Site map
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A site map (or sitemap) is a graphical representation of the architecture of a web site. [1] It can be either a document in any form used as a planning tool for web design, or a web page that lists the pages on a web site, typically organized in hierarchical fashion. This helps visitors and search engine bots find pages on the site.
While some developers argue that site index is a more appropriately used term to relay page function, web visitors are used to seeing each term and generally associate both as one and the same.
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[edit] Benefits of sitemaps
Site maps can improve search engine optimization of a site by making sure that all the pages can be found. This is especially important if a site uses Macromedia Flash or JavaScript menus that do not include HTML links.
Most search engines will only follow a finite number of links from a page, so if a site is very large, the site map may be required so that search engines and visitors can access all content on the site.
[edit] XML Sitemaps
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 entries. The sitemap files can then be used to indicate to a web crawler how such pages can be found.
Google, MSN and Yahoo now jointly support the Sitemaps protocol.
For an example, Discuxx.com is a forum using dynamic pages. Google would only return less than 100 result without using sitemap. Once sitemap is provided, there are more than one millions pages result. Since MSN, Yahoo, and Google use the same protocol now, having a sitemap would let the three biggest search engines have the updated pages information. [2]
[edit] See also
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 entries. The sitemap files can then be used to indicate to a web crawler how such pages can be found. Google, MSN and Yahoo now jointly support the Sitemaps protocol.
For an example, Discuxx.com is a forum using dynamic pages. Google would only return less than 100 result without using sitemap. Once sitemap is provided, there are more than one millions pages result. Since MSN, Yahoo, and Google use the same protocol now, having a sitemap would let the three biggest search engines have the updated pages information. [2]
[edit] See also Google Sitemaps
[edit] References ^ Peter Morville, Information Architecture on the World Wide Web, Feb 1998, pp:58 ^ Joint announcement from Google, Yahoo, MSN supporting Sitemaps Specification of the common XML format.
[edit] External links Common Official Website - Jointly maintained website by Google, Yahoo, MSN for an XML sitemap format. Tips about Sitemaps Build a sitemap at a mouse click with an open-source sitemap generator (XML, text or HTML). JSiteMap A Java open source site map generator.
[edit] Online generator Makeasitemap.com - Free, unlimited online Google XML sitemap generator. Sitemaps - Online XML sitemap generator with HTML and text options (unlimited free tool). Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Site_map" Category: XML
[edit] References
- ^ Peter Morville, Information Architecture on the World Wide Web, Feb 1998, pp:58
- ^ Joint announcement from Google, Yahoo, MSN supporting Sitemaps
- Specification of the common XML format.
[edit] External links
- Common Official Website - Jointly maintained website by Google, Yahoo, MSN for an XML sitemap format.
- Tips about Sitemaps Build a sitemap at a mouse click with an open-source sitemap generator (XML, text or HTML).
- JSiteMap A Java open source site map generator.
[edit] Online generator
- Makeasitemap.com - Free, unlimited online Google XML sitemap generator.
- Sitemaps - Online XML sitemap generator with HTML and text options (unlimited free tool).
