How Do You Get Your Website Noticed on Google?

You want to get your website listed in Google. You want to do SEO on your website to get more traffic. And you have tried submitting your website's URL to Google's "Submit A URL" feature again and again to no avail. And you are frustrated because after months of waiting, your website is still not indexed by Google. Actually, getting your website listed on Google isn't difficult at all. We will tell you what your SEO consultant wouldn't. It is very simple: all you need to is to set up an XML sitemap and submit it to Google's Webmaster Tools.

If that sounds too deep for you, not to worry. I shall not list out the steps you need to do so that this is going to be as painless as possible. First of all, we need to assume the following:

1. You already have a website (this is really a no-brainer).

2. You also have FTP access to your web hosting account.

Right, we are all set now. Google for a website with the search terms "xml sitemaps". The first link in the search results will be the one you want to click on. The website is called "XML Sitemaps Generator". This website will generate a free sitemap of your website for you. The first 500 pages will be free of charge and since most websites fall well within this stipulation, you should be fine. In the event that you have more than 500 pages of content, then all they ask is a modest fee to get you going. At this website, all you have to do is to fill in your website's URL. Ignore the rest of the options there and click the "Start" button. Within a minute or two, you should be given a number of files to download. Select the first listed file to download. It would be the "Uncompressed XML Sitemap". Save that file in your computer.

Then, fire up your FTP software and do a FTP transfer of this file to your website. It should be hosted in the root directory of your website hosting account. Usually, the root account is "www" or "htdocs". If unsure, please contact your web host. Ensure that your XML sitemap is publicly viewable.

Next, go set up a Google Webmaster Tools account if you do not have one at this location: http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/. After you have set up your account, you will have to add your website's URL in this account. As a security measure, it will ask you to verify your website using one of 4 measures:

If you are new to this, select the radio button for "Upload an HTML...." That is the simplest option. All you need to do is to upload the resulting HTML file to the root directory of your website (the same as sitemap you submitted to). Once that is done, click "Verify" inside your Google Webmasters Tools account. Once that is done, click on your website link that will be listed on the resulting page. Then click the link "Site Configuration" located in the left navigation bar to expand the selection. Click on "Sitemaps". In the resulting page, click "Submit a Sitemap", key in the URL where your sitemap was uploaded to and voila!, your sitemap is submitted. Within a few days, sometimes in as little as a few hours, your website will be indexed by Google.