Step 6 - Promotion (Continued)

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Sitemaps - Page 3

A sitemap is a collection of hyperlinks that outlines a Website's structure. It can be created manually or through an automated process. Reference: A Webmaster's Glossary of Terms.

The four major search engines ( Google and Ask now Yahoo and Microsoft) have announced they the “autodiscovery” of Sitemaps. This allows Webmasters to specify the location of their Sitemaps within their robots.txt file, eliminating the need to submit sitemaps to each search engine separately.

Build your Site Map online. Generate and edit Sitemaps for free. XML, HTML and Text formats.

XML, text or HTML. Which Format Do I Choose?

The XML format is now recognized by main search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Live Search, Ask. I expect more search engines will follow in the near future.

The text format gives only the list of URL of pages to be indexed. It is accepted by Google and Yahoo!.

The HTML format is for visitors of your website. It should display URL links, titles, page description information. If you index it with search engines it allows you to provide URL of pages that are not indexed.

Once you have created a sitemap for your Website you should visit this page and Validate your XML Sitemap.

After your sitemap has been validated visit this page and submit your sitemap to Submit MSN, Google, Yahoo and Ask. Although, autodiscovery gives siteowners the ability to easily share their sitemaps with all search engines at once, without the overhead of manually submitting them to each one. I suggest you notify search engines initially once your sitemap is created and Validated.

Go to Page 4: Additional factors.

Do You Need Help? Don't be shy, if you have questions or need help creating your Website, just ask me. I work cheap -- free. The only dumb question is the one not asked!