Simply put, site maps are a list of the pages on your site. There are two kinds of site maps: those that humans can use to navigate a site, and encoded site maps for the use of web bots and crawlers.
Google encourages webmasters to create the second kind of site map, which is written in XML. If you have this kind of site map registered with Google, your site will likely be more fully and quickly indexed, and changes to your site will be noticed more frequently.
Sites with certain characteristics will benefit from site mapping. Here are the kinds of sites that will benefit the most from mapping (although there is no downside, so site mapping is something all sites should do):
Sites with dynamic content
Sites that have pages that the Googlebot can’t easily crawl and process—for example, pages featuring AJAX or Flash
New sites with few inbound links (the Googlebot crawls the Web by following links from one page to another, so it may be hard for Google to discover your site if it isn’t well linked)
Sites with a large archive of content pages that are not well linked to each other or are not linked at all
To get mileage with Google, the site map should conform to the standards set by Sitemaps.org. At the time of this writing, the current version of the standard is Sitemap Protocol version 0.9, with the specifications found at http://www.sitemaps.org/protocol.php.
For example, here’s a sample site map containing one URL (and one page):
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
<url>
<loc>http://www.digitalfieldguide.com/</loc>
<lastmod>2009-01-01</lastmod>
<changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
</url>
</urlset>If your eyes start to glaze over at the beginning of a discussion of XML schema and the fine points of a specific protocol, fear not. There are automated tools, many of them free, that can do it for you, and you don’t really need to know much about how site maps work to take advantage of the concept.
To use site mapping while only maintaining a bare nod to the technical side of what is involved, pick one of the site mapping programs suggested by Google at http://code.google.com/p/sitemap-generators/wiki/SitemapGenerators. Many of these programs are free; if there is a fee, it is indicated on the page with a dollar sign ($) next to the link for the software.
For example, GSiteCrawler is software on the Google-approved list that is currently available for free download on the Windows platform. You download it to your Windows desktop and start the New Site Wizard shown in Figure 3-8.
Once you’ve entered basic information, the New Site Wizard crawls your site to generate the site map as shown in Figure 3-9. This is a process that can take hours if your site is extensive.
Once your site has been completely crawled, you’ll need to generate the site map file as shown in Figure 3-10. Save the site map file to your local computer, and then transfer it to the root directory of your website. The FTP transfer is generally accomplished using FTP software, such as Fetch for the Mac or WS_FTP for Windows.
Once your site map has been uploaded to the root directory of your website, you can point Google to it using the Webmaster Dashboard (shown in Figure 3-4) and clicking on the “Site configuration” link and choosing the Sitemaps tab. You will need to be verified in relation to the website.
In the Sitemaps window, shown in Figure 3-11, enter the name of your site map and click Submit.
