Google Adds Features to its Webmaster Tools’ Sitemaps

Google developed Sitemaps back in 2005 as a useful tool for webmasters to inform search engines about URLs on a website that are available for crawling. Google’s Webmaster Tools’ Sitemap feature currently provides feedback on submitted Sitemaps, such as how many Sitemap URLs have been indexed, or whether Sitemaps have any errors. A recent Webmaster Central blog post talks about the added information to this feature, which include: 

• Content-specific results: Statistics from the Web, Videos, Images and News are now front and center, providing a snapshot of the number of times each type were submitted as well as indexed. This enhancement replaces Google’s Video Sitemaps Labs feature.
• On-the-spot testing: This new feature now lets you test a Sitemap. Not to be confused with the submission of a Sitemap to Google (which provides a more in-depth review for issues); testing only checks it for errors. 
• Error Display: The improved error display better depicts the types of issues a Sitemap may have. Unlike the past when errors and warnings were repeated for the same Sitemap, they are now grouped, with some examples given to help explain the type of issue/error. 
• Use of the Delete Button: The delete button now removes the Sitemap from Webmaster Tools (including your account and the accounts of other owners of the site). A Sitemap may still be read or processed by Google even if you delete it from Webmaster Tools, so if you’d like to prevent a Sitemap from being processed entirely, remove the file from your server or block it via robots.txt.

Work with your SEO team to learn how your website can benefit from these new added features within Google’s Webmaster Tools’ Sitemaps.