Google’s latest way of extending their index is an interesting one and one which should help webmasters to get a faster turnaround with the initial indexing of their website and getting updates included more quickly. As ever, there is no guarantee that the site will be indexed but this will supplement the Googlebots crawling the sites so should improve turnaround.

So how does it work: webmasters need to create a special format of sitemap in the form of an XML file which is then stored on their site. Google provides a tool to do this at Google Sitemap Generator, but there are some others which are available online and make the job a little easier such as Auto Sitemap or XML Sitemaps to name but two.

You can now tell Google about your sitemap file which you should do at the Google Sitemaps page - you’ll need to create a Google Account if you don’t already have one but there is no charge. Once logged in, select ‘Add a Sitemap’ and then type in the address where you put the sitemap, which will normally be something like “http://www.mydomain.com/sitemap.xml”. Then click on ‘Submit URL’.

And what’s the benefit? Well, it gives you a little more control over making more certain that all of your pages are indexed which is a plus and there is an element allowing for “hints” which should permit specifying how often updates occur. Also according to a Q&A session with Shiva Shivakumar, engineering director and the technical lead for Google Sitemaps, posted on Search Engine Watch, there is support for auto-notification which will help keep more pages on your site up to date in the index.

Verdict: well worth the effort - anything which adds to the speed in which updates on your website gets into the index is worth it. Only when they’re indexed can we work on improving their focus and ranking in the Search Engine Results.