Content analysis and Sitemap detail debuted as new features available on Google’s Webmaster Central.
Ever since we first chatted with now-former Googler Vanessa Fox about webmaster tools, Google has released new capabilities for those on a fairly regular schedule.
That routine notched another mark with the debut of content analysis and sitemap details from Google Webmaster Tools. Jonathan Simon described these at the Webmaster Central blog.
Content analysis looks at three main categories: title tag issues; meta description issues; and non-indexable content issues. These appear in the Diagnostics section of Webmaster Tools.
Title tags may be too short or too long in Google’s estimation, and if a meta description tag looks odd, Google will flag that as well.
“While these pointers won’t directly help you rank better, they may help your site display better titles and snippets in search results, and this can increase visitor traffic,” said Simon.
Webmasters using Sitemaps to permit better indexing of their sites by search crawlers have access to additional information with the new Sitemaps Details page in Tools. This shows what Google knows about the Sitemaps the webmaster submitted.
Depending on the site, the Sitemap Details may show the sitemap type; total number of valid URLs; the number of listed URLs in Google’s index; and the dates the sitemap was submitted to and downloaded by Google.
Simon said the new Details page also shows any errors or warnings encountered when Google last crawled specific pages. This allows the webmaster to spend less time trying to figure out how many pages Google indexed from the Sitemap.
On her Search Engine Land post, Fox chimed in on the new features by noting the availability of Video Sitemaps. For sites that use video, these Sitemaps could be the key to being included in web search results as well as video searches.
