Site Map - Its impact on SEO & Factors affecting it.

Site Map

Let's start with the first question that pops to our mind, "What is a Site Map?"

A site map is a visual or textually organized model of a Web site's content that allows the users to navigate through the site to find the information they are looking for, just as a traditional geographical map helps people find places they are looking for in the real world. A site map is a kind of interactive table of contents, in which each listed item links directly to its counterpart sections of the Web site. Site maps perform the same service that the layout maps in large shopping malls perform: without them, it is possible to explore a complex site by trial and error, but if you want to be sure to find what you're looking for, the most efficient way to do that is to consult a model of the resources available.

In its simplest form, a sitemap is a document that lists all URLs of your website (that you want crawled). The document details additional information such as the date a page was last modified, how frequently a page may change and whether the page should be given priority over others. Specific sitemaps can be created for each type of content. For example, one sitemaps for blog posts, another for videos etc.

Also, your sitemap can provide valuable metadata associated with the pages you list in that sitemap: Metadata is information about a webpage, such as when the page was last updated, how often the page is changed, and the importance of the page relative to other URLs in the site.

You can use a sitemap to provide Google with metadata about specific types of content on your pages, including video, image, and mobile content. For example, you can give Google the information about video and image content:

• A sitemap video entry can specify the video running time, category, and age appropriateness rating.
• A sitemap image entry can include the image subject matter, type, and license.

The protocol was set up to help search engines crawl your website more intelligently. It was first introduced by Google in 2005, with MSN and Yahoo offering their support to the protocol a year later. Sitemaps are known as URL inclusion protocols as they advise search engines what to crawl. On the other hand, the robots.txt file is known as an exclusion protocol as it advises search engines what not to crawl.

They help search engines navigate your website more easily, which helps search engines index your content better. If you think of your website as a building, the sitemap is a blueprint that informs search engines exactly where everything is located.

Read More on HTML Site Maps & XML site Maps