Cool New Schema & KML Generator

[Phil Rozek]

Travis just told me about a great new tool he created:

Google Local Tool

It's similar to Arjan Snaterse's excellent geositemap / KML tool, but Travis has streamlined the whole UX nicely, and it doesn't generate geositemaps (which Google doesn't support in Webmaster Tools any longer).

As Travis told me, "Google Local Tool" is just a provisional name. I'm sure ideas are welcome, although I'm also sure he also has some good ones in mind.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Cool Phil, thanks for sharing. That Travis has been a busy boy!
Kudos to him for getting into tool development!

 

[Nick.SEOSpark]

Wow - Looks awesome! I look forward to giving it a whirl and spreading the word about it. Well done to Travis.

@Phil - Interesting thoughts about the geositemaps. I know that they are no longer supported in Webmaster tools, but I'm still using them for clients. I'll start another thread to discuss their impact.

 

[Phil Rozek]

@Linda
I do appreciate Travis?s reverse-dogfooding approach!

@Nick
Yeah, I certainly can?t imagine that uploading a geositemap would be a bad move in any way. Really looking forward to hearing your findings, though.

 

[Travis Van Slooten]

Thanks Phil for spreading the word. I came up with this totally awesome name for it. Ready? Drum roll, please....

Schema & KML File Generator

I suck at coming up with names. It works for me.

Regarding Geositemaps...I used to use them all the time and Google DOES support them if you take out the geo tags found in the geositemap (which is what I used to do). However, a friend of mine showed me a page from Google where Google specifically recommends adding urls to KML files and the like to the regular XML sitemap. This is what I do now. I just add the link to the KML file to the regular XML sitemap.

Travis Van Slooten

 

[Phil Rozek]

Schema & KML File Generator

I suck at coming up with names. It works for me.

Works for me, too

 

[Keenan Glass]

I think I got this...

 

[Phil Rozek]

I think I got this...

He shoots, he scores!

 

[KungFuBacklinks]

Regarding Geositemaps...I used to use them all the time and Google DOES support them if you take out the geo tags found in the geositemap (which is what I used to do). However, a friend of mine showed me a page from Google where Google specifically recommends adding urls to KML files and the like to the regular XML sitemap. This is what I do now. I just add the link to the KML file to the regular XML sitemap.

Travis Van Slooten

Unfortunately, following this suggestion means you have to re-add the KML URL to the sitemap each time a new sitemap is generated. Using a site like WP (with numerous plugins dynamically-creating sitemaps when content is update) will make this a huge pain in the neck. I've continued to use geositemap.xml to submit the location of the KML file, and have had no problems. Further, I link directly to the KML in the website footer or on a location landing page. This seems to do the trick nicely.

 

[Travis Van Slooten]

I'm not sure I"m following you. I use the Google Sitemaps XML plugin and it allows you to simply add links to the sitemap. These are links outside the WordPress platform. Once you add the link, it stays there for as long as you keep it there. You don't have to add it each time you make an update to the WordPress site.

Travis

Unfortunately, following this suggestion means you have to re-add the KML URL to the sitemap each time a new sitemap is generated. Using a site like WP (with numerous plugins dynamically-creating sitemaps when content is update) will make this a huge pain in the neck. I've continued to use geositemap.xml to submit the location of the KML file, and have had no problems. Further, I link directly to the KML in the website footer or on a location landing page. This seems to do the trick nicely.

 

[rossicone]

Hi everyone!

Does anyone know of a good tool that checks if a KML file was loaded correctly? This is all a little over my head so I am having our engineering team upload the file However, I'd love to make sure it is getting uploaded correctly!

I found a KML file validator through Galdos with a quick Google search. Not sure if anyone has had any experience with it or other tools though so I figured I'd ask!

Thanks!!