XML Sitemap

When an internet user is trying to locate specific information they will put a phrase or keyword into the search engine. Search engines send out web crawlers, some call them spiders, to crawl out across the web and find the most pertinent information to meet the request. When these bots come to a new site, if there is a Sitemap they will crawl through the site to see if there is any information worth being displayed on the search engine results page.

One thing an XML Sitemap does for your site is to list aspects of the site which might not otherwise be discovered. The Sitemap contains a list of all the pages on the site and you can see information about each page. This will let the search engines know about some of the specific kinds of content on the site.  A Sitemap can also contain information about how often the site is updated and when the next update is scheduled.

Some benefits to having a Sitemap include helping crawlers find their way around a new site, or a site that does not yet have very many external links. It can also help make it more visible if there are not a lot of links within the site. Basically, it makes your site much more visible to search engine crawlers and helps them find the pertinent information on your site. It can then get the information into the hands of your readers, users or potential customers.

As far as an example, let’s say you just started a home remodeling business. You prepared your SEO content for your site to help the crawlers find the site, but without a Sitemap the crawlers may not be able to find the information that is most pertinent to the search. In your XML sitemap you can include metadata that helps the crawlers see where you have photos or videos of recent work your company has completed, along with all your specific geographical information.

When the Sitemap is created the extra information can be included so that the search engines will find their way around. The Sitemap can contain a list of all the URLs on the site, which makes them more visible. It can also include relevant prioritization. This means you can rank each page according to its priority. This helps the crawlers know exactly where to look for relevant information. And tags can also be included on each page to let the crawlers know when the page was changed last and when it is supposed to be updated in the future.

An XML Sitemap can help search engine crawlers be able to explore the entire site. They are beneficial to those who do online marketing. It helps to get the site out where customers can view the information it contains.

There are a number of free XML sitemap creators on the web, one that we like to use is, http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/.  These free sitemaps have most of the features that you need to have on your sitemap, although the one listed above will limit the sitemap to 500 pages.