[Dano2]

Hi, just curious about creating a site map for my website. I've seen some site maps and they just basically look like links to your pages of your site. Is that all it is or is there more to creating one that I should know? Thanks...dano

[Mumbodog]

I don't build websites, but use tons, The purpose of a site map is to show all the important pages on your website on on one page, makes it easier to navigate larger websites. I don't see a purpose on a small website, these can be linked to on the home page.

Yes, just a bunch of links.

my 2 cents

.

[Dano2]

Thanks for the input. I have about 60 pages on my site and will have more so am considering doing that. But want to know if technically there is something else to it other than making the page with just the links...

[Mumbodog]

But want to know if technically there is something else to it other than making the page with just the links...

Hopefully someone more knowledgeable than I will chime in.

.

[colinsp]

Sitemaps, properly formatted is something that Google likes. As far as Google is concerned there is a bit more to it than that. Have a look at the Webmaster tools in Google. have a look at this site http://tools.webmasters.sk/ or this one http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/ They both have tools that will do it for you.

[jlhaslip]

There are several versions of "site maps".
For your site visitors, an html page full of links is suggested.
For Google, they expect an xml file containing different information as per the above webmaster tools link.
The two site maps serve different purposes. Which one are you looking for?

[Dano2]

Don't know which type I guess that's why I was asking...the one for google sounds confusing...

[colinsp]

Dano, If you want it for your users create it as you suggest with links if you want it for SEO then do it the Google way with an XML file. The links I gave above will crawl your site and create the Google XML file for you which you then submit the URL to Google in the webmaster tools as I mentioned above. Some of the sitemap generators create both types for you automatically. IIRC Yahoo wants an HTML sitemap so you do need both types to get good rankings in search engines.

It all depends on what you want to achieve from having a sitemap.

[Dano2]

Now I see what your saying, thanks I will check that out...