What Does a Normal Sitemap Look Like?

The standard XML Sitemap entry looks something like the following:

<url>
 <loc>http://www.example.com/</loc>
 <lastmod>2011-09-07</lastmod>
 <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
 <priority>0.8</priority>
</url>

An entry like this will be created for each and every page of your site, whether it’s a normal page, a blog post or other custom content.

Adding Video Content to Your Sitemap

To add information about your videos, you will need to include, at a minimum, the video title, a description, a “play page URL” where the video can be viewed, a thumbnail URL and the raw video URL. Without that information, Google will be unable to present your videos in their search results.

This additional information can be added to an existing XML Sitemap, or in a new Sitemap file, whichever you choose.

What Does it Look Like?

The format of the additional video information is as follows:

<url>
 <loc>http://www.example.com/path-to-your-video</loc>
 <video:video>
    <video:thumbnail_loc>http://www.example.com/thumbnail-for-video.jpg
</video:thumbnail_loc>
    <video:title>Title of Your Video</video:title>
    <video:description>A description of your video</video:description>
    <video:content_loc>http://www.example.com/video-contents.flv
</video:content_loc>
    <video:player_loc allow_embed="yes" autoplay="ap=1">

http://www.example.com/videoplayer.swf?video=123</video:player_loc>

 </video:video>
</url>

There is a long list of additional tags that you can use but since these are the minimum required. You may include as much additional information as you like. For the complete list, you can read Google’s article on Creating a Video Sitemap.

How to Set Up a Video XML Sitemap for WordPress

Now that you know what a Video XML Sitemap is and what it looks like, how do you get one set up for your WordPress blog? We can recommend using the Google XML Sitemap for Videos plugin.

Using this plugin, it’s a simple two-step process to get you going.

The first step is installing the plugin. Once installed and activated you will find a “Video Sitemap” option under the Tools Menu in the WordPress admin area. Going to this page, you will find a button with the text “Generate Video Sitemap.” Clicking this will create the sitemap file.

The second step is informing Google about the new sitemap file. This is done using the Google Webmaster Tools. If you’re not already set up with the Google Webmaster Tools, signing up is free and provides you with lots of tools that you can use to better manage your search engine presence.

Once you get to the Webmaster Tools page, click on the “Site configuration” menu and then select “Sitemaps” under that. On that page, you will find a button labeled “Submit a Sitemap.” Clicking this allows you to enter the name of your sitemap file. Enter the value “sitemap-video.xml” and click on the Submit button. — That’s all there is to it.

XML sitemaps might not help with ranking, though they are part of our natural SEO services; however, they may help with getting content (the right content) indexed by the search engines. Setting up a Video XML Sitemap can get your video content indexed better by Google and the other search engines. And anything you can do to be indexed better by the search engines, is good SEO.

The days of content farms and low quality websites are coming to an end, thanks to a Google algorithm update known as Panda. It’s important to have a good understanding of Google Panda to ensure your website is not in danger of falling under Panda’s wrath.

The Origins of Panda

One of google’s employees named Navneet Panda was interested in improving the machine learning algorithms that computer scientists and programmers use to solve problems. His hard work helped produce a more sophisticated learning algorithm, able to crunch large inputs and outputs of data.

So What Does Panda Do?

Google Panda is based on the metrics from a group of people reviewing websites for quality. These reviewers, also known as “quality raters” would inform Google of the items they found positive on good websites as well as the negative items on bad websites. The accumulated data would then be crunched & analyzed by the machine learning algorithm so it can mimic the quality raters. Firms that offer SEO services may have additional feedback or research to share.

What Makes Panda Mad

• Panda is not a fan of sites that are skimpy on content. Websites like these usually have a low quantity of content above the fold. And don’t even think about adding pages just so you can post links? Get rid of them or add content.
• Similar or Duplicate Content is a big “no-no”. Every page on your website should have unique content, and focusing on a specific topic. Don’t try to outsmart Google Panda by slightly modifying keywords and content- this algorithm is very smart and tenacious.

In short, Google Panda and its recent updates are less about onpage optimization and more about quality and experience. Your website should be a place where viewers can obtain valuable information in a user-friendly manner. You should always be asking “is my website useful and enjoyable”. Take the time to understand these concepts, because if you don’t, an unhappy Mr. Panda will be knocking on your homepage.