GoogleBots - how they work?

[RedSofa]

I have recently added a .xml site map to my site in an attempt to help SEO, this was submitted to Google through their webmaster tools.

However they have reindexed the site, but only found some of the pages, therefore they don't recognise all of the pages. Is this normal, or could this be due to an error on the site/sitemap?

Not sure whether this is built up over time, but this did not happen before the sitemap!

Any help would be appreciated.

Regards

RedSofa

 

[mattk]

How many pages do you have on your site that you think should be indexed? It's also worth getting an HTML sitemap that is visable to your users (and search engines) to ensure full indexing.

 

[RedSofa]

mattk

We currently have 22 pages plus the sitemap page.

Site:www.redsofa.com returns a total of 12 pages?

So is a HTML sitemap better for SEO than the xml one?

Cheers

RedSofa

 

[mattk]

I wouldn't say better - just different. It's also helpful for users.

A sneaky way to get one of your inner pages indexed quickly is to submit it to a "News" site like Digg. Google loves Digg and will pick your page (and hopefully some pages around it) up in a day or so.

 

[RedSofa]

Top tip - I am going to go and digg the site now.

Cheers