Reasons for having an XML site map

XML site maps are an alternative approach to site maps. In general site maps can help both search bots and humans gain a better understanding of a website--especially a complex website or an eCommerce system with a broad assortment of products. XML do have some specific advantages over the more common HTML site map approach. (Some of these advantages will be listed below.)

Some content management systems may even auto-generate an XML site map with relative ease. In cases where there is no auto-generated method, a web designer may simply create one manually and upload the file to the site server or submit the map to Google's Webmaster tool.

Some of the benefits include:

• Help with bot crawl rate frequency
• Helps the spider reach further into a complex website (helps with pages that may not be indexed)
• Improves the accuracy of search ranking
• Set the priority for each page
• Helps the crawl spider with fast and immediate indexing

Common syntax for an XML site map:

<url>
<loc>www.ironpaper.com</loc>
<priority>0.00</priority>
<lastmod>date time</lastmod>
<changefreq>daily/monthly</changefreq>
</url>