What Is The Importance Of XML Site Mapping?
You may remember that back in Chapter 3 there was a brief mention of XML site mapping. It’s time to revisit XML site mapping so that you understand how it can help your web site.
XML site mapping is actually the companion to the Robots Exclusion Protocol. It’s an inclusion protocol-a method by which you can tell crawlers what is available for them to index. In its most basic form, an XML site map is a file that lists all the URLS for a web site. This file allows webmasters to include additional information about each URL such as the date the URL was last updated, how often the URL changes, and how important the URL is in relation to the other pages on the site.
The XML site map is used to ensure that crawlers can find certain pages on your web site, like dynamic pages. The site-map file can be placed in the robots.txt file or you can submit it directly to a search engine. Doing either of these, however, is not guaranteed to get your site indexed by the search engine, nor will it get the search engine to index your site any sooner.
An XML site map also does not guarantee that all of the pages on your site will be indexed. It’s simply a guide which the crawler can use to find pages that it might otherwise miss.
Creating an XML site map is the first step to including it in your robots.txt file or to submitting it to a search engine. There are many sites on the Internet offering applications that will help you. create your site map. For example, Google offers a site-map generator that will help you create your site map, once you’ve downloaded and installed the required software. But Google isn’t the only game in town. There are dozens of other site-map generators that work just as well.