Google Myth Busters: You Will Not Be Penalized For Submitting Your Sitemap

When you read blog and forum posts about Google, you are sure to read a ton of myths. One of the most common myths I’ve read says that your site will be penalized if you submit your sitemap to Google. People honestly believe that if you setup a Google Webmaster Tools account and submit your sitemap to it, you will lose rankings… or it will take much longer to get ranked… or you’ll be inviting a manual review…

The myth is complete bunk. There is NO HARM in submitting your site to Google’s Webmaster Tools.

I mean come on… conspiracy theories are fine and all, but do you really think that Google has some sinister purpose for the Google Webmaster Tools? I can just picture it, some overworked Google engineer sleeping under the desk in his cubicle, muttering in his sleep: “Mwuhahaha… they setup their sites on Google Webmaster Tools and we crush them! Mwuhahaha…”

Myth: Debunked

Let’s debunk this myth with the overwhelming fact that Google WANTS to display the most relevant search results, so they can make more money!

It’s really simple:

1. Google displays the most relevant search results.
2. More and more people use Google for searching.
3. More people searching means more PPC ads being displayed.

So if you have a really great site full of relevant content, do you think Google is going to punish your site because you submitted your sitemap? I’m sorry, but that doesn’t make any sense to me.

Fact: What’s Really Happening

Here’s what I think is really happening that causes people to believe in this myth… people submit their sitemaps TOO SOON. When you read the Google Webmaster Guidelines, they are very specific when they use the phrase “when your site is ready.” Google doesn’t care about your site until it’s ready. What does that mean? Your site is ready when you have enough content to deserve to be ranked at Google.

So let’s say you’re building a site on blue widgets. Obviously you’re not going to rank #1 for blue widgets overnight, but does your site deserve to be listed anywhere in the search results for blue widgets? Does your site have at least a minimum level of design and content that’s completed, so if a visitor interested in blue widgets came to your site, they’d find something of value? If the answer to that question is yes, then you will have no troubles if you submit your site to the Google Webmaster Tools. If the answer is no, then you shouldn’t even allow your site to get indexed by Google, because it’s not ready yet.

Conclusion

There’s no harm in submitting a good site to Google’s Webmaster Tools.

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