If you are familiar with RSS feeds you can think of an XML sitemap a bit like a special RSS feed for all of your website. An XML sitemap uses XML to represent all the pages of your website in a structured format to provide search engines with important information about the content of your website .
The Sitemap protocol is an open standard supported by the main search engines including Google, Microsoft Bing, Yandex, Baidu and more.
An XML Sitemap contains 4 basic elements for each page in your website, but can be extended to include more information :
These are marked up using XML as in the diagram below :
You can create sitemaps in a simple text editor such as XML or use a tool to get you started. We provide a free online sitemap generator, a word press plugin or a Windows dowload.
The links below provide a couple of example sitemap produced using our online sitemap generator for this website.
It's quick and easy to generate a sitemap for your website using our free online sitemap generator or you can give one of our other tools a try.
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