New: Content analysis and Sitemap details, plus more languages
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Thursday, December 13, 2007
We're always striving to help webmasters build outstanding websites, and in our latest release we
have two new features: Content analysis and Sitemap details. We hope these features help you to
build a site you could compare to a fine wine—getting better and better over time.
Content analysis
To help you improve the quality of your site, our new content analysis feature should be a
helpful addition to the
crawl error diagnostics
already provided in Webmaster Tools. Content analysis contains feedback about issues that may
impact the user experience or that may make it difficult for Google to crawl and index pages on
your site. By reviewing the areas we've highlighted, you can help eliminate potential issues that
could affect your site's ability to be crawled and indexed. This results in better indexing of
your site by Google and other search engines. The Content analysis summary page within the
Diagnostics section of Webmaster Tools features three main categories. Click on a particular
issue type for more details:
Title tag issues
Meta description issues
Non-indexable content issues
Selecting "Duplicate title tags" displays a list of repeated page titles along with a count of
how many pages contain that title. We currently present up to thirty duplicated page titles on
the details page. If the duplicate title issues shown are corrected, we'll update the list to
reflect any other pages that share duplicate titles the next time your website is crawled. Also,
in the Title tag issues category, we show "Long title tags" and "Short title tags." For these
issue types we will identify title tags that are way too short (for example "IT" isn't generally
a good title tag) or way too long (title tag was never intended to mean
<insert epic novel here>). A similar algorithm identifies potentially problematic
meta description tags.
While these pointers won't directly help you rank better (that is, pages with
<title> length x aren't moved to the top of the search results), they may help
your site display better titles and snippets in search results, and this can increase visitor
traffic. In the "Non-indexable content issues," we give you a heads-up of areas that aren't as
friendly to our more text-based crawler. And be sure to check out our posts on
Flash and
images to learn how to make these
items more search-engine friendly.
Sitemap details page
If you've submitted a Sitemap, you'll be happy when you see the additional information in
Webmaster Tools revealing how your Sitemap was processed. You can find this information on the
newly available Sitemap Details page which (along with information that was previously provided
for each of your Sitemaps) shows you the number of the pages from your Sitemap that were indexed.
Keep in mind the number of pages indexed from your Sitemap
may not be 100% accurate
because the indexed number is updated periodically, but it's more accurate than running a
site:example.com query on Google. The new Sitemap Details page also lists any errors
or warnings that were encountered when specific pages from your Sitemap were crawled. So the time
you might have previously spent on crafting custom Google queries to determine how many pages
from your Sitemap were indexed, can now be spent on improving your site. If your site is already
the crème de la crème, you might prefer to spend the extra time improving your ice-carving skills
or blending the perfect eggnog. Here's a view of the new
Sitemap details page:
Sitemaps are an excellent way to tell Google about your site's most important pages, especially if
you have new or updated content that we may not know about. If you haven't yet submitted a
Sitemap or have questions about the process, visit our
Webmaster Help Center
to learn more. Webmaster Tools now available in Czech and Hungarian We love expanding our product
to help more people and in their language of choice. We recently put in effort to expand the
number of Webmaster Tools available languages to Czech and Hungarian, in addition to the 20 other
languages we already support. We won't be stopping here. Our desire to support even more languages
in the future means that if your language of choice isn't currently supported, stay
tuned—there'll be even more supported languages to come. We always love to hear what you
think. Please visit our
Webmaster Help Group
to share comments or ask questions.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],[],[[["\u003cp\u003eGoogle Webmaster Tools has released two new features: Content analysis and Sitemap details to help webmasters improve their websites.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eContent analysis provides feedback on title tags, meta descriptions, and non-indexable content, potentially increasing visitor traffic by improving search result displays.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe Sitemap details page shows how many pages from your Sitemap were indexed by Google and lists any errors or warnings encountered during crawling.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eWebmaster Tools is now available in Czech and Hungarian, in addition to 20 other languages, with plans to support even more languages in the future.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],["Webmaster Tools introduced content analysis and sitemap details features. Content analysis identifies title tag, meta description, and non-indexable content issues to enhance user experience and site crawlability. Sitemap details show the number of indexed pages, plus crawl errors and warnings, providing insights into sitemap processing. Also announced is the Czech and Hungarian language expansion of the Webmaster Tool. These updates aim to help webmasters optimize their sites for search engines.\n"],null,["# New: Content analysis and Sitemap details, plus more languages\n\n| It's been a while since we published this blog post. Some of the information may be outdated (for example, some images may be missing, and some links may not work anymore).\n\nThursday, December 13, 2007\n\n\nWe're always striving to help webmasters build outstanding websites, and in our latest release we\nhave two new features: Content analysis and Sitemap details. We hope these features help you to\nbuild a site you could compare to a fine wine---getting better and better over time.\n\nContent analysis\n----------------\n\n\nTo help you improve the quality of your site, our new content analysis feature should be a\nhelpful addition to the\n[crawl error diagnostics](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/9679690)\nalready provided in Webmaster Tools. Content analysis contains feedback about issues that may\nimpact the user experience or that may make it difficult for Google to crawl and index pages on\nyour site. By reviewing the areas we've highlighted, you can help eliminate potential issues that\ncould affect your site's ability to be crawled and indexed. This results in better indexing of\nyour site by Google and other search engines. The Content analysis summary page within the\nDiagnostics section of Webmaster Tools features three main categories. Click on a particular\nissue type for more details:\n\n- Title tag issues\n- Meta description issues\n- Non-indexable content issues\n\n\nSelecting \"Duplicate title tags\" displays a list of repeated page titles along with a count of\nhow many pages contain that title. We currently present up to thirty duplicated page titles on\nthe details page. If the duplicate title issues shown are corrected, we'll update the list to\nreflect any other pages that share duplicate titles the next time your website is crawled. Also,\nin the Title tag issues category, we show \"Long title tags\" and \"Short title tags.\" For these\nissue types we will identify title tags that are way too short (for example \"IT\" isn't generally\na good title tag) or way too long (title tag was never intended to mean\n\\\u003cinsert epic novel here\\\u003e). A similar algorithm identifies potentially problematic\n[meta description tags](/search/blog/2007/09/improve-snippets-with-meta-description).\nWhile these pointers won't directly help you rank better (that is, pages with\n`\u003ctitle\u003e` length x aren't moved to the top of the search results), they may help\nyour site display better titles and snippets in search results, and this can increase visitor\ntraffic. In the \"Non-indexable content issues,\" we give you a heads-up of areas that aren't as\nfriendly to our more text-based crawler. And be sure to check out our posts on\n[Flash](/search/blog/2007/07/best-uses-of-flash) and\n[images](/search/blog/2007/12/using-alt-attributes-smartly) to learn how to make these\nitems more search-engine friendly.\n\nSitemap details page\n--------------------\n\n\nIf you've submitted a Sitemap, you'll be happy when you see the additional information in\nWebmaster Tools revealing how your Sitemap was processed. You can find this information on the\nnewly available Sitemap Details page which (along with information that was previously provided\nfor each of your Sitemaps) shows you the number of the pages from your Sitemap that were indexed.\nKeep in mind the number of pages indexed from your Sitemap\n[may not be 100% accurate](https://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=80488)\nbecause the indexed number is updated periodically, but it's more accurate than running a\n`site:example.com` query on Google. The new Sitemap Details page also lists any errors\nor warnings that were encountered when specific pages from your Sitemap were crawled. So the time\nyou might have previously spent on crafting custom Google queries to determine how many pages\nfrom your Sitemap were indexed, can now be spent on improving your site. If your site is already\nthe crème de la crème, you might prefer to spend the extra time improving your ice-carving skills\nor blending the perfect eggnog. Here's a view of the new\n[Sitemap details page](https://google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=78808):\n\n\nSitemaps are an excellent way to tell Google about your site's most important pages, especially if\nyou have new or updated content that we may not know about. If you haven't yet submitted a\nSitemap or have questions about the process, visit our\n[Webmaster Help Center](https://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/topic.py?topic=8476)\nto learn more. Webmaster Tools now available in Czech and Hungarian We love expanding our product\nto help more people and in their language of choice. We recently put in effort to expand the\nnumber of Webmaster Tools available languages to Czech and Hungarian, in addition to the 20 other\nlanguages we already support. We won't be stopping here. Our desire to support even more languages\nin the future means that if your language of choice isn't currently supported, stay\ntuned---there'll be even more supported languages to come. We always love to hear what you\nthink. Please visit our\n[Webmaster Help Group](https://support.google.com/webmasters/community)\nto share comments or ask questions.\n\nWritten by [Jonathan Simon](/search/blog/authors/jonathan-simon), Webmaster Trends Analyst"]]
