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The XML Sitemap – Like A Tour Guide For Your Website

7 Sep 2010 by Graham Lyons - Featured, News, SEO , No Comments


Congratulations! Your new site is finished! It sits on the net like a glittering treasure, a rock of web-hewn truth that will echo through the ages. Or at least it would (you imagine) if only people could find it…

So How Do You Publicise Your Site?

Well you could try word-of-mouth, fly posters or even just shouting at cars from a street corner…but if only there was a service – an engine if you will – that would allow people to search for websites. Well wish no longer because a few companies by the name of Google, Yahoo! and Bing (and some others) have got your back.

Search engines can find websites in an organic fashion via automated 'web spiders' or 'bots' that follow links on web pages to discover pages (Google's bot is imaginatively entitled 'GoogleBot'). So if you have links from other sites to your own webpage then there is a good chance that search engines can find your site. This process can take a little time though…

You can also, in some cases, submit your site directly to a search engine. For example, Google has its own page for users to manually submit their sites.

These techniques are fine in many cases, but what if your site has many pages of new content and very few links? Or what about if your site contains lots of dynamic content with links built with Javascript, Flash, etc? It is possible that search engines might struggle to find every page on your site. It is in situations like these that an XML sitemap can be a great solution…

An XML Whatmap ?

In truth, every site should create an XML Sitemap. It acts as a map that can be submitted to search engines to ensure they are aware of every page on your site (this does not mean that every page will appear in their index, but they will know of its existence).

Don't confuse this with a sitemap page (such as our one), sitemap pages allow users searching for specific pages to find them quickly with a 'map view' of the site. It also provides an easy way for a search engine bot to find all of the pages on the site. It's not quite the same as an XML sitemap though…

Put simply, an XML Sitemap of your site will be a list of the pages that you wish search engines to find. Search engines are not limited by this list however, if you want to ensure that they do not index private information or under construction areas then you will need to put entries in your robots.txt file.

The Sitemap can actually include other data relating to your site pages such as the date it was last modified, the priority and the change frequency.

XML Sitemaps Sound Awesome, I Want One!

Creation of an XML site map can be done with a variety of tools – some are free, some have to be bought – there is probably the perfect tool for you available. They come in a variety of operating types, from server-side tools to programs to download and run on your computer.

Google has a list of XML Sitemap creation tools on their Google Code site. There is also a list of Sitemap tools on dmoz.

OK, I have my XML Sitemap, what now?

Well now you need to make the search engines aware of your Sitemap, they aren't mind readers (yet). There are a few ways to do this:

Submit it to them via their own submission systems

For a site that does not change often this is probably the best option. A manual submission procedure on a webpage is normally the system in place. E.g. Google uses their Webmaster Tools system to allow manual submission – just register your site, verify you own the site, and then select to submit a Sitemap.

Use your robots.txt file to specify the location of your Sitemap on your server

Placing a short line in your robots.txt file can indicate to search engines the location of your Sitemap file (the line can be added to any part of your robots.txt file):

Sitemap: http://www.example.com/sitemap.xml

This system relies on search engines visiting your site to then check your Sitemap file, there is no way to 'prompt' the search engine that your Sitemap has changed.

Use an 'HTTP request' to notify the search engine directly

This is a little more involved, but for sites that often add content then this is probably the most easily automated. You can setup your server to send the HTTP request:

<search_engine_link>/ping?sitemap=sitemap_link

So, for example, your request might look something like:

http://www.google.com/ping?sitemap=http://www.example.com/sitemap.xml

Congratulations, You're Done!

Well sort of. If you make page changes to your site and don't have a system that automatically updates your sitemap then you'll need to repeat the process, but as you have already selected a method to produce the Sitemap you'll probably fire one out in no time.

Some resources you may want to peruse:

Sitemaps.org – This site is maintained by Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft and serves as a repository for lots of XML Sitemap info. Check here for info

Google also has a page about XML Sitemaps on their Webmaster Central help pages.

Finally, Google also has this short video as an introduction to website 'Discoverability':

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gl3fyqJ6whY[/youtube]



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