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**DotHQ** · 02-07-2007, 10:29 AM

I did not think site-maps were important to SEO until reading it here.

So, now I'm getting ready to add site maps to my sites.

I'm curious, how do you create your site maps?

TIA!

**LadynRed** · 02-07-2007, 11:39 AM

Google SiteMapper from CoffeeCup Software -- cheap and easy, even submits the site map to Google from within the software.

**Learning Newbie** · 02-07-2007, 03:33 PM

You only need a sitemap if spiders can't crawl your site.

**LadynRed** · 02-08-2007, 10:49 AM

Quote:

You only need a sitemap if spiders can't crawl your site.

Not true. Google will tell you in it's Webmaster Tools section that submitting a sitemap will be helpful.

Using a sitemap is also very useful for visitors to your site.

**neomaximus2h** · 02-08-2007, 11:23 AM

I am currently in the middle of creating a free PHP script that will do this for people, it will create the HTML for your navigation page as well as create the google sitemap you need.

There are plans to make this a free tool on my website as well for people to use to their hearts content. I will let you know when it is done

**travelagent** · 02-10-2007, 12:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LadynRed

Google SiteMapper from CoffeeCup Software -- cheap and easy, even submits the site map to Google from within the software.

Why would you buy a SiteMap when there's so many free one's out there?

**travelagent** · 01:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LadynRed

Not true. Google will tell you in it's Webmaster Tools section that submitting a sitemap will be helpful.

Using a sitemap is also very useful for visitors to your site.

I stopped using a Google Sitemap, after I found out about ROR sitemaps.

ROR is a rapidly growing XML format for describing any object on a website (sitemaps, products, services, menus, images, reviews, contact info, business info, etc), so any search engine can better understand its content.

You can generate a ROR Sitemap with up to 1,000 URLs for ALL search engines, not just Google -- a desktop version is also available that will get up to 5,000 URLs ... get it here

**LadynRed** · 02-10-2007, 10:36 AM

CoffeeCup's Google Sitemapper creates the sitemap in XML and HTML.

I tried a number of the free sitemappers.. I can't even remember how many.. I found them all to be lacking in one way or another. CoffeCup's program was less than $25 and does a great job.

I'll check out ROR.. sounds interesting.

**travelagent** · 02-10-2007, 01:53 PM

That's the trouble with us "old farts" -- we're always experimenting!

Actually, I have both ROR & XML sitemaps running on my server, from my website.

**jingquan** · 02-14-2007, 08:30 AM

My pages are few, so I did it manually.

**dzigner** · 02-15-2007, 02:28 PM

hi
i have ror and xml, both too. Also, for free ROR sitemaps, the address is http://www.rorweb.com/rormap.htm
Thanks

**BlueEye** · 02-15-2007, 03:07 PM

ROR sitemaps are the way to go in terms of convenience.

**devinb83** · 02-15-2007, 04:59 PM

my site has around 40-50 main pages, 2 of those pages are created from database data which change based on the query string. i.e individual.php?pid=1 is a page and individual.php?pid=2 is a different page. there are 3 million of those pages. i wrote a php script that pulls all of the ids from the database and builds the links with those ids. google sitemaps limit xml files to 50,000 links. so the script makes 60 or so xml files. then the script makes 1 xml file that links to those 60. google sitemaps accepts xml sitemap files that link to other xml sitemap files.

**amessegu** · 02-15-2007, 05:51 PM

I use this free one:

http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/

**houdini987** · 02-17-2007, 12:58 AM

The ROR sitemap method looks easy and fairly robust. I'm wondering if the link tag MUST be in the <head> section though, or if it can be further down. Does anyone know? My sites all share one .aspx file before splitting off, and it's in that shared file that my <head> tag exists, so that won't work.

**travelagent** · 02-17-2007, 01:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by houdini987

The ROR sitemap method looks easy and fairly robust. I'm wondering if the link tag MUST be in the <head> section though, or if it can be further down. Does anyone know? My sites all share one .aspx file before splitting off, and it's in that shared file that my <head> tag exists, so that won't work.

Absolutely; it MUST be in the head section.

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