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I always assumed SEO was simply a buzzword that meant "using content that makes sense". Obviously it gets a little bit more complicated than that, using realistic search terms in header tags and things, but that was a far as it got.

I was speaking to someone today about this, and they said how there's a second aspect to web design. Submitting sitemaps to Google. A weekly sitemap submission to Google was a way to seriously boost rankings.

Is this true, and how can this process be automated?

Zistoloen
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  • What CMS do you use? –  Jun 03 '13 at 15:19
  • I use Worpdress –  Jun 03 '13 at 15:22
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    I dont think you need to submit sitemaps weekly or in X no of days. Submit it once and it will index all URLs. But this is not related to site rankings By submitting URLs your site just becomes visible to Google if it was not before – GoodSp33d Jun 04 '13 at 14:48
  • In addition to the below answers which are correct and up-voted, a sitemap is not required in terms of SEO. A sitemap is not required at all unless a website has a significantly complex and deep structure. – zigojacko Jun 09 '13 at 13:11

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Submitting a sitemap.xml to Google every week doesn't seriously boost rankings. If you want to know what are the best ways to increase rankings of your website, read this question.

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Zistoloen
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No, it is complete nonsense. Google will periodically re-download your sitemap so resubmitting it every week (especially if there is no new content) does nothing.

However, if you happen to add a lot of content at once then resubmitting may get it indexed more quickly. But a sitemap does not increase rankings at all.

DisgruntledGoat
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In your question's comments I see that you are using WordPress (notice the P) and that's great! Here's the list of plug-ins I would recommend (although that goes against the house rules, but I think this will help you and that's what matters).

Install these -

  • WordPress SEO by Joost De Valk
  • Google XML Sitemap for Images by Amit Agarwal
  • Google XML Sitemap for Videos by Amit Agarwal

Along with these, do install these -

  • Google Analytics for WordPress by Joost De Valk (assuming you are using Google Analytics, if not then please start now)

What these plug-ins would do is create separate sitemaps for your pages, posts, images and videos.

You need to then register on Google Webmaster Tools and Bing Webmaster Tools, add your site and submit these sitemaps.

Optional - You can take a look at the plug-in settings and fine tune certain things.

After which whenever you publish a post, you can see how well optimized your posts are for your target keywords.

Prasad Ajinkya
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