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>