The world of online optimization can be a frustrating and confusing place, but fortunately the language used everyday by SEO specialists can be easily translated so you can better understand what’s really going on behind all that data. One of the biggest aspects happens to be HTML and XML sitemaps, which almost every website uses on the Internet right now.
What are HTML & XML Sitemaps?
Simply put, these sitemaps are road maps of your website that web crawlers use to better understand the website’s placement on search results, but there are key differences between HTML and XML sitemaps.
HTML vs. XML
- HTML is best for smaller websites with not as much content since the web crawler can read the HTML sitemap easier. For larger websites with more content, this is usually not practical because there’s too much information.
- On the other hand, XML sitemaps are not physical pages on your website but rather an “invisible” file type on your backend. It is best for larger websites producing daily content.
Regardless, both of these types of sitemaps are used for SEO purposes and are quite important for you to use properly.
Optimizing Your Sitemap Like an SEO Specialist
When you’re building a sitemap, the main focus is to make sure that search engines can read the file as users are only looking for content like blog posts or videos on your website. The best thing you can do for your sitemap is to include all URLs from your website as well as making separate sitemaps for different parts of your website to make sure they can be crawled faster and easier.
Unlike other files as part of your website, sitemaps don’t have any regulated file type or direct way of being seen by web crawlers. That’s why it is best to send them directly through the Webmaster Tools for all major search engines that you want to be indexed on (this is where an SEO specialist can come in handy). Once it has been submitted, the search engine will then parse through all the code and start indexing at a faster rate.
There can be sitemaps just for video, images, and news feeds, and they all can be as large or as small as they need to be for your website. There are numerous guides on creating sitemaps online as well as an SEO specialist who can do all the heavy work for you. Does your website have an HTML or XML sitemap?
Cultura Web Design offers a variety of services including Internet Marketing and SEO specialists for small businesses in Miami and Fort Lauderdale. You can learn more about our services or contact us for a personal interview.
