I decided to make these frequently asked questions about sitemaps to help relieve the amount of same thread questions. Hopefully this can help answer any questions you have related to Google Sitemaps. You’ll find this FAQ will be able to answer most of your questions related to sitemaps, if you don’t you could always post your question in the Google Sitemaps sub-fourm on digitalpoint.

Q: What is a sitemap?

A: A sitemap is an XML file that lists all available URLs for a website, along with additional information about each URL in the file. You should always create a sitemap for your website. This will help search engines crawl your site faster and display more content. Right now the standard sitemap format is XML, all major search engine use this format for sitemaps.

——————————————————————–

Q: How do I create a XML Sitemap?

A: This is one task you will not want to do in notepad, it can be done, but would be very time consuming. There are many websites & freeware programs that can build an XML sitemap for you. I don’t recommend purchasing software to create XML sitemaps; many freeware programs do the exact same thing. Below is a few links to free XML sitemap generators & websites.

——————————————————————–

Q: How do I submit my XML sitemap to Google?

A: This is a very simple thing to do; I also recommend placing a direct link to your sitemap on your homepage. You can the Google Webmasters Central to submit your sitemap to Google. There are many other great features and tools with Google Webmasters Central as well; you’ll find it very useful. Below is a link to Google Webmasters Central.

——————————————————————–