subject: What Is An Xml Sitemap And Why Does Your Website Need One? [print this page] You'd probably struggle to find the most relevant content, right?
XML sitemaps are designed to do the same thing for search engines that an index might do for a reader. Although Google and the search engines are smart enough to crawl content without a sitemap, XML maps helps them answer the following questions:
What pages (URLs) can be found on this website?
What are the most important pages?
What pages are available for crawling?
When was this page last updated?
How frequently is this page updated?
When shall I crawl this page again?
So, while not having an XML map doesn't mean you'll never see your site on Google, having one does give you some control over how, when and in what order your pages are crawled (and even ranked).
What's the difference between HTML and XML sitemaps?
Really, HTML sitemaps are primarily for users, XML maps are for search engines. In many cases it's advisable to use both.
HTML sitemaps use hyperlinks to list content (and form a viewable page on your website). However, they don't give you the same ability to set page priorities or crawl frequency etc. as XML.
XML sitemaps are now used by all the major search engines. XML lists URLs, instead of hyperlinks. You can have more than one XML map, or point to an index of multiple sitemaps.
So why else is XML useful?
As mentioned above, XML sitemaps can help you set page priorities and inform Google which pages you value most. However, there are other useful factors to XML:
It ensures new pages are indexed quickly and allows frequently updated pages to get crawled more regularly. (This is also useful when you change content on old pages meaning you don't have to wait weeks for Google to crawl it again.)
It makes Flash sites more visible. A problem some Flash or Ajax-heavy websites face is ensuring that content is readable by Google.
It can be be used as a diagnostic tool for your website. If you implement a new XML sitemap and crawl your site you'll be able to discover any broken pages and errors. In addition, it may point to any duplicate content that could be harming your search rankings.
It works alongside (not over) normal ranking factors. This is why it's still advisable to also have an HTML map and follow SEO best practice.
It can help you check and monitor exactly how many pages are indexed from your site in total. This is particularly useful for large eCommerce and media sites.
If you want to add an XML sitemap it's worth speaking to your website development team. It's easy to implement and once there can help your site visibility improve. After all, anything you can do to help Google understand your content can only aid your site's performance in the long run.
