap type Web Format – Submitted 16 hours ago Last downloaded by Google 16 hours ago Status Errors Total URLs in Sitemap 0 Indexed URLs in Sitemap Help –
Sitemap errors and warnings


Line Status Details - Unsupported file format
Your Sitemap does not appear to be in a supported format. Please ensure it meets our Sitemap guidelines and resubmit. Help Problem detected on: Jan 16, 2009what I think I did wrong was, not know what to put where in my website page. That's where I'm having the trouble

Ok, follow these simple rules

Open up your index page in BV. Open up the HTML properties box and put this code in the tab that says 'between head tags'

<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="ROR" href="sitemap.xml" />

Do NOT put a link to your sitemap anywhere on your website. The above code will ensure the SE's see your sitemap.

Make sure the box is ticked in BV to create a sitemap. Make sure your full address is in the url field including http://www.

Publish your website again.

Resubmit your sitemap to Google.

Make sure when you resubmit your sitemap to Google the address at the end of your url is /sitemap.xml

OK, I've pasted your reply below and I have a few questions if you don't mind:

Open up your index page in BV. Open up the HTML properties box and put this code in the tab that says 'between head tags' Went there

<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="ROR" href="sitemap.xml" /> DID THAT

Do NOT put a link to your sitemap anywhere on your website. The above code will ensure the SE's see your sitemap. Understand that

Make sure the box is ticked in BV to create a sitemap. This stumps me, what is ticked? Make sure your full address is in the url field including http://www. I set up my google account with http://Oaktreasures.com , not www Is that ok?

Publish your website again. did that

Resubmit your sitemap to Google. did that, now it's pending

Make sure when you resubmit your sitemap to Google the address at the end of your url is /sitemap.xml when I do that, I get a error 404 s

My mistake, there is no tick box! Been a long time that I used BV

Get used to the fact that your website address starts with www.


Your home address starts with a number and a street name, well this is the same thing. Give people your FULL address always.

Google DO read www.oaktreasures.com and oaktreasures.com differently.

You are ok setting up the domain as that in webmaster tools, but somewhere in there is an option for Google to read all domains with or without the www as the full address. I think it's in your settings somewhere. Make sure you do this!


http://www.oaktreasures.com/sitemap.xml where's the errors?

I've resubbmitted everything and this is what the page says:
My Sitemaps


1 – 6 of 6

Filename Format Last Downloaded Status URLs submitted
/sitemap.xml
-- -- Pending -- Details aboutus.html
-- 14 minutes ago Errors -- Details contactus.html
-- 12 minutes ago Errors -- Details index.html
-- 16 minutes ago Errors -- Details ourcreations.html
-- 37 minutes ago Pending -- Details pricing.html
-- 14 minutes ago Errors -- DetailsI don't have access to add the www on this page
and the errors are saying the same:Unsupported file format
I am so ready to give up. There is no way it can be this difficult

To be honest, your site isn't big enough to warrant a sitemap anyway.

Your best bet is to put a navigation to all your pages in TEXT format not buttons on the bottom of your website. That way google and other SE's will use that for their sitemap

ok thank you for all that you tried to help me with

You're welcome

Simple is nice, simple is kind, simple is great..................

All I ever do is to create my sitemap in bluevoda
bluvoda uploads sitemap.xml to my public_html directory.

I then provide a discrete text link on my index page to:
http://mybluevodaspace.com/sitemap.xml
and thats it...............Whenever I make a post here, google picks up my site from my signature or any url that I may have posted.

In two or three days, I checkout google and my post with my website address is there................so no need to advise google.
(it dosn't hurt to do so though, if you want the hassle)

David.

If you put

<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="ROR" href="sitemap.xml" />

inbetween head tags, this eliminates 'Discreet' links to sitemaps

Good tip Ramsey.............I almost, but not quite, missed it.

It just saves having to disguise it or put it somewhere discreet... this way it's not to be seen at all, so no prying eyes.