Sitemaps

I know sitemaps are not really specific to Google..

A few questions;

Would a dynamic site map work just the same as static HTML?
The links - do you have them in anchor text, or just the URL
Do you have your sitemap on all of the pages on your website or just the homepage?

Thanks

Darren

 

Some time back I wrote a brief article concerning site maps that may be helpful to you.

Create Site Map

 

Shawn - thanks, would this be too long? page.php?city=Leeds&property_location=England I think is my largest php URL.

Thanks Cricket! I've bookedmarked it and will have a good read when I'm more awake

 

Hi Darren

Did you mean a site map of links to dynamic pages ( 'mypage.asp?id=3475') or a site map created on the fly?

If the latter it's probably OK for low traffic sites (some of mine fall into this category ). On my other larger more popular sites the site map is built automatically when I add, update or delete pages and is stored in an application variable or file for quick 'inclusion' on the site map page.

[added] - B*****, too slow to post, that'll teach me. Just seen the last two posts so please disregard.

Mick

 

Indeed, I do find a site map of benefit on smaller sites where Google doesn't come round that often (infrequent updates and all that). It does tend to get any new pages picked up that little bit quicker.

 

I know the feeling. But just imagine you wanted to build a sitemap, if anything, to channel a little PR.

Think you could with that volume ? (it's an interesting question when you think about it)

 

As long as most of those pages are indexed, Shawn you'd be getting the PR benefits anyway, right?

I put a sitemap on mine since most of my vistors come in from a keyword search in case they were curious what else was on the site other than what brought them on in the first place.

 

a sitemap is never required, no, but it never hurts.

and for those of us without excellent PR (5 or less), it can really help a lot, especially for pages that you just can't avoid making deep

 

And let us not forget that often-overlooked, perhaps trivial element: the actual visitor.

It is sometimes hard to remember that SEO is not about some abstract process, but is about bringing live ones to the site. Fine: your have superlative SERPs, they come to the site. And?

Do they stay and explore it and do whatever it is that you wanted them to come to the site to do? Or do they run away screaming and have nightmares for three nights running over what they saw?

Bringing is Phase 1: keeping is Phase 2.

A site map, unless one's site is so very self-mapping (as forums typically are) as to not need one, is a critical element. They read your front page. Happily, they have not yet run away screaming. Now what? Where do they go next, and why? And from there? And so on . . . .

We must always try, hard as it invariably is, to see our sites through the eyes of one visiting for the first time, with modest knowledge and, sad to say, perhaps scant wit. Can we keep them? Can we send them on to the pages of importance?

That is what site maps are for first, and robot direction only second.

 

Are we talking HTML sitemap or XML sitemap?

HTML sitemap is very useful for the user and handy for search engine spiders.

XML sitemaps are very useful for SE Spiders and help getting more pages indexed in Google etc.

An SE agreement on common one XML sitemap means that you only ned to add this line of code to your robots.txt file to all search engings use the same XML sitemap:

sitemap:http://www.yourdomain.com/sitemap.xm

Cheers