More value has been given to the ownership and authentication of domains as of late. Just a few years ago and a basic HTML sitemap would have been substantial enough to keep the search engines happy. Times have changed and with it comes the era of XML valid sitemaps. I always create a XML sitemap for clients, doing this helps the search engines identify pages within the website that perhaps have endured indexing issues.

So what do I do with my sitemap once its uploaded?

Once your shiny new sitemap is live and uploaded to your root directory of your website you need to let the big boys know where it is. Google, Yahoo and MSN all have their own form of a “webmaster console”. This console is an area where you submit your sitemap to each search engine, you will also need to add a random HTML file or add a line of Meta data to your index page – this is just a bit of protection against people trying to hack your data – it validates that you own the domain.

Once your sitemap is submitted and you have validated that you are the rightful owner of your domain you are open to a world of knowledge about your domain and its performance. Each console has varying features, undoubtedly Google offers the most (as you would expect) but each is useful in its own way.

The locations to each console can be found here:

Google - http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools
Yahoo - http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com
MSN - http://webmaster.live.com/webmaster

For a more detailed explanation of sitemaps visit Google’s page: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=34654

If you are lazy and want a sitemap created automatically then visit this site: http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/

Well it has to be said Google has been anything but predictable regarding Page Rank updates in 2008, having 2 already in 2008. Check your own page rank at Dig Page Rank to see the numerous datacenters are behaving abnormally. I detected this activity before the last PR update, which I was quick to blog about. This could be however a Google link update, the same activity happens then also - Either way, an update is happening.

If you want to find out some more information about Page Rank then visit Google’s Page Rank page to learn a bit more.

Sorry to everyone that reads SeoUnique for the delay in the next post, I have just been so busy with new clients and proposals. In fact creating so many new proposals for clients got me thinking about this blog post.

How do you market SEO?

Depending on the brief or tender it does require a certain level of individuality per client. However in a meeting earlier today my boss gave me this word “appetite” to play with, and to a point I think it is important when trying to sell SEO as a marketing channel.

What has SEO got to do with as an appetite?

Well, how hungry are you clients for success? As many of you will know, a tender or brief can come in at different stages of a build; it could be the initial setup, possibly the client has tried some SEO in the past and now has a taste, or perhaps the client has never heard of SEO before until they read about in the latest edition of “How to be successful online”.

Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that by creating a proposal that describes SEO as a way of filling up the clients hunger for success can be an effective way to bridge the understanding as to the methods involved in such a marketing technique.

Take their needs as an appetite and give them levels of satisfaction with a price!

Checking on a late Saturday night I have seen that Google UK have officially tried to go “green” by going black. Some of you may remember Google black a while ago created by persons outside Google. On the homepage of Google they have called it “Earth Hour” to help increase awareness to the environment.

In all fairness they have specified that by turning the pixels black it does not lower power consumption but the idea is nice if a year behind the original idea.

I have been contacted by an AOL source who has just informed me that AOL is just about to close a deal whereby they will take possession of Social networking site Bebo with their 40 million worldwide memberships!

AOL plan to reclaim their leading position in social media which will help their overall online strategic position. AOL value Bebo as a “true pioneer of the social web” as it’s the leading social network in the UK, as well as being ranked No. 1 in Ireland and New Zealand and No. 3 in the US. They plan to enlarge their current visibility to a staggering 80 million unique users worldwide which few other social networks can reach.

This move by AOL is a rapid international expansion and will surely make the other major players in the industry take notice.

Remember you heard it here first!

• I did get this info before the official release by email
• The total price is around $850 million dollars