Google Sitemaps Explained - How To Use Google Sitemaps
Author: Titus Hoskins
Three Ways To Index Your Site With Google Sitemaps [Difficult,
Hard, And Easy]
can create a Sitemap of their site and submit it for indexing by
Google. It is a quick and easy way for you to keep your site
constantly indexed and updated in Google.
The program is appropriately called Google Sitemaps.
In order for you to best use Sitemaps, you must have an XML
generated file on your site that will transmit or send any
updates, changes, and data to Google. XML (Extensible Markup
Language)is everywhere these days, you have probably seen the
orange XML logo on many web sites and its often associated with
Blogging because Blogs use XML/RSS feeds to syndicate their
content.
Today RSS is known mostly as 'Really Simple Syndication' but its
original acronym stood for 'Rich Site Summary'. XML is only
simple code like HTML and it is used to syndicate your content
to all interested parties.
And the interested party in this case is Google. By creating
Sitemaps, Google is really asking webmasters to take charge of
the indexing and updating of their sites. Basically, doing the
Googlebot's job!
This is a 'Good' thing! With the steady influx of new web sites
growing rapidly, indexing all this material will become a
challenge, even with the resources of Google. With Sitemaps,
websmasters can now take charge and make sure their site is
crawled and indexed.
Please note, indexing your site with Sitemaps WON'T improve your
rankings in Google. You will still be competing with the other
sites in Google for top positions. But with Sitemaps you can
make sure all your pages are crawled and indexed quickly by
Google.
There are some other big advantages of using Google's Sitemaps -
mainly you have control over a few key variables, attributes or
tags. To explain this as simply as possible, your XML powered
sitemap file will have this simple code for each page of your
site:
http://www.yoursite.com/ 1.0 2005-07-03T16:18:09+00:00 daily
Along with 'urlset' tags at the beginning and end of your code,
and an XML version indication - that's basically your XML file!
File size will depend on the number of webpages you have.
Taking a closer look at this XML file:
location - http://www.yoursite.com - name of your webpage
priority - you set the priority you want Google to place on that
page in your site. You can prioritize your pages: 0.0 being the
least, 1.0 being the highest, 0.5 is in the middle. This is ONLY
relative to your site. It will not affect your rankings. Why is
this important? You have certain pages on your site that are
more important than others, (home page, high profit page, opt-in
page, etc.) by placing high priority on these pages, you will
increase their importance in Google.
last modified - when you last modified that page, this timestamp
allows crawlers to avoid recrawling pages that haven't changed.
change frequency - you can tell Google how often you change that
particular page. Never, weekly, daily, hourly, and so on - if
you frequently update your page this could be extremely
important.
Why do I need a XML Generator?
In order for this XML sitemap file on your site to be constantly
updated, you need a Generator that will spider your site, list
all the urls and automatically feed them to Google. Thus
constantly updating your site in Google's massive index or
database. Keep in mind, Google also gives you the option of
submitting a simple text file with all your URLs.
Now there is already a flood of these generators popping up!
Different ways of generating your XML powered sitemap file. More
are probably appearing as you read this. For your convenience,
three ways to generate your XML Sitemaps file are listed below:
Difficult - Google's Python Generator
That's a relative term, if you know your server like the back of
your hand and installing scripts doesn't scare the bejesus out
of you, you're probably smiling at the word difficult. Google
supplies a link to a generator which you can download and set up
on your server. It will cough up your sitemap XML file and
automatically feed it to Google. Google XML Generator
https://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/docs/en/sitemap-
generator.html
In order for this Generator to work, Python version 2.2 must be
installed on your web server - many servers don't have this. If
you know what you're doing, this will probably be a good choice.
You don't need a Google Account to use Sitemaps but it's
encouraged because you can track your sitemap's progress and
view diagnostic information. If you already have another Google
Account gmail, Google Alerts, etc. just use that one to sign in
and follow directions from there.
To submit your Sitemap using an HTTP request, issue your request
to the following URL:
www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/ping?sitemap=sitemap_url
Hard - A PHP Code Generator
This is a php generator that you can place on your server. This
generator will spider your site, and produce your XML sitemap
file. Download the phpSitemapNG and upload it to your server.
Run the generator to get your XML sitemap file and send it to
Google. PHP Generator http://enarion.net/google/
Again, this is only hard to do if you don't know your way around
PHP files or scripts.
Easy - Free Online Generator
These Generators are popping up everywhere, and Google now keeps
a list of these 'third party suppliers' of generators on their
site. Find them here: http://code.google.com/sm_thirdparty.html
One of the easiest to use is http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/ and
you can index up to 500 pages with this online Generator very
quickly and it will give you the sitemap XML file Google needs
to index your site. It will go into your site, spider it and
index all your pages into an XML sitemap of your site. You can
download this file, Compressed or Non- compressed and make minor
changes such as setting the priority, changing frequency, etc.
Then upload this file to your site as sitemap.xml to the root
directory of your server i.e. where you have your homepage. Then
notify Google Sitemaps of your XML file and you're in business.
Of course, the only drawback, if you constantly add pages to
your site you will need to also add these pages to your XML
sitemap file. This won't be much of a problem unless you're
daily adding pages to your site - then you will need something
like the PHP or Python generator to do all this for you
automatically.
Google is still the major search engine on the web so getting
your pages indexed and updated quickly is the major reason to
use Google Sitemaps. If you want your site to remain competitive
it's probably the wisest route to take.
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Announcer Copyright © 2005 Titus Hoskins of Internet Marketing Tips.
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How do I make a parabola?
Hi there,
Im going to make a solar collector generator based on a parabolic mirror, focal point heat sink, and sterling engine connected to an electrical generator.
What would be the most cost effective way of creating a parabolic mould? Ive already stretched a baloon over a plant pot and created a gentle curve using a vacuum cleaner, and seems ok, but would it be creating a parabola?
Any other ways?
Making a Solar Powered Generator?
I know basically next to nothing about electronics, as im sure this is a fairly easy thing to construct if I had the faintest idea.
I know I need a solar panel (duh)
I know I need a power inverter to make the current ac
I know the batteries i need need to be deep cycle batteries…..is it possible to link these together? So that once one battery was full the solar panel would keep on filling the adjacent batteries? Is there a limit on how many batteries?
Also I have no idea how i would wire any of this up……
I know this is a very big question to answer, but any help is appreciated
Thanks
Also linking several panels together
solar powered generator help!?
I want to make a solar generator. I found a solar panel that is 12v and 5 watts. I have a deep cycle battery that is 12v. How much power in volts and watts would I have if i fully charged the battery with my solar panel. I am young and don’t know too much about this subject so keep it simple.
How would I make a high capacity Solar Generator?
I want to make a solar generator for my apartment. I’m aiming for something that can put out about 400-600 watts for 20 hours a day, everyday. I plan on running everything electric through this, and I know all about how most things don’t use electricity when they are off but I’m asking because most of my appliances are always on. I’m using an old refrigerator that is broken or something because it ALWAYS runs(and its not because the knob is turned all the way up or because I have the door open all the time cuz its not), my TV is on for about 20 hours while I watch CNN, play video games, or watch movies, fish tanks that use water pumps, lizard tanks that use heaters and lights, fans and 2 window air conditioners are running 24/7, you get the picture. For the last 2 bill cycles my electric bill was around $270 both times and I’m really trying to eliminate that.
I’m not looking for answers like “get a new refrigerator,” or “switch to energy efficient appliances,” I AM GOING TO BUILD THIS AND I NEED TO KNOW HOW.
The way I envision it, I imagine the solar panels hanging outside of the window catching some sun, a sort of box thing which makes all the magic between the solar panels and the battery and such distributing out all the electricity to my stuff, and me sitting safely around my house working or playing video games or what have you all the while basking in the free electricity with the help of the geniuses here on yahoo.
I kinda have the jist down, solar panels get wired in series to a deep cycle battery (or 2), but past there I’m blank. Regulators, inverters, wire and plug types I’m completely lost with.
So here are my questions:
1. What do I need to get (assuming I have nothing and please make this so a 5 year old could understand)
2. How would I put it all together
3. What could I do to make it so it doesn’t overload/blow up/kill me and burn down my apartment?
I have a somewhat shallow understanding of electricity, ohms, amps, volts, how alternators work and i know how to solder, but all this to me is like catching a lephrecaun, i know its out there but I don’t know how to connect it all.
Thanks for your help.
The gist of how a battery solar system works is as follows:
The solar panels generate DC power that goes into a charge controller. A charge controller manages the power going into the batteries to prevent them from over charging. An inverter converts the DC power from the batteries into AC power that you use from your outlets. There are breakers and various safety devices between all of these pieces, but that’s the general info.
If your electric bill is $270 a month, that’s got to be at least 60kwh a day, or 1800kwh a month (at 15 cents a kwh). Check how many kwh your bill is for to get an accurate estimate.
If my guess is right, to generate 100% of your power, you would need about 18,000 watts of panels, and another adjacent apartment to house all of the batteries. A 200W panel is about 5′ x 3′, do the math to figure out how much space you’ll need for 90 of them. My guess is about $200,000 for the system installed.
If you didn’t need a battery based system, and just used what you made during the day, and bought the rest from the electric company at night, you can get a much smaller system that just consists of the solar panels and the inverter and safety equipment.
If you just want to do a small percentage of your use, 600W for 20 hours a day as you said, that would be about 360kwh a month. Staying connected to the grid to buy the rest would eliminate the need for batteries. Depending where you are, a 3500W grid tied system would do about 1/5 of your use (again, if my first assumption was correct of 1800kwh). That would cost about $30,000 installed.
I know you don’t want to hear it, but for every $1 you spend conserving power, that $5 less you need to spend on solar. It costs much less to save power than to make it. Spend the money on a new fridge, CFL lights, timers to turn some stuff off; it’s a much better use of your money. Once you cut your use down, then you can look into solar.
Wow, this sounds like fun. I used to work with Solar projects for EPRI and NASA, so I can give you a few tips:
1. 5 watts is a pretty small panel. You don’t want to put it on a large battery (like a car or boat battery), or the battery’s tendency to discharge will happen faster than the cell can keep it charged! A battery for a kid’s scooter or car is probably about right (5 to 10 amp hr rating).
2. Even though your panel can deliver 5 watts peak, the actual power it will delivers varies with it’s angle to the sun, the weather, how clean the face is, and the length of the day. It’s not unusual to average only 1/5 to 1/7 of the output of the cell per day.
So, you can expect to get about 24 watt-hrs to 17 watt-hrs per day. That’s about 2 to 1.4 amp hours.
3. The batteries don’t charge perfectly, and they lose some charge just sitting around. Count on getting about 80% of the energy your putting in. So, count on having 1.6 to 1.12 amp hrs to power your gadgets for every day of charging.
You can run a small radio just about indefinitely on this, or a small brushless fan (about .1amp for about 11-16 hours), a small fluorescent lamp for maybe 4 hours, or even a small TV for maybe an hour.
Have Fun!
.
The first question to ask is how much power will be required. Sunlight has an average of 2 watts per cubic centemeter. Solar cells are only 10% efficient, so the cells will only generate 200 milliwatts per cubic centemeter. Roughly speaking, a pair of solar cells capable of running the average toaster would be about 2 by 4 feet.
Of course, this is why batteries are always a part of a solar array because it is easier to store electrical power and use it later. Batteries can either be connected in series or parallel. A series conncetion links the negative terminal of one battery to the positive terminal of the other. It is like a group of elephants marching along holding each other’s tail. The circuit is tapped by holding the trunk of the lead elephant and the tail of the last elephant. This circuit maximizes voltage. The other connection is a parallel connection. All the elephants hold trunks and their tails are tied together. This circuit is tapped by holding any elephant’s trunk and any elephant’s tail. Electrical engineers refer to the terminals as “rails”. The DC circuit will have a positive rail and a negative rail.
Next comes something loosely referred to as an inverter circuit. It changes the DC output from the batteries to 60 hertz AC current needed by most appliances. The AC output voltage is also fixed around 120 volts. Because of this, a parallel battery circuit might be the best choice of an input to the AC/DC inverter/converter. A parallel circuit has a voltage fixed at the maximum output of any single battery on the rail; the advantage is this circuit stores lots of current. It’s like pouring water out of a bucket connected to 10 other buckets. The bucket won’t drain until one has the equivalent of 10 bucket’s worth of water.
Therefore the trick is going to be finding an inverter which will produce 120 volt AC around 60 hertz. Just such a circuit is available in automotive shops. These are the sorts of things which allow campers to run AC appliances off their car battery. Inverters are very easy to get and also cheap. They are designed to run off a 12 volt source (current is not an issue here). Depending on your power requirements, 12 volt car batteries can be used, or smaller motorcycle batteries if space and weight are conciderations. Remember, the input voltage is going to have to be 12 V DC.
The major cost of this system is going to be the solar pannels. Solar technology is still rather crude and uncommon (READ: inefficient and expensive). Some distributors manufacture blanket style cells which lay on top of a a dashboard and charge a car battery. These would be perfect to use with an automotive inverter circuit. Just hook the solar pannel to the battery and the battery to the inverter. Sunlight will go in one end and AC current will emerge from the other. A DC voltmeter is going to be very helpful in determining the polarity of the DC hookup. This is going to be between the output of the solar cells and the input and output to/from the battery (batteries) and the input to the inverter. In fact the whole section up to this point is going to be a parallel connection. The positive terminal from the solar cell(s) will run directly to the positive terminal on the batteries and then on to the positive input terminal on the inverter. This is going to be the positive rail. All positive terminals of solar cells and batteries will be connected directly to this rail. The rail will then run to the positive input terminal of the inverter. Likewise, the negative rail will be connected exactly the same for all the negative terminals.
This is going to look somewhat like a ladder design, each rail will be opposetly charged (positive or negative) and all solar cells and batteries will be connected like the rungs on the ladder. The important thing is to get the polarity right. If the negative terminal of a barrety or solar cell is accidently connected to the positive rail, a short circuit will result. Depending on the power generated, it can be anything from a nusciance to a disaster. Always remember, electrical engineering is very much like chemistry – each is not something to get involved with if one does not know what they are doing!
Finally, I’m sure there are a number of formulas available which will allow one to calculate things such as how much power can be generated, how long the batteries will need to be charged and how long AC power can be tapped. If this circuit is hooked up correctly and works successfully, perhaps just taking notes on the preformance might be more entertaining – and accurate as well. Most scientific formulas are based on incredibly simple situations. As more elements are added to a design, the less reliable an approach based on pure calculations becomes.
Hope this helps. have fun and remember to be careful!
Take a dish filled with epoxy with a fairly long cure time (not 5 minutes). Get a variable speed – slow motor and create a platform on the shaft where the epoxy filled dish can rest.
Adjust the speed of the motor to create the “power” of the concave mirror you will create as the dish rotates. The rotating epoxy will assume the shape of a perfect parabola.