Sitemaps: HTML vs. XML

Welcome to the latest issue of The Net Impact newsletter, bringing you valuable information and tips to improve your website! In this issue, we will examine the sitemap as an effective tool for search engine indexing and user navigation.

What Are Sitemaps?

A sitemap is a page on a website that gives a clear overview of the structure and navigation of the website to the viewer.  When a user is looking for specific information on a website, a sitemap can help the user find what he or she is looking for without having to scroll through multiple pages. 

What Can Sitemaps Do to Improve Your Website’s Presence on the Internet?

Sitemaps can help both human viewers and search engine robots locate resources on your site. There are, however, differences in the ways that human viewers and search engine robots use sitemaps, so you should consider adding sitemaps tailored for each. For human viewers, your website should have an attractive, clearly linked HTML sitemap labeled “Sitemap” that it is easy for users to find and understand. 

In the past, an HTML sitemap was enough to help search engines index a site.  However, larger sites and sites with dynamic pages sometimes have too many links on the HTML sitemap page and may be incompletely read by search engines. In order to ensure maximum compatibility with search engine robots, consider adding an XML sitemap.

What Is the Difference Between an HTML and an XML Sitemap?

An XML sitemap contains all of the information discussed above, but is formatted in a common XML layout that has been defined by the search engines for this use.  Larger search engines such as Google and Yahoo have written guidelines for an XML version of a sitemap that can be submitted directly to these search engines.  A Google or Yahoo sitemap essentially performs the same function as an HTML sitemap but is written for search engine robots to crawl more easily in XML format. 

Sitemaps can help index a website that has:

• New content or new pages
• Few internal links
• Dynamic content

How Are XML Sitemaps Changing the Future of Search Engine Indexing?

While simply submitting your site to search engines may eventually get your pages indexed, submitting an XML sitemap will speed up the process and ensure all pages on your site are indexed organically. So, no matter what Google’s indexing algorithm is, or how it changes, an XML sitemap will help make your pages visible to the search engine robots.  In addition, an XML sitemap can tell Google which pages are most important and should be crawled first.  To make sure your sitemaps are effective, each must be updated for both visitors and search engine robots when the content of your website changes.

5 Things to Remember About Sitemaps

• Sitemaps allow you to tell search engines about the pages on your website – architecture, navigation, importance of pages and updates.
• Sitemaps are useful for all websites
• Sitemaps are built for human visitors and search engine robots
• Sitemaps can help visitors find what they are looking for on your site and help search engines index your site
• Sitemaps come in two formats: HTML and XML.  An HTML sitemap is more effective for visitors and XML sitemap is more effective for search engines .

Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions or click on our logo below to go to our website.

Until next time,

The TNI Team

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