I've been using a free sitemap tool that makes an XML sitemap of up to 500 pages. Many of my sites have more than 500 pages, and Google has indexed more than 500 pages. My question is: Is it worth it to make a sitemap including all of my pages? Obviously Google has found these pages anyway. Each page has links from other pages, so certainly Google will be able to find them as well as a sitemap generator, right? Would having a more complete sitemap make it more likely that all of my pages will get crawled more often?
You are absolutely correct. But the XML Sitemap has its own significance. When Googlebot comes to any website, it has some pre-decided time that it will be spending on the website. If you site contains more than 500 pages but is well linked, though it will crawled smoothly but all pages will not crawled due to the time limit. XML Sitemap ensures that maximum pages from your website are indexed. Having a sitema with all the pages is not important but having a Sitemap with all the important pages is important. I hope i cleared your confusion
sorry to jump in to this but what you are saying guys that if the site is under 500 pages its not really a big deal to have a site map ? right ?
It is not really important to have a sitemap for a site with <500 pages, given that all pages are linked at least once, and preferably more than once. It will help PR flow also. Sitemaps are good for a brand-new website or for more than 500-1000 pages. brand new website (one month of being discovered by Google) receives higher attention to crawling. Once you are out of the first month, it will be painfully slow to get your pages indexed or re-indexed, even if you have a)sitemap b)well-linked pages c)high PR d)good referrals.