If you have been on the Internet for any more than a minute you probably have a pretty good idea that Google is the monster of all search engines and can drive you tons of targeted traffic for free (and free traffic is definitely the best kind ;-)
With that said, Google is constantly coming out with new tools for us marketers to take advantage of and the one I want to address today is "Google Sitemaps". I want to answer two important questions about Google Sitemaps that I am constantly getting:
Question #1: Will Sitemaps help increase my rankings?
Answer #1: Now, I get this question all the time and the only logical answer I can come up with is YES! Chances are pretty darn good that if Google releases something and you use it, it could only help, not hinder, your rankings! (Remember Blogger.com... yup, the fastest blog sites to get listed in Google! Go figure!)
Question #2: What exactly does a Google Sitemap do?
Answer #2: Well here it is... any time you add new content to your site or your blog, you're going to want Google to include the most up-to-date version in its listings. In the past, this meant waiting for Google to index your site all over again... but since Google runs on its own agenda that could be next week... or next month... or next year. You never knew and it was extremely frustrating.
But finally Google has solved this problem with Google Sitemaps!
By using Sitemaps you can proactively tell Google every time you update your site so Google knows exactly when they need to come back and reindex it. And best of all, it's free!
Think of it as sending Google an invitation to visit your site every time you change it and add new information. This is particularly useful for blogs or other newsy web sites that are updated regularly.
Through Sitemaps you will get:
Up-to-date search results presented to your target market, so they can access the very latest information on your site.
In-depth reports that show you which pages Google has visited and when, so you can make sure they index all your most important content.
Here's a quick five-step guide to walk you through the process of getting your site registered with Google Sitemaps, so you can start using it right away.
Go to Google's "Add URL" page to submit your site, if you haven't already done so. (You can find it at: http://www.google.com/addurl.)
Check to see if Google has indexed your site by typing "cache:http://Your Web Site" into your browser's search bar and hitting "Enter." A saved version of your web page will appear, along with the date and time that Google last visited it.
(For example, if I wanted to see when Google last visited our site's homepage, I'd enter the following: "cache:http://www.marketingtips.com")
Go to Google Sitemaps and sign up for an account. Then follow their instructions to add your site or sites to your new account.
Once you've submitted your site to http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps, there's a very quick and easy process you can use to resubmit our site to Google every time you add new content. Simply take the following URL and customize it by adding your URL to the end of it: www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/ping?sitemap=http://%3A%2F%2F For example, if I were doing this for our main site, the customized URL would look like this:
Paste the customized URL into your browser's address bar and press "Enter." Then save that URL in your favorites or bookmark folder and simply click on that bookmark every time you update your web site or blog.
And that's it! Once you've got your web site submitted, you can check how often Google drops by to index your pages. You can even see which pages Google is visiting to make sure they're all getting indexed. This will help you drive more traffic to your site from Google.
If you've ever experienced the frustration of waiting for Google to index your site, you're going to love jumping ahead of your competitors and getting your listings updated right away with Google Sitemaps!
Precisely how much sleep you should be getting each night will depend very much on both your age and your state of health. However sleep is not only a question of the time which you spend sleeping, but is also very much a question of the quality of that sleep. Thus, if you are enjoying the right amount of sleep and are waking up in the morning feeling tired and going through your day unable to concentrate fully, and perhaps being a bit irritable, then it is entirely possible that you are not enjoying enough deep sleep and could well be suffering from insomnia.
When it comes to age, newborn babies obviously need the most sleep and will usually sleep in cycles of approximately four hours, waking up when it is time to be fed and changed. On average, a newborn baby needs somewhere in the region of fourteen to sixteen hours sleep each day.
By the time babies get to the age of approximately four to six months they should be sleeping right through the night and will start to spend longer periods awake during the day when they will start to take more interest in what is going on around them and start to play. At this point their requirementneed for sleep will fall somewhat, but they will still require anywhere from about ten to fourteen hours sleep every day.
Surprisingly older children and even teenage children should also be enjoying a similar amount of sleep and ten hours sleep every day for children in general is not a bad figure to aim for.
For some years it has been said that children, and particularly teenagers, who sleep for more than about eight hours each day are simply lazy, however this is in fact not true. Bearing in mind the level of activity which the majority of children are involved in each day, both at school and in their spare time, and that their bodies are growing and changing rapidly, there is a very real requirement for more than the traditional eight hours sleep if they are to enjoy the best possible conditions for development.
For the majority of adults approximately eight to eight and a half hours sleep each night is about right and should be enough to permit the body to recharge its batteries and have you alert and refreshed every morning.
Another myth is that as we get older we need more sleep. Once again this is not true, unless there are also accompanying health problems, in which case additional sleep may be needed. A tendency for older peple to nap during the day is generally taken as a signal that they require more sleep but in reality a daytime nap is almost always offset by less sleep at night.
One exception in the case of adults is that of pregnant women, who should generally increase their sleep during pregnancy by approximately two or three hours.
The test of whether you are enjoying enough sleep is a fairly simple one and consists of merely judging whether you feel refreshed when you get out of bed in the morning and are able to function normally and focus on things during the day. If you find that you are not able to focus or doze off during the day then you are probably not enjoying enough sleep.
Missing out on a few hours of sleep here and there will not do you any harm but if you find that you are frequently falling short on sleep then this can have serious consequences. We all suffer from the occasional insomnia, but insomnia which carries on for more than about a month or six weeks can have a marked affect on your health and general quality of life.
Both John Navata & Donald Saunders are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
John Navata has sinced written about articles on various topics from Advertising Guide, Web Development and Affiliate Programs. John Navata specializes in teaching people how to start profitable internet businesses that make $100,000 and higher. To get insstant access to all his most profitable marketing campaigns, strategies, tools, and resources that he used to grow $25 into $1. John Navata's top article generates over 14800 views. to your Favourites.
Donald Saunders has sinced written about articles on various topics from Health Insurance, Forex Training and Diabetes Treatment. Help-Me-To-Sleep.com looks at various sleep disorders and covers everything from finding a to coping with. Donald Saunders's top article generates over 165000 views. to your Favourites.