An aside from baby casting - Google sitemaps.

Having spent many hours trying to optimize my site on a tiny budget I though it would be useful to summarise my experiences & research on Google sitemaps & their role in SEO for those of us with limited time & knowledge.

What is a sitemap?
It’s a file which provides information about your site, mainly the name of each & every page & how often/when they were last updated. There are several formats this file can take (.xml & ROR for those in the know) but in its simplest form it is usually called sitemap.xml & is put in the root of your websites directory on your server.

You can create a sitemap.xml file using an online generator. There are many but I would recommend http://www.xml-sitemaps.com as a great one to try. Simply enter the full website address, change the date to today’s & click start. The file is then created & you can download it into an html editor or copy & paste it from the bottom of the screen & save it into a new file called sitemap.xml. This then needs saving onto the root directory of your website on your server. You need to update your sitemap.xml file each time you update a page on your site & upload it again.

Are Google sitemaps different to other sitemaps?
No, Google accepts any standard sitemap.xml file & will find it when it crawls your site. I would recommend registering your sitemap with Google (& Yahoo) as this gives speeds up the initial crawl on your site if you aren’t getting any at the moment (or if you don’t know if you’re being Googled!)

Do I need one?
Well, some say you do & some say you don’t! A sitemap file makes it easier for a spider to crawl your site & see what has changed & what has not. Some argue this makes it more likely to be crawled more deeply, others disagree. On balance there is no disadvantage to having a sitemap & the information you can get back from registering your sitemap with Google makes it a very valuable resource for you. Google states that it does not affect your ranking & that resubmitting on a regular basis also has no effect but this is disputed by some (including myself!).

How do I register a sitemap with Google?
You need to set up a Google account which you can do via www.google.com (there are no region specific accounts for .co.uk etc) & then clicking ‘sign in’. If you have a gmail account you can login, if not, create a new account at this point.

Once registered, you can sign in & look at ‘My account’ where there is a ‘webmaster tools’ section for you to follow for submitting your site URL & then the name of your sitemap. Google then verifies your sitemap & that’s it. For me, the most useful reason for going through all this is the data you’ll get in a few months time on the hits on your site, top search terms & your rankings in Google for those terms, any page errors, internal & external back links & how many pages you have listed on Google. All very valuable & completely free for a small amount of work!

Clearly this is a huge area with much more detail but as a starting point the above will get you going. Below are a couple of other links you may find useful looking forward:

Google webmaster tips: https://www.google.com/webmasters

Info on pagerank & other google issues: http://www.mypagerank.net/

Fab post on google sitemaps: http://www.arnebrachhold.de/2006/04/07/google-sitemaps-faq-sitemap-issues-errors-and-problems

Back on track & busy - baby's are everywhere!!

Finally caught my tail after the Excel Baby Show & got most kits back on the shelf or tidied away. We had a lot of people bringing their baby's to the stan for casting & it has been a pleasure getting them ready for them to hang on the wall this week. We are offering the same service at the NEC & recommend booking in advance if you would like us to cast your baby's feet on the day as we are already busy - all advance appointments have gone for the Friday!

Aside from planning the next show we have managed to restock our inkless wipe range after a problem with our supplier. These kits are very popular as they are very easy & excellent value. With a frame, double mount,special inkless wipe & 2 sheets of treated paper they make a lovely gift for a new baby or even a baby shower present. We will be offering these frame kits with a keepsake box & piggy bank very soon so keep your eyes on the Creative Casting Baby Casting Kit Website for details.

Work is also progressing on our agent network. This is proving a more time consuming & complicated area than we first thought so do bear with us if you have expressed interest in this - we'll be in touch soon!

Back to Mum mode for now as 3pm approaches & the weekend looms. Enjoy your weekend too!

A long weekend of baby casting!!!

Back from The Baby Show & what a few days we've had!

It's always great to meet customers & their baby's face to face & we have had some fantastic feedback over the last few days right across our range of casting kits, imprint kits & clay imprint kits.

We had a new baby casting kit on the stand & it proved very popular indeed. With a more contemporary look & complete with a top quality keepsake box the frame kit below was commented on time & time again.


We will be looking to add this to the Creative Casting online shop in the next few days!

If you bought a kit at the show & have come looking for advice & tips, have a look at some of the other posts on getting a great baby cast & making copies of your baby feet casts.

Otherwise, there is a help page on our website with a series of images & tips on making your baby hand or foot mould & cast. Failing that, give us a call - number on our contact us page!

We hope everyone who took away a Creative Casting baby casting kit last weekend has a great time making their hand or feet casts & we are pleased to be here to help!