Creating and Maintaining Sitemaps

First off, what is a site map? Generally when we are talking about a sitemap file for a website we are discussing a index file listing all of the pages on your website which you desire to have searched by Google and other engines. The file is typically a HTML file, and called ‘sitemap.html’. The pages are listed on this HTML file with hyperlinks to each page file. Very simple. Sitemap files like these are created for both human benefit (allowing your visitors to scan the website looking for information), and for the search engines. Most of the major search engines look for these files and use them if the robots find them.

The other type of sitemap file is an XML index which Google also calls a SiteMap file. This file is strictly for the Googlebot to use and index your file from. These files would typically be created by the professional you are using to create your website. You can read more about these in an article I wrote here.

Sitemaps allow your site to be more fully indexed by the search engines. What this means for you is that visitors are going to be coming into your site via pages of relevance, rather than through the front page. This is a good thing, but something to keep in mind. For those that wish to have a great deal of graphic and flash design on their front pages, this is good news. In the past, Search Engine robots could not read Flash, and so they didn’t find the links reaching into the back of the site. Also, the evaluation of a site depended heavily on the content of the front page. Now sites are looked at as individual pages, and valued by the sum of those pages.

The maintenance of your sitemap will keep traffic and search engines aware of your site, and the changes you make. New content created for the website will be indexed faster and become available to the web surfers sooner allowing you to disseminate new information about your services or your company more efficiently.

Posted by Glenn Hefley in Web Content, Web Design