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  • Archive
    • 2021
      • February
        • New Association functionality added to Search Console
        • Join us at Search Central Live
        • Search Console Discover report now includes Chrome data
      • January
        • Introducing Google News performance report
        • Index Coverage Data Improvements
    • 2020
      • December
        • A weird year in review
        • An update on Structured Data Testing Tool
        • Updates to Search Console’s API
      • November
        • New and improved crawl stats for your site
        • We moved! Introducing the new home for the Google Webmasters blogs
        • Goodbye Google Webmasters, hello Google Search Central
        • Timing for bringing page experience to Google Search
        • PES@Home 2020: Google’s first virtual summit for Product Experts
      • October
        • Best practices for Black Friday and Cyber Monday pages
        • How can my pages appear on the search result page?
        • The Search Console Training lives on
      • September
        • New Schema.org support for retailer shipping data
        • New open source robots.txt projects
        • Googlebot will soon speak HTTP/2
        • Sharing what we learned on the first Virtual Webmaster Unconference
      • August
        • Make the licensing information for your images visible on Google Images
        • Options for retailers to control how their crawled product information appears on Google
        • Identify and fix AMP Signed Exchange errors in Search Console
        • Join our first Virtual Webmaster Unconference
        • Rich Results & Search Console Webmaster Conference Lightning Talk
        • Search Console API announcements
        • Search Off The Record podcast - behind the scenes with Search Relations
      • July
        • Prepare for mobile-first indexing (with a little extra time)
        • The Rich Results Test is out of beta
        • How spam reports are used at Google
      • June
        • Why are my pages not shown on the search result page?
        • How we fought Search spam on Google - Webspam Report 2019
      • May
        • Evaluating page experience for a better web
        • Hello Search Console. Nice to meet you!
        • Frequently asked questions about JavaScript and links
        • Google Translate’s Website Translator - available for non-commercial use
        • New reports for Guided Recipes on Assistant in Search Console
        • Reintroducing a community for Polish & Turkish Site Owners
        • New reports for Special Announcements in Search Console
      • April
        • Showcasing the value of SEO
        • Looking back at last year's Webmaster Conference Product Summit
        • Introducing a new way for sites to highlight COVID-19 announcements on Google Search
      • March
        • Helping health organizations make COVID-19 information more accessible
        • How to pause your business online in Google Search
        • New properties for virtual, postponed, and canceled events
        • Coronavirus (COVID-19) and Webmaster Conference
        • Announcing mobile first indexing for the whole web
      • February
        • Best Practices for News coverage with Search
        • More & better data export in Search Console
        • How to showcase your events on Google Search
        • New reports for review snippets in Search Console
      • January
        • Google Search News for January 2020
        • New Removals report in Search Console
        • Sunsetting support for data-vocabulary
        • Get Ready for New SameSite=None; Secure Cookie Settings
        • The Search Console Training video series is rolling out
    • 2019
      • December
        • An update on 2019
        • Launching a new Publisher Center
        • Package Tracking Early Access Program
        • Introducing the new Search Console messages
      • November
        • Google Search News for November 2019
        • New reporting for Products Results in Search Console
        • Get faster with the new Speed report in Search Console
      • October
        • Site Kit is now available for all WordPress sites
        • Google Webmaster Conference goes to Tel Aviv
        • Video Series for New Webmasters: Search for Beginners!
        • Goodbye, Flash
        • New reports for video results in Search Console
        • Updating the user agent of Googlebot
      • September
        • Join us at a Webmaster Conference in Mountain View, California
        • Google Search News: coming soon to a screen near you
        • More options to help websites preview their content on Google Search
        • Fresher data in your site’s Search Performance report
        • Making Review Rich Results more helpful
        • Evolving nofollow- new ways to identify the nature of links
        • Saying goodbye to the old Search Console
        • Introducing Auto-DNS verification in the new Search Console
      • August
        • Minor cleaning up in the Search Console API
        • You #AskGoogleWebmasters, we answer
        • When indexing goes wrong: how Google Search recovered from indexing issues & lessons learned since.
        • Googlebot evergreen rendering in our testing tools
        • What webmasters should know about Google’s core updates
      • July
        • Helping publishers and users get more out of visual searches on Google Images with AMP
        • A note on unsupported rules in robots.txt
        • Google's robots.txt parser is now open source
        • Formalizing the Robots Exclusion Protocol Specification
      • June
        • Bye Bye Preferred Domain setting
        • Webmaster Conference: an event made for you
        • A video series on SEO myths for web developers
      • May
        • Mobile-First Indexing by default for new domains
        • Search at Google I/O 2019
        • New in structured data: FAQ and How-to
        • The new evergreen Googlebot
        • Google I/O 2019 - What sessions should SEOs and webmasters watch?
        • Monitoring structured data with Search Console
      • April
        • Enriching Search Results Through Structured Data
        • Instant-loading AMP pages from your own domain
        • Search Console reporting for your site's Discover performance data
        • User experience improvements with page speed in mobile search
      • March
        • How to discover & suggest Google-selected canonical URLs for your pages
        • This year in Search Spam - Webspam report 2018
        • Help Google Search know the best date for your web page
        • Introducing a new JavaScript SEO video series
      • February
        • Announcing domain-wide data in Search Console
        • Help customers discover your products on Google
        • Consolidating your website traffic on canonical URLs
      • January
        • Dynamic Rendering with Rendertron
        • Focusing on the new Search Console
        • Ways to succeed in Google News
        • An update on the Google Webmaster Central blog comments
    • 2018
      • December
        • 2018, celebrating our global Webmaster community
        • Mobile-First indexing, structured data, images, and your site
        • Why & how to secure your website with the HTTPS protocol
        • Introducing the Indexing API and structured data for livestreams
        • Rich Results expands for Question & Answer pages
      • November
        • PageSpeed Insights, now powered by Lighthouse
        • Notifying users of unclear subscription pages
      • October
        • Introducing reCAPTCHA v3: the new way to stop bots
        • Google is introducing its Product Experts Program!
      • September
        • The new Search Console is graduating out of Beta
      • August
        • Collaboration and user management in the new Search Console
        • Links, Mobile Usability, and site management in the new Search Console
      • July
        • Hey Google, what's the latest news?
        • An update to referral source URLs for Google Images
      • June
        • How we fought webspam - Webspam Report 2017
        • Introducing the Indexing API for job posting URLs
        • New URL inspection tool & more in Search Console
        • Google Search at I/O 2018
      • May
        • Our goal: helping webmasters and content creators
        • Google I/O 2018 - What sessions should SEOs and Webmasters watch live ?
        • Send your recipes to the Google Assistant
      • April
        • We updated our job posting guidelines
        • Distrust of the Symantec PKI: Immediate action needed by site operators
      • March
        • Rolling out mobile-first indexing
        • Introducing the Webmaster Video Series, now in Hindi
      • February
        • How listening to our users helped us build a better Search Console
        • Launching SEO Audit category in Lighthouse Chrome extension
      • January
        • Using page speed in mobile search ranking
        • Real-world data in PageSpeed Insights
        • Introducing the new Search Console
    • 2017
      • December
        • Introducing the new Webmaster Video Series
        • Introducing Rich Results & the Rich Results Testing Tool
        • #NoHacked 3.0: Fixing common hack cases
        • Getting your site ready for mobile-first indexing
        • #NoHacked 3.0: Tips on prevention
        • A revamped SEO Starter Guide
        • #NoHacked 3.0: How do I know if my site is hacked?
        • Rendering AJAX-crawling pages
      • November
        • A reminder about event markup
        • Engaging users through high quality AMP pages
        • Make your site's complete jobs information accessible to job seekers
      • October
        • Enabling more high quality content for users
      • September
        • How to move from m-dot URLs to responsive site
      • August
        • Introducing Our New International Webmaster Blogs!
        • The new Search Console: a sneak peek at two experimental features
        • Badges on Image Search help users find what they really want
      • June
        • Connect to job seekers with Google Search
        • Making the Internet safer and faster: Introducing reCAPTCHA Android API
        • Better Snippets for your Users
      • May
        • A reminder about links in large-scale article campaigns
      • April
        • How we fought webspam - Webspam Report 2016
        • Similar items: Rich products feature on Google Image Search
      • March
        • Updates to the Google Safe Browsing’s Site Status Tool
        • #NoHacked: A year in review
      • February
        • Closing down for a day
      • January
        • Introducing the Mobile-Friendly Test API
        • Protect your site from user generated spam
        • What Crawl Budget Means for Googlebot
    • 2016
      • December
        • Enhancing property sets to cover more reports in Search Console
      • November
        • An update on Google's feature-phone crawling & indexing
        • Saying goodbye to Content Keywords
        • Rich Cards expands to more verticals
        • Building Indexable Progressive Web Apps
        • Mobile-first Indexing
        • Here’s to more HTTPS on the web!
      • October
        • Using AMP? Try our new webpage tester
      • September
        • Webmaster Forums Top AMP Questions
        • Penguin is now part of our core algorithm
        • 8 tips to AMPlify your clients
        • How to best evaluate issues with your Accelerated Mobile Pages
        • How can Google Search Console help you AMPlify your site?
        • How to get started with Accelerated Mobile Pages
        • What is AMP?
        • A reminder about widget links
        • Showcase your site’s reviews in Search
        • More Safe Browsing Help for Webmasters
      • August
        • Helping users easily access content on mobile
        • Promote your local businesses reviews with schema.org markup
        • AMP your content - A Preview of AMP'ed results in Search
      • June
        • More security notifications via Google Analytics
        • Search at I/O 16 Recap: Eight things you don't want to miss
      • May
        • Tie your sites together with property sets in Search Console
        • Introducing Rich Cards
        • A new mobile friendly testing tool
        • Deeper Integration of Search Console in Google Analytics
        • How we fought webspam in 2015
      • April
        • Helping webmasters re-secure their sites
        • No More Deceptive Download Buttons
      • March
        • Continuing to make the web more mobile friendly
        • Updating the smartphone user-agent of Googlebot
        • Best practices for bloggers reviewing free products they receive from companies
        • An update on the Webmaster Central Blog
        • AMP NewsLab Office Hours in your language
      • January
        • AMP error report preview in Search Console
        • New year, new look: Introducing our new Webmasters website
    • 2015
      • December
        • Indexing HTTPS pages by default
      • November
        • Updating Our Search Quality Rating Guidelines
        • TC Summit 2015: Celebrating our Webmaster Top Contributors!
      • October
        • Detect and get rid of unwanted sneaky mobile redirects
        • Deprecating our AJAX crawling scheme
        • An update on how we tackle hacked spam
      • September
        • First Click Free update
        • Helping hacked sites with reconsideration requests
        • Repeated violations of Webmaster Guidelines
        • Mobile-friendly web pages using app banners
      • August
        • An update on CSV download scripts
        • #NoHacked: Fixing the Injected Gibberish URL Hack
        • #NoHacked: Identifying and Diagnosing Injected Gibberish URL Hacking
        • #NoHacked: Using two-factor authentication to protect your site
        • Introducing the Search Analytics API
        • #NoHacked: How to recognise and protect yourself against social engineering
      • July
        • #NoHacked: How to avoid being the target of hackers
        • Update on the Autocomplete API
        • Google+: A case study on App Download Interstitials
        • Google's handling of new top level domains
      • May
        • App deep linking with goo.gl
        • Surfacing content from iOS apps in Google Search
        • Rolling out the red carpet for app owners in Search Console
        • Announcing Google Search Console - the new Webmaster Tools
        • More precise data in the new Search Analytics report
        • Five ways to grow your business this Small Business Week
      • April
        • Faster and lighter mobile web pages for Indonesia
        • #MobileMadness: a campaign to help you go mobile-friendly
        • FAQs about the April 21st mobile-friendly update
        • Rolling out the mobile-friendly update
        • Better presentation of URLs in search results
        • Drive app installs through App Indexing
      • March
        • Helping users fill out online forms
        • An update on doorway pages
        • Deprecation of the old Webmaster Tools API
        • Unblocking resources with Webmaster Tools
        • Easier website development with Web Components and JSON-LD
        • Safe Browsing and Google Analytics: Keeping More Users Safe, Together
      • February
        • Finding more mobile-friendly search results
        • Case Studies: Fixing Hacked Sites
      • January
        • Crawling and indexing of locale-adaptive pages
        • Upcoming Events In The Knowledge Graph
        • New Structured Data Testing Tool, documentation, and more
    • 2014
      • December
        • Google Public DNS and Location-Sensitive DNS Responses
        • The four steps to appiness
        • Are you a robot? Introducing No CAPTCHA reCAPTCHA
      • November
        • Helping users find mobile-friendly pages
      • October
        • Tracking mobile usability in Webmaster Tools
        • Updating our technical Webmaster Guidelines
        • Best practices for XML sitemaps & RSS/Atom feeds
        • Bring your local business online -- no website required!
      • September
        • An update to the Webmaster Tools API
        • Webmaster Academy now available in 22 languages
        • An improved search box within the search results
        • Optimizing for Bandwidth on Apache and Nginx
      • August
        • #NoHacked: a global campaign to spread hacking awareness
        • HTTPS as a ranking signal
        • Introducing the Google News Publisher Center
      • July
        • Testing robots.txt files made easier
        • Promoting modern websites for modern devices in Google search results
        • Troubleshooting hreflang annotations in Webmaster Tools
      • June
        • Android app indexing is now open for everyone!
        • Making site moves easier
        • Directing smartphone users to the page they actually wanted
      • May
        • App Indexing in more languages
        • Rendering pages with Fetch as Google
        • Understanding web pages better
        • Making your site more mobile-friendly with PageSpeed Insights
        • Creating the Right Homepage for your International Users
      • April
        • Webmaster Guidelines for sneaky redirects updated
        • Introducing our global Google+ page for webmasters
        • Surfacing your business's contact and local info in Google
        • App Indexing updates
      • March
        • More Precise Index Status Data for Your Site Variations
        • Introducing the new Webmaster Academy
        • App Engine IP Range Change Notice
        • Musical artists: your official tour dates in the Knowledge Graph
      • February
        • 3 tips to find hacking on your site, and ways to prevent and fix it
        • Infinite scroll search-friendly recommendations
        • Faceted navigation best (and 5 of the worst) practices
      • January
        • Affiliate programs and added value
        • A new Googlebot user-agent for crawling smartphone content
        • Changes in crawl error reporting for redirects
        • Google Publisher Plugin beta: Bringing our publisher products to WordPress
        • More detailed search queries in Webmaster Tools
        • Improved Search Queries stats for separate mobile sites
    • 2013
      • December
        • So long, 2013, and thanks for all the fish
        • Switching to the new website verification API
        • Improving URL removals on third-party sites
        • Structured Data dashboard: new markup error reports for easier debugging
        • Checklist and videos for mobile website improvement
        • Smartphone crawl errors in Webmaster Tools
      • November
        • Video: Creating a SEO strategy (with Webmaster Tools!)
      • October
        • Indexing apps just like websites
        • Easier recovery for hacked sites
      • September
        • Video: Expanding your site to more languages
        • Better backlink data for site owners
      • August
        • rel="author" frequently asked (advanced) questions
        • Making smartphone sites load fast
        • View manual webspam actions in Webmaster Tools
        • In-depth articles in search results
      • July
        • A reminder about manipulative or deceptive behavior
        • Easier navigation without GPS
      • June
        • Introducing website satisfaction by Google Consumer Surveys
        • Backlinks and reconsideration requests
        • Verify your site in Webmaster Tools using Google Tag Manager
        • Changes in rankings of smartphone search results
      • May
        • 6 Quick Tips for International Websites
        • Getting started with structured data
        • Using schema.org markup for organization logos
      • April
        • Introducing "x-default hreflang" for international landing pages
        • 5 common mistakes with rel=canonical
      • March
        • The Webmaster Academy goes international
        • A new opt-out tool
        • Easier management of website verifications
        • Making search-friendly mobile websites — now in 11 more languages
        • We created a first steps cheat sheet for friends & family
        • New first stop for hacked site recovery
      • February
        • A reminder about selling links that pass PageRank
        • Make the most of Search Queries in Webmaster Tools
      • January
        • A faster image search
    • 2012
      • December
        • Webmaster Tools verification strategies
        • Introducing Data Highlighter for event data
        • Helping Webmasters with Hacked Sites
      • November
        • Giving Tablet Users the Full-Sized Web
      • October
        • A new tool to disavow links
        • Make the web faster with mod_pagespeed, now out of Beta
        • Rich snippets guidelines
        • Google Webmaster Guidelines updated
        • Keeping you informed of critical website issues
      • September
        • Structured Data Testing Tool
        • Answering the top questions from government webmasters
      • August
        • Site Errors Breakdown
        • Search Queries Alerts in Webmaster Tools
        • Configuring URL Parameters in Webmaster Tools
        • Website testing & Google search
        • Domain verification using CNAME records
      • July
        • Introducing the Structured Data Dashboard
        • New notifications about inbound links
        • Behold Google index secrets, revealed!
        • On web semantics
        • New Crawl Error alerts from Webmaster Tools
      • June
        • Adding associates to manage your YouTube presence
        • SEO essentials for startups in under 10 minutes
        • Download to Google Spreadsheet from Webmaster Tools
        • For webmasters: Google+ and the +1 button 101
        • Recommendations for building smartphone-optimized websites
        • Easier domain verification
      • May
        • Now you can polish up Google’s translation of your website
        • Multilingual and multinational site annotations in Sitemaps
        • Introducing Webmaster Academy
        • Making more pages load instantly
        • Sorting and Filtering Results in Custom Search
        • Navigation, Dashboard and Home page
        • Coding guidelines for HTML and CSS
      • April
        • Responsive design – harnessing the power of media queries
        • Even more Top Search Queries data
        • 1000 Words About Images
        • How to move your content to a new location
        • Webmaster Tools spring cleaning
        • Another step to reward high-quality sites
        • Updates to rich snippets
      • March
        • Five common SEO mistakes (and six good ideas!)
        • Upcoming changes in Google’s HTTP Referrer
        • Video about pagination with rel="next" and rel="prev"
        • Crawl Errors: The Next Generation
        • Keeping your free hosting service valuable for searchers
        • Safely share access to your site in Webmaster Tools
      • February
        • Using schema.org markup for videos
        • Preparing your site for a traffic spike
      • January
        • More Options for Google+ Badges
        • What’s new with Sitemaps
        • Update to Top Search Queries data
        • Making form-filling faster, easier and smarter
        • Page layout algorithm improvement
        • Better page titles in search results
    • 2011
      • December
        • Download search queries data using Python
        • Website user research and testing on the cheap
        • Rich Snippets Instructional Videos
        • Introducing smartphone Googlebot-Mobile
        • Clicks and impressions for authors
        • Tips for hosting providers and webmasters
        • New markup for multilingual content
      • November
        • Grow your audience with Google+
        • GET, POST, and safely surfacing more of the web
      • October
        • Raising awareness of cross-domain URL selections
        • Accessing search query data for your sites
        • Create and manage Custom Search Engines from within Webmaster Tools
        • Webmaster forums' Top Contributors rock
        • Webmaster Tools Search Queries data is now available in Google Analytics
      • September
        • Work smarter, not harder, with site health
        • Pagination with rel="next" and rel="prev"
        • Reconsideration requests get more transparent
        • View-all in search results
        • Introducing: Application Rich Snippets
        • Îñţérñåţîöñåļîžåţîöñ
        • Recognizing Top Contributors in Google's Help Forums
        • PDFs in Google search results
      • August
        • Reorganizing internal vs. external backlinks
        • Google News now crawling with Googlebot
        • Making the most of improvements to the +1 button
        • Help us improve Google Search
        • A new rich snippets format for music
        • Introducing new and improved sitelinks
        • High-quality sites algorithm launched in additional languages
        • New webmaster tutorial videos
        • A new, improved form for reporting webspam
        • Submit URLs to Google with Fetch as Googlebot
      • July
        • Preview the latest +1 button changes
        • Page Speed Service - Web Performance, Delivered.
        • The +1 Button: Now Faster
        • Improved handling of URLs with parameters
        • Validation: measuring and tracking code quality
      • June
        • Beyond PageRank: Graduating to actionable metrics
        • +1 reporting in Google Webmaster Tools and Google Analytics
        • +1 around the world
        • Protecting your site with Gruyere
        • Webinar: Implementing the +1 Button
        • Announcing Instant Pages
        • Authorship markup and web search
        • Pilot Webmaster Tools’ Search Queries data in Google Analytics
        • Introducing schema.org: Search engines come together for a richer web
        • Add +1 to help your site stand out
      • May
        • Troubleshooting Instant Previews in Webmaster Tools
        • Easier URL removals for site owners
        • Website Security for Webmasters
        • Introducing the Google Webmaster Team
        • Page Speed Online has a shiny new API
        • More guidance on building high-quality sites
        • Flash support in Instant Previews
        • Do 404s hurt my site?
      • April
        • An update on Google Video: Finding an easier way to migrate Google Video content to YouTube
        • WordPress Plugin for Webmaster Tools verification
        • Your fast pass through security
        • Sharing advice from our London site clinic
        • High-quality sites algorithm goes global, incorporates user feedback
        • Our SEO Guide — now available in ten more languages
      • March
        • Changes in the Chrome user agent
        • Introducing Page Speed Online, with mobile support
        • Mo’ better to also detect mobile user-agent
        • Introducing the +1 button
        • Tag Your TV Shows!
        • Page Speed for Chrome, and in 40 languages!
      • February
        • Introducing Recipe View, based on rich snippets markup
        • Making Websites Mobile Friendly
        • Beyond Times and Arial - The New Web Safe Fonts
        • Linking Google Analytics to Webmaster Tools
        • Update to Webmaster Tools Search Queries
      • January
        • Using Webmaster Tools like an SEO
        • How to deal with planned site downtime
        • Understanding your Opportunities with AdSense
    • 2010
      • December
        • "It's on Google! YAY!" - Getting webmaster help in our forum
        • Sending Video Sitemaps Q&A holiday cheer
        • Improving our help content: stocking stuffers in our Help Center
        • Video Sitemaps & mRSS vs. Facebook Share & RDFa
        • Ring in the new year with accessible content: Website clinic for non-profits
        • Holiday source code housekeeping: Website clinic for non-profits
        • A helping holiday hand: Website clinic for non-profits
        • New hacked site notifications in search results
        • Webmaster Tools’ Holiday Update
      • November
        • Controlling crawling and indexing now documented on code.google.com
        • Petits fours in your search results
        • What a feeling! Even better indexing of SWF content
        • Instant Previews
        • A Chrome extension for reporting webspam
        • How to help Google identify web spam
        • Make your websites run faster, automatically -- try mod_pagespeed for Apache
        • Rich snippets for shopping sites
        • Best practices for running multiple sites
      • October
        • Website clinic: Call for submissions
        • Optimizing sites for TV
        • Webmaster Tools - Links to your site updated
        • Webmaster Tools: Updates to Search queries, Parameter handling and Messages
      • September
        • SEO Starter Guide updated
        • Finding Places on the Web: Rich Snippets for Local Search
        • Video Sitemaps: Is your video part of a gallery?
        • Tips for getting help with your site
        • Unifying content under multilingual templates
        • Google Instant: Impact on Search queries
        • New ways to view Webmaster Tools messages
        • Rich snippets: testing tool improvements, breadcrumbs, and events
      • August
        • Google now indexes SVG
        • Showing more results from a domain
        • Verification time savers —  Analytics included!
        • To err is human, Video Sitemap feedback is divine!
        • Video Sitemaps: Understanding location tags
      • July
        • New Message Center notifications for detecting an increase in Crawl Errors
        • Video Sitemaps 101: Making your videos searchable
      • June
        • Sitemaps: One file, many content types
        • Quality links to your site
        • Google Videos best practices
        • Our new search index: Caffeine
        • Crawl Errors now reports soft 404s
        • Grab bag videos are back!
      • May
        • Chrome Extensions for web development
        • Top Search Queries is now Search Queries with Average Position and Stars
        • Call for webspam reports in Thai, Indonesian, Romanian, Czech and Farsi
        • Do know evil
        • URL removal explained, Part IV: Tracking your requests & what not to remove
        • You and site performance, sitting in a tree...
      • April
        • Rich snippets go international
        • To slash or not to slash
        • URL removal explained, Part III: Removing content that you don't own
        • Help Google index your videos
        • Updated malware feature in Webmaster Tools
        • Webmasters - configure Google services at your hosting panel
        • More data and charts in Top Search Queries
        • Better recipes on the web: Introducing recipe rich snippets
        • Using site speed in web search ranking
        • When and why was my site flagged for malware? Learn in near real-time!
        • Adding Images to your Sitemaps
        • URL removals explained, part II: Removing sensitive text from a page
        • A word on site clinics
      • March
        • DNS Verification FTW
        • URL removal explained, Part I: URLs & directories
        • Will the Real <Your Site Here> Please Stand Up?
        • Working with multilingual websites
        • Sharing advice from our site clinic
        • Working with multi-regional websites
        • Microdata support for Rich Snippets
        • Fetch as Googlebot Mobile and Claim your Sidewiki comment - added to Webmaster Tools Labs!
        • Sharing the verification love
        • Google's SEO Report Card
        • Is your site hacked? New Message Center notifications for hacking and abuse
      • February
        • How did you do on the Webmaster Quiz?
      • January
        • Request visitors' permission before installing software
        • Protect your site from spammers with reCAPTCHA
        • Introducing a new Rich Snippets format: Events
        • Google SEO resources for beginners
        • State of the Index 2009
        • Test your webmaster know-how!
        • Answering your December Grab Bag questions
    • 2009
      • December
        • Helping webmasters from user to user
        • Handling legitimate cross-domain content duplication
        • Your site's performance in Webmaster Tools
        • How fast is your site?
        • New User Agent for News
        • Region Tags in Google Search Results
        • Changes in First Click Free
      • November
        • GENERIC CIALIS on my website? I think my site has been hacked!
        • Hard facts about comment spam
        • 'New software version' notifications for your site
        • Running desktop and mobile versions of your site
        • Pros and cons of watermarked images
        • Help Google index your mobile site
        • Post-Halloween Treat: New Keywords User Interface!
        • New personalization features in Google Friend Connect
        • Get your site ready for the holidays: Webmasters - make your list and check it twice!
      • October
        • Using RSS/Atom feeds to discover new URLs
        • Help us make the web better: An update on Rich Snippets
        • Verifying a Blogger blog in Webmaster Tools
        • One million YouTube views!
        • Dealing with low-quality backlinks
        • Let's make the mobile web faster
        • Managing your reputation through search results
        • Fetch as Googlebot and Malware details -- now in Webmaster Tools Labs!
        • A proposal for making AJAX crawlable
        • Reunifying duplicate content on your website
        • New parameter handling tool helps with duplicate content issues
        • Google Friend Connect: No more FTP... just get started!
        • Changes to website verification in Webmaster Tools
      • September
        • Translate your website with Google: Expand your audience globally
        • Using named anchors to identify sections on your pages
        • Google does not use the keywords meta tag in web ranking
        • Spanish Site Clinic now live
        • Duplicate content and multiple site issues
        • Recommendations for webmaster friendly freehosts
        • Supporting Facebook Share and RDFa for videos
        • Tips for News Search
      • August
        • Specifying an image's license using RDFa
        • New tools for Google Services for Websites
        • Help test some next-generation infrastructure
        • Optimize your crawling & indexing
        • How do you use Webmaster Tools? Share your stories and become a YouTube star!
        • Advanced Q&A from (the appropriately-named) SMX Advanced
      • July
        • Webmaster Tools gets a "Summer Shine"
        • Google Friend Connect - Now in 47 new languages
        • Webmaster Central YouTube update for July 6th - 10th
        • Google Maps gadget: Help customers find their way
        • Webmaster Central YouTube update for June 29th - July 3rd
      • June
        • Webmaster Central YouTube update for June 22nd - 26th
        • Traffic drops and site architecture issues
        • Spam2.0: Fake user accounts and spam profiles
        • Tell us what you think!
        • Watch out for your .yu domain!
        • Let's make the web faster
        • Webmaster Central YouTube update for June 15th - 19th
        • Flash indexing with external resource loading
        • Reconsideration requests: Now with notifications
        • Best practices for Product Search
        • Webmaster Central YouTube update for June 8th - 12th
        • An Update on Sitemaps at Google
        • Out with the old, in with the new
        • Message Forwarding
        • Webmaster Central YouTube update for June 1st - 5th
        • SEO Starter Guide now available in 40 languages
        • Introducing Page Speed
        • Webmaster Central YouTube update for May 26-29
      • May
        • Let visitors recommend your content
        • Introducing Rich Snippets
        • Google Trends for your website
        • More ways to engage your community
        • Survey says...
      • April
        • Spring time design refresh!
        • Google Webmaster Help Forums in more languages
        • Research study of Sitemaps
        • Tips on requesting reconsideration
        • One-line sitelinks
      • March
        • Helping your site look great with Google Chrome
        • Making more tools available with just a click
        • Get up-to-date on Image Search
        • Using stats from site: and Sitemap details
      • February
        • Canonical Link Element: presentation from SMX West
        • Introducing the Google Webmaster Central YouTube Channel
        • Best practices against hacking
        • State of the Index: my presentation from PubCon Vegas
        • Specify your canonical
        • Help us help you
        • Google Friend Connect introduces the social bar
      • January
        • Open redirect URLs: Is your site being abused?
        • Year in Review
        • Adding a social playlist to your site
        • Seamless verification of Google Sites and Blogger with Webmaster Tools
        • A new Google Sitemap Generator for your website
        • Preventing Virtual Blight: my presentation from Web 2.0 Summit
    • 2008
      • December
        • Japanese WMC Blog launched
        • Feliz Navidad from the Spanish Webmaster Central team!
        • Wishing you and your site a happy holiday!
        • Quick and easy tips for the holiday rush
        • Sitemap Submission Made Simple
        • Webmaster Tools in 40 languages!
        • Message Center info through our API
        • Reintroducing your English Webmaster Help Google Guides
        • Friend Connect now available in beta to everyone
        • One place for changing your site's settings
        • A new look for our Webmaster Help Group
        • More control of Googlebot's crawl rate
      • November
        • Date with Googlebot, Part II: HTTP status codes and If-Modified-Since
        • Better targeting your indic language site
        • On-Demand Sitemaps for Custom Search
        • Google's SEO Starter Guide
      • October
        • Spookier than malware
        • Reflections on the "Tricks and Treats" webmaster event
        • Malware? We don't need no stinking malware!
        • Webmaster chat event: Vote early and often!
        • Join us for our third live online webmaster chat!
        • Where's my data?
        • First Click Free for Web Search
        • Message Center warnings for hackable sites
        • Video Tutorial: Google for Webmasters
        • Helping you break the language barrier
        • Webmaster Tools API updated with Site Settings
        • Webmaster Tools shows Crawl error sources
        • Good times with inbound links
        • Linking out: Often it's just applying common sense
        • Importance of link architecture
        • Links information straight from the source
      • September
        • Advanced Website Diagnostics with Google Webmaster Tools
        • Keeping comment spam off your site and away from users
        • More webmaster questions - Answered!
        • Dynamic URLs vs. static URLs
        • Webmaster Tools made easier in French, Italian, German and Spanish
        • Demystifying the "duplicate content penalty"
        • Your burning questions - Answered!
        • Workin' it on all browsers
      • August
        • The Impact of User Feedback, Part 2 (and more Popular Picks!)
        • silver_medal_count++
        • Hey Google, I no longer have badware
        • Make your 404 pages more useful
        • More on 404
        • Farewell to soft 404s
        • It's 404 week at Webmaster Central
        • How to start a multilingual site
        • To infinity and beyond? No!
      • July
        • A day in the life of webmaster support
        • Matt Cutts on ranking, spam and the future of search
        • Google Trifecta recording now available
        • Helping yourself to Webmaster Tools
        • Requesting reconsideration using Google Webmaster Tools
      • June
        • Improved Flash indexing
        • What are your SEO recommendations?
        • Free online seminar: The Google Trifecta
        • Get the audio and Q&As from our recent live chat
        • One year of monitored European Webmaster Help Groups
        • Get Cooking with the Webmaster Tools API
        • A new layer to Google Trends
        • Join us for another live chat - June 19, 2008
        • Duplicate content due to scrapers
        • The Impact of User Feedback, Part 1
        • Improving on Robots Exclusion Protocol
        • How Google defines IP delivery, geolocation, and cloaking
      • May
        • Making more housecalls
        • Webmaster Tools now in 26 languages
        • Becoming Social
        • Design patterns for accessible, crawlable and indexable content
        • Sitemaps offer better coverage for your Custom Search Engine
      • April
        • Where in the world is your site?
        • Retiring support for OAI-PMH in Sitemaps
        • Best practices when moving your site
        • Webmaster tips for creating accessible, crawlable sites
        • Crawling through HTML forms
        • My site's been hacked - now what?
        • Improvements to iGoogle Gadgets for Webmaster Tools
      • March
        • Making harmonious use of Webmaster Tools and Analytics
        • Speaking the language of robots
        • Bionic Posters help webmasters worldwide
        • Taking advantage of universal search, part 2
        • Join us for an online live chat this Friday!
        • Good housekeeping
        • SES London Calling!
        • Tips for making information universally accessible
        • German Webmaster Blog turns one
        • Webmaster Tools keeps your "messages waiting"
        • First date with the Googlebot: Headers and compression
      • February
        • iGoogle Gadgets for Webmaster Tools
        • Cross-submissions via robots.txt on Sitemaps.org
        • Leap day hackathon for Google Gadgets, Maps, and more
        • 7 must-read Webmaster Central blog posts
      • January
        • Feeling lucky at PubCon
        • Sitemaps FAQs
        • Remove your content from Google
        • Growing the Webmaster Help Groups Team
        • Looking back on 2007
    • 2007
      • December
        • A Festivus for our webmasterus
        • The Ultimate Fate of Supplemental Results
        • Taking feeds out of our web search results
        • Introducing Video Sitemaps
        • FYI on Google Toolbar's latest features
        • New: Content analysis and Sitemap details, plus more languages
        • Using ALT attributes smartly
        • Answering more popular picks: meta tags and web search
        • Information about buying and selling links that pass PageRank
      • November
        • The anatomy of a search result
        • A dozen ways to discuss "webmaster help"
        • Bringing the conference to you
        • Go Daddy and Google offer easy access to Webmaster Tools
        • A spider's view of Web 2.0
      • October
        • Happy Halloween to our spooktacular webmasters!
        • Better geographic choices for webmasters
        • Dealing with Sitemap cross-submissions
        • Blast from the past
        • Introducing Code Search Sitemaps
        • Webmasters can now provide feedback on Sitelinks
        • Data freshness
      • September
        • Improve snippets with a meta description makeover
        • Quick security checklist for webmasters
        • Subscriber stats and more
        • Google, duplicate content caused by URL parameters, and you
        • Webmaster Central gets a new look
      • August
        • Update on penalty notifications
        • Register non-English domain names with Webmaster Tools
        • Join us at cool SES San Jose - it'll be hot!
        • New robots.txt feature and REP Meta Tags
        • Malware reviews via Webmaster Tools
        • Server location, cross-linking, and Web 2.0 technology thoughts
      • July
        • Supplemental goes mainstream
        • Message Center: Let us communicate with you about your site
        • New warnings feedback
        • Best uses of Flash
        • How to create valuable startpages
      • June
        • We are back from the SES Milan!
        • Google's email communication with webmasters
        • Revamping the Webmaster Tools Help Center
        • Expanding the webmaster central team
        • Duplicate content summit at SMX Advanced
        • More ways for you to give us input
        • More details about our webmaster guidelines
      • May
        • Plumbing the web
        • Why we attend conferences
        • Taking advantage of universal search
        • Musings on Down Under
        • Analytics - Another tool for webmasters
        • About those fake penalty notification emails
      • April
        • Getting your site indexed
        • Come out to SMX Advanced in Seattle and party with Webmaster Central
        • We were in Madrid
        • More insight into anchor text
        • Requesting removal of content from our index
        • What's new with Sitemaps.org?
        • Drop by and see us at SES NY
        • Linking
      • March
        • BlogHer 2007: Building your audience
        • An update on spam reporting
        • Tips for Eastern European webmasters
        • Site content and use of web catalogues
        • Get a more complete picture about how other sites link to you
        • Brand new German Webmaster Central Blog
        • All about robots
        • Using the robots meta tag
        • Using the site: command
      • February
        • Traveling Down Under: GWC at Search Engine Room and Search Summit Australia
        • Better badware notifications for webmasters
        • Tips on using feeds and information on subscriber counts in Reader
        • Our Valentine's day gift: out of beta and adding comments
        • Update on Public Service Search
        • Come see us at SES London and hear tips on successful site architecture
        • Discover your links
      • January
        • A quick word about Googlebombs
        • About badware warnings
        • The Year in Review
    • 2006
      • December
        • Better understanding of your site
        • Deftly dealing with duplicate content
        • Building link-based popularity
        • SES Chicago - Using Images
        • Come and see us at Search Engine Strategies Chicago
      • November
        • Viva, Webmasters in Vegas
        • Introducing Sitemaps for Google News
        • Joint support for the Sitemap Protocol
        • Badware alerts for your sites
        • Las Vegas Pubcon 2006
        • New third-party Sitemaps tools
        • The number of pages Googlebot crawls
      • October
        • Target visitors or search engines?
        • Update to our webmaster guidelines
        • Googlebot activity reports
        • Learn more about Googlebot's crawl of your site and more!
        • Got a website? Get gadgets.
        • Multiple Sitemaps in the same directory
        • Useful information you may have missed
      • September
        • Fresher query stats
        • Introducing Google Checkout
        • How to verify Googlebot
        • Debugging blocked URLs
        • For Those Wondering About Public Service Search
        • Setting the preferred domain
        • Information about Sitelinks
        • Better details about when Googlebot last visited a page
      • August
        • How search results may differ based on accented characters and interface languages
        • Listen in - Matt Cutts and Vanessa Fox talk search
        • System maintenance
        • All About Googlebot
        • Back from SES San Jose
        • Chat with us in person at the Search Engine Strategies conference
        • More webmaster tools
        • New name better reflects our commitment to communicate with you
        • BlogHer Tips
        • Time to verify
        • Back from BlogHer
      • July
        • Support for Polish
        • More control over titles too
        • More control over page snippets
        • Tips for Non-U.S. Sites
      • June
        • Yahoo! Merchants get Sitemaps
        • Get more from the latest release
        • Webmaster help center updates
        • The Sitemaps Google Group
        • Another update on the site: operator
        • An update on the site: operator
      • May
        • Live in our hometown
        • A few questions from our Google Group
        • Issues with the site: operator query
        • https verification
        • More about meta tag verification
      • April
        • Updated robots.txt status
        • A whole new look and a lot more
        • Back from Pubcon
        • Join us for lunch!
        • More third-party tools
        • Using the lastmod attribute
        • https verification
        • Resolving issues listed in the Errors tab
        • Adding new content
        • Robots.txt tab maintenance
      • March
        • More information on the new unsupported file format error for Sitemaps
        • Improving things behind the scenes
        • If you see a we couldn't find your verification file error when you try to verify
        • We've fixed an issue with verification files that included leading zeros
      • February
        • Come by and say hi
        • Using a robots.txt file
        • We'd like your feedback on a potential new verification process
        • We've fixed a few things
        • Improving your site's indexing and ranking
        • Analyzing a robots.txt file
        • From the field
        • Unexpected Common Words
        • More stats and analysis of robots.txt files
        • A chat with the Sitemaps team
        • Giving others access to Sitemaps account information
      • January
        • More about changing domain names
        • Answers to Friday questions
        • More language support
        • Happy New Year!
    • 2005
      • December
        • www vs non-www versions of a site
        • Verifying a site located in a subdirectory
        • More query stats; verification enhancements
        • Lowercase verification filenames
        • New version of Sitemap Generator
      • November
        • Trouble with verification
        • If you don't see the full range of stats
        • Third-party programs
        • Sitemaps in Japanese
        • Site Verification
        • More stats!
        • Changing domains
        • URLs with HTTP errors
        • What to do when your Sitemap status is Denied URLs
      • October
        • When your site changes
        • Including site pages in a Sitemap
        • Searching what Google knows about your site
        • Verifying your site
      • September
        • All new!
        • We show you more
        • How is a Google Sitemap different from an HTML sitemap?
        • Using OAI-PMH with Google Sitemaps
        • Combining Sitemaps into one larger Sitemap
        • Announcing Sitemap Generator version 1.3: Improved encoding support
        • Google Sitemaps in your language
        • Verifying your site: trouble with 404 pages
      • August
        • Submitting mobile Sitemaps
        • Mobile pages and new statistics
        • What URLs should a Sitemap include?
        • What's in a name?
        • Using Sitemap Index Files
        • Just getting started...
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A chat with the Sitemaps team

February 02, 2006

Some members of the Sitemaps team recently took some time to answer some questions about Sitemaps. We hope we've given some insight on questions you may have wondered about.

Posted by Vanessa Fox

Except as otherwise noted, the content of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License, and code samples are licensed under the Apache 2.0 License. For details, see the Google Developers Site Policies. Java is a registered trademark of Oracle and/or its affiliates.

Last updated 2006-02-02 UTC.

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