Yes you read that correctly, and no, it’s not a typo. Many people often fail to distinguish between a Sitemap and a sitemap. In simple words, the sitemap for visitors gives an overview of the structural linkage of your website. Sort of a map or layout of your site for visitors to see how your site is laid out and help them navigate your site.
However, a Sitemap with a capital S is a list of your web pages, which you should create and submit to major search engines like Google and Yahoo, so that the search engine robots are able to crawl the pages whose URLs may not have been discovered by the normal crawling process. Sitemaps are submitted in XML format will help Google to know about pages on your site that might not have been otherwise discovered or crawled.
When you make any changes to your existing website by adding or deleting some web pages, you should resubmit your Sitemap to the search engines. Though many people often create a new Sitemap for every change, Google in particular doesn't recommend the same. Instead, it asks for a revised version to be submitted.
As a recap, a Sitemap can help:
- Improve your search engine optimization by ensuring that all your pages are found easily.
- Increase your site’s visibility
- Notify the search engine robots of any changes in the web pages or about the addition/deletion of content
While a sitemap helps your readers to locate the required information quickly without leaving the site, a Sitemap makes the job of the search engine crawlers easier. Remember that the latter is not supposed to be accessible by visitors. So, you should allow only the search engine bots to access the XML Sitemap and not put a link to it from where visitors access it.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
