I’ve just come back from Digiweb’s Online Edge Seminar, where Damien Mulley raised something interesting about how often Google indexed his blog content, around 15 minutes after content was published, Google was live and on the scene indexing Damien’s latest posts.
Damien blogs often, many times a day, so knowing that his content is indexed so often allows him to be able to respond very quickly to topical issues (Something I’m sure he takes advantage of), but this can also be useful for sites that are indexed at a slower rate. By knowing the frequency of Googlebot’s visit, you can make an informed decision to push out content.
An example of this may be a Press Release or News Item on your website, if your site is being indexed at a slower rate, say every 7 days, getting that fresh content out before Googlebot can be hugely important to see it being returned in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages)
Of course creating fresh and interesting content, will mean Googlebot likes you and will come back more often, like a freeloader to a beer sampling party.
Measuring when Googlebot comes, and it’s frequency is possible by analysing your web logs, or a much easier method (and more productive) is by creating a sitemap and uploading it for use with Google Webmaster Tools
A sitemap allows you to tell Google when you have new content, and creates a readable file containing links and information about the pages on your site.
Creating sitemap files, ensures Google knows all about what pages are on your site, with Webmaster Tools, you can also see lots of other cool information about your website.
Using these bits of information can give you a better insight into how Google views your site, and after all isn’t that what it’s all about?
