| While there are several on-page and off-page | | | | has been made explicitly clear by Google, as it has |
| search engine optimization techniques that play an | | | | stated that having two site maps will not lead to |
| important role in garnering higher page rank and | | | | any penalty for your website. |
| link popularity, the importance of an often | | | | In November 2006, the top three search engines |
| forgotten technique is usually underestimated - | | | | (Google, Yahoo! and MSN) came together to |
| sitemaps. Simply put, these are a map of your | | | | create an industry standard for site maps for all |
| website, a single page (or hierarchy of pages) that | | | | websites. This standard was named 'sitemaps |
| show the complete structure of your website | | | | 0.90.' For all those webmasters who wish to get |
| along with the various sections, the main and | | | | their sites indexed by these top search engines, |
| secondary links and other details. A good sitemap | | | | following the protocols laid down in sitemaps 0.90 |
| helps visitors to your site, navigate your site | | | | is a prerequisite. |
| easily. | | | | Generating and Submitting Sitemaps To Search |
| Moreover, having an updated sitemap on your | | | | Engines |
| website helps not only your visitors, but the | | | | Once you have your website ready with your |
| search engines too. Consider sitemaps to be a | | | | XML site map, you need to upload your website |
| unique way to communicate with the search | | | | to your server and then notify Google, through |
| engines and telling them where you'd like them to | | | | Webmaster Tools, where your sitemap lives . |
| crawl on your website. | | | | Typically, there are two ways of generating a site |
| Sitemaps and Search Engines | | | | map. |
| Sitemaps have been around for many years now | | | | 1. You can install a sitemap generator script on |
| and despite the fact that they are not a novelty, | | | | your website. |
| it's only after the search engines adopted them | | | | 2. You can use an on-line sitemap generation tool |
| that they have suddenly caught the eye of all | | | | to create one. |
| good webmasters as part of their search engine | | | | Though the first option is difficult it offers you |
| optimization strategy. If you simply want to use | | | | more control over the final result. Google Sitemap |
| sitemaps for search engine optimization purposes, | | | | Generator is a good tool that can be used for |
| then conventional HTML site maps are not for | | | | generating a site map. Since the tool is coded in |
| you. For example: Google Sitemaps should be | | | | Python script, you need to have Python 2.2 |
| written in XML, which is very different from the | | | | version on your web server to run it. |
| regular HTML site maps that are used for website | | | | The second method of generating a site map |
| visitors. | | | | while being easier doesn't give you much flexibility. |
| So does this mean that you need to have two | | | | Google also suggests some 3rd party Sitemap |
| sitemaps for your website? The answer is - Yes. | | | | tools but warns users that it has not tested or |
| One site map is for Googlebot or the Google | | | | verified them. Having created a site map, it's time |
| spider, while the other is for your visitors. You | | | | to upload it to your website and let Google, |
| should also be aware that having two sitemaps is | | | | Yahoo and MSN know about it. |
| not considered to be duplicate content and this | | | | |