Sitemaps provide a way for Web sites to specify what pages within the site should be indexed and what new content has been added. Basically, it provides a communication channel between the search engine and the site.
A site map (or sitemap) is a graphical representation of the architecture of a web site. It can be either a document in any form used as a planning tool for web design, or a web page that lists the pages on a web site, typically organized in hierarchical fashion. This helps visitors and search engine bots find pages on the site.
A hierarchical diagram of the pages on a Web site, starting with the home page at the top. A site map helps visitors navigate large, complicated sites by showing its entire structure. It is also used as a master diagram of the Web site for Web designers.
A sitemap is an XML file that contains a list of site URLs and related attributes detailing what should be indexed within a specific site. It must be UTF-8 encoded. The following XML elements are required in the sitemap file:
The webmaster can generate a sitemap containing all accessible URLs on the site and submit it to search engines. Since Google, MSN, Yahoo, and Ask use the same protocol now, having a sitemap would let the biggest search engines have the updated pages information.
Benefits of Sitemap:
· Site maps can improve search engine optimization of a site by making sure that all the pages can be found.
· This is especially important if a site uses Macromedia Flash or JavaScript menus that do not include HTML links.
· Most search engines will only follow a finite number of links from a page, so if a site is very large.
· The site map may be required so that search engines and visitors can access all content on the site.
The Importance of Sitemaps From SEO's View:
A Sitemap is the representation of websites architecture and contains links to all the pages of a website. A Sitemap can be of two types, each having its own distinct purpose.
HTML Sitemap:
An HTML sitemap is created with keeping a visitor in mind. It helps the visitor in navigating the website along with giving a clear view of a websites sections and categories.
XML Sitemap:
While the HTML Sitemap is designed with keeping visitors in mind, an XML Sitemap is designed specifically for Search Engines. Search Engines send their robots, also called a
Why Is A Sitemap.xml File Important:
Searchbots to index a website wherein they encounter the sitemap.xml file.
1. The Sitemap simply lists out all the pages of a website in front of the searchbots so that the searchbots know about all the pages in the website and index them.
2. A Sitemap helps the searchbot in distributing Page rank across all the web pages with the help of tag. This ensures that all the inner pages of a website also have a good page rank.
One can either generate a sitemap.xml file manually or there are free sitemap generator tools available online to help generate a sitemap. Though most of the free sitemap generator tools have a limit of up to 500 pages, Paid tools give you the freedom to create a sitemap of unlimited pages.
< url>
< loc>http://www.yoursite.com/about-us.html
< priority>0.8
< changefreq>weekly
< /url>
< url>
< loc>http://www.yoursite.com/services.htm
< priority>0.8
< changefreq>monthly
< /url>
< url>
< loc>http://www.yoursite.com/contact.htm
< priority>0.7
< changefreq>weekly
< /url>
4 comments:
I Like the post. I guess it’s hardly suprising that with the focus on pleasing the search engines, XML sitemaps have become important. But if it’s all about providing a better user experience, then HTML sitemaps should not be forgotten.
HTML sitemaps can also be good for pushing relevant anchor text to ones own website. This works best if you make sure your site amp page has some juice to give. I prefer A1 Sitemap Generator because it can create XML + multi column/page sitemaps.
i just re-did a sitemap and after the changes i notice big shift of traffic to the website.
Building a sitemap is literally equal in building a website. While browsing your site, if the visitors gets lost between the pages on your site, they can refer your sitemap to know where they are and can easily navigate through your pages easily.
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