Is a sitemap worth it?

[smith]

I'm toying around with adding a sitemap for Google and Yahoo. Does it actually help any or does google/yahoo look at these things badly? I'm curious to know other peoples results with these things.

[Jordan]

I just put it on CodeCall not to long ago. I'm not sure how it helps but I will let you know once I find the results.

[GMailGuy]

How do you generate a sitemap? Do you use Create your Google Sitemap Online - XML Sitemaps or you have better methods?

Thanks.

[Jordan]

No, vbSEO (a vBulletin SEO component) has support with it - that is what I used anyway.

[twalters84]

Hey there,

I would absolutely recommend creating a sitemap for google and yahoo.

Realize that there are two different types of sitemaps. There is one you can create for users and there is another you can create for search engines - XML sitemaps are the way to go for search engines.

I would only submit your XML sitemap when your website is fully ready to be released.

Make sure you do not include files in it that you do not want to appear in the google index.

Google reads the sitemaps practically right away. Yahoo may take up to two weeks in my experience.

If you need a good example of an XML sitemap, just PM me.

Sincerely,
Travis Walters
admin@codebuyers.com

[Sionofdarkness]

Sitemaps are only good for indexing, and if you do SEO naturally, you'll get indexed and won't need a sitemap. I think if you need a sitemap to get indexed, you're not doing very well.

[Kaabi]

If you have a sitemap on your website, that should be enough to get all your pages indexed.

[robertflorish]

Creating and Submitting a google will help to index all the webpages of the site.