To some, sitemaps might seem like a needless chore, and others, a sitemap is pretty much an essential for any website. The latter of the two would be correct. Having a sitemap that is constructed with a clear goal in mind could be the driving factor to a website's success. It will provide a vital link between a website and search engine that nurtures the relationship that is vital to the website's prosperity. A well-structured sitemap will make a website searchable by all search engines, and will provide users with more accurate search results when they are looking for keywords or key terms that are associated with a website. These website site crawlers used by search engines depend on sitemaps to point them in the direction of the correct website that a user is searching for.

Technology is making life easier, better and enjoyable. Owning a website is nolonger a reserve of the few with technological know-how. In fact, anyone who can use a MS word can now own and even manage a website without any support from the tech-savvy fellows. This is the good news, but here is the bad. Because everyone can create and own a site, there are currently far too many websites in the world; in fact, a billion to be precise as at October 2014. Most of these websites are very active, and fall under common niches. Large numbers are synonymous with competition, and in this case, all sites are competing for search engines’ attention. If you have the content online, it has to be found by the search engines so that it can be availed to web users.

Having a sitemap on your website is no longer a question of ‘if’ or ‘why’, but rather about ‘when.’ That is, there are many benefits that website owners get from this simple act that can even be automated with the help of a sitemap generator. It is not only good for your SEO, but also highly recommended for a better user experience in the long run. If you have just created a new website or included fresh pages, it is paramount that you ensure the pages are easily discoverable. You can make this happen by creating a sitemap, submitting it to the search engines of your choice (start with Google) and then updating it.

There are three main varieties of ways to create sitemaps. The choice will depend on a number of factors, ranging from the nature of your website, content quantity, intended outcome, among others. Note that you can easily create sitemap using a sitemap generator.

• Indexed Sitemap: This is a directory or an alphabetical listing of your site’s pages.
• Complete Categorical Sitemap: This is the most popular comprehensive sitemap with classified links into categories. It is much easier to search for information and you can easily move between categories.
• Restricted Categorical: Here, all links in a specific category are displayed at a go. However, all links of a website are not shown as is the case with categorical sitemap and therefore limits the lists links in some categories which simplifies viewing and doesn’t strain the eyes.

There are 9 sitemap formats that are supported by Google's Webmaster Tools. Sitemaps allow for a webmaster to inform various search engines about website links on a website that are available to be crawled. The sitemaps also provide information to webmasters about each URL in an XML file. The additional details include when the URL was last updated, how often it changes, and how important it is when compared to other URLs in the website. This will allow search engines to crawl the site more efficiently. There are varying ways to generate sitemaps depending on the type of website or content that is being posted. This is necessary because content audits use the sitemaps to crawl, thus providing information on how to make it better. Allowing the correct sitemap types not only lends to a more successful website crawl, but also to better success in search engines.

What is a XML Sitemaps?

XML Site maps are documents that assist Google, Bing, and other search engines to understand a website’s content while looking through it for information users are looking for. Sitemaps are protocols that give the webmaster of a website the ability to inform search engines about the links of a website that can be viewed. Sitemaps give the permission to find every webpage to the engine that could otherwise be missed while indexing it.

Designing and hosting an amazing website and writing superior quality content is one thing, but having them indexed by search engines is a whole different ball game. There are currently over a billion websites on the web that have to be indexed, and sometimes it takes a long time to be visited by the search engines’ bots. Furthermore, when a site has hundreds and even thousands of pages, it becomes even more important for web-masters to track a website’s content, but you can do that with a content inventory tool.

Websites have become leading information sources in the world. Actually, that is one of the leading reasons why people spend hours behind their personal computers researching, laughing at jokes, sharing stories online, making purchases, reading reviews, and even playing games. This content is constantly updated on the site, but the only way search engines can learn about their existence is through natural crawling by bots, which might take weeks. This is why many people have tried to learn and understand how to create sitemaps, which is actually just a step towards the right direction, because there is more.

Every website owner and online entrepreneur wants to succeed, hungers for the best search results and is willing to do anything to make it t the top of the search engines result pages through increased traffic to the site. Search engines optimization is a complex process that takes time and lots of resources to be realized. New algorithms are frequently released by the search engines led by search giant Google are frequently unleashing new updates aimed at ensuring that only the best and deserving websites attain higher rankings in SERPs. In as much as different experts hold different opinions about the influence of the Sitemaps’ influence on SEO, one thing that cannot be ignored is that, when you create a sitemap, you will complement your company’s SEO efforts.

In-depth knowledge of HTML and XML Sitemaps with other technical terms has for a long time been reserved for website developers and administrators. This is no longer because currently, it is imperative for every webmaster to master HTML and XML if you are to realize a website’s maximum potential. You can createa sitemap using a myriad of online tools like DYNO Mapper, an effective website sitemapgenerator even if you are not technologically endowed.

Ever since its inception back in 2005, XML sitemaps have helped current search engines to effectively index and understand websites, and their content better. Unfortunately, some webmasters still overlook this crucial file, with some websites still running without it, not because the owners don’t know how to create a sitemap, but because they don’t understand the worth. Though initially created by Google, the search engines giant later abandoned its baby and joined hands with other companies to design the XML standard, replacing the Google XML standard. This new standards is supported by Yahoo, Google, Bing, and other search engines.