A sitemap is basically an XML file with a few pieces of data in it.
It used to be that when you heard the word sitemap, you thought of
something like this. This is a sitemap that is easy to read by us
humans. But the other sitemap is a file that can easily be read by
a computer.
Sitemaps.org has more
documentation as well.
Programs
There are a few different programs to help you
create a sitemap. Some will even upload the sitemap to your
website for you. There are
standalone programs (which you download and install to your
computer) or
online websites to help
you create a sitemap. Usually, some of the
online websites will limit you to 500
URLs, but most of the
standalone
programs
have no URL limits.
Google Sitemap
Google created a protocol to help the search engine spider your website. They call this a sitemap.
You can submit your site to Google through their
webmaster tools.
You will need a Google account to submit your sitemap.
Yahoo Sitemap
You can
submit your sitemap to Yahoo as well through your Yahoo account.
They will rely on the same protocol as Google.
Currently, as of 1 March 2006, Yahoo is still supporting the urllist.txt
file. This is just a simple TXT file with a list of your URLs in
it.
MSN Sitemap
You can add your link to the robots.txt file and MSN will be able
to locate it:
Sitemap: http://www.loudsitemaps.com/sitemap.xml
Or you can sign up at
Live Search
Webmaster Center to have the ability to check the status of your XML
sitemap.
Ask.com Sitemap
You can add your link to the robots.txt file and ask.com will be able
to locate it:
Sitemap: http://www.loudsitemaps.com/sitemap.xml
Apparently, this will be the new way for some of the search engines to
locate your sitemap.
