Firstly, what is a sitemap?
Sitemaps come in two different formats. A sitemap can either be a HTML page that shows a list of links to other pages in a web site, or it can be an XML file that acts as a database of the structure of the web site. This database is then read by tools such as Google’s Webmaster Tools when learning about a web site infrastructure for crawling purposes, thus improving your search engine visibility. XML Sitemaps are vitally important when it comes to Search Engine Optimisation of large web sites.
The real advantage of having a sitemap is that it allows people and search engines to delve deep into your web site for pages that they might not normally find. The other advantage is that it acts as a directory for your visitors, so they can browse the directory looking for the page that is of interest to them.
Sitemaps are play an important part of any medium-large sized web site. If you are finding that you have too many links to include on the home page of your web site, then its time to use a site map.
HTML Sitemaps, that is the web page that acts as a directory of your site, are really easy to create. They are basically just web pages with a list of hyperlinks to the different pages around your site.
XML Sitemaps are a little more complexed in that they use an XML based data structure. This structure has to follow certain guidelines to enable the search engines to understand it. There are tools and web sites on the market that help you generate these.
