XML Sitemap

Google introduced Google Sitemaps so web developers can publish lists of links from across their sites. The basic premise is that some sites have a large number of dynamic pages that are only available through the use of forms and user actions. The Sitemap files can then be used to indicate to a web crawler how such pages can be found. Google, Bing, Yahoo and Ask now jointly support the Sitemaps protocol. Since Bing, Yahoo, Ask, and Google use the same protocol, having a Sitemap lets the four biggest search engines have the updated page information. XML Sitemaps have replaced the older method of "submitting to search engines" by filling out a form on the search engine's submission page. Now web developers submit a Sitemap directly.

XML Sitemap Benefit

Sitemaps do not guarantee all links will be crawled, and being crawled does not guarantee indexing. However, a Sitemap is still the best insurance for getting a search engine to learn about your entire site. Sitemaps are a useful tool for making sites built in Flash and other non-html languages search-able. Note that because the website's navigation is built with Adobe Flash, the initial homepage of a site developed in this way would probably be found by an automated search program. However, the subsequent pages are unlikely to be found without an XML Sitemap.

NetInverse Sitemap Generator

This free tool can crawl your site and generate XML-Sitemap compliant sitemap.