The Difference Between a Sitemap and a Site Map


January 19, 2007

Most people are familiar with the term "site map", but how does it differ from "sitemap"? Besides the obvious spelling, these two terms have completely different meanings. Knowing the difference when talking with your customer versus your Digital marketing team can make the word of a difference.

Site Map

A site map is a collection of plain text links to all of the pages on your website. Site maps are standard on most websites and are most commonly linked to in the footer section of the site. By providing a site map, you will be providing a resource for your site visitors who are having trouble finding the site information they are looking for. The site map page will also assist in helping search engines spiders to index all of the content on the site.

 

Sitemap

A sitemap is an XML file that lists URLs for a site in addition to providing metadata about each of those URLs. Google and Yahoo have really pushed the new XML sitemap protocol recently. Google Webmaster Central allows site owners to add a sitemap to help them to properly index your entire site. Yahoo Site Explorer also allows you to submit a sitemap. This is really helpful if you are noticing that Yahoo has not indexed some of your URLs. Both of these services are free to use, but required one to be logged into their respective services. To learn more about sitemaps you can visit sitemaps.org

Sales & Marketing Technologies is Central Florida’s most established Digital marketing and web development company. We know what it takes to get your website optimized for not only search engines, but for your customers. Contact us today to find out more about enhancements you can make to your website to unlock your potential to thrive online.

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