seoforceo.com and seo XML sitemap importance. HTML sitemaps and sub-sitemaps must have crawl-able links to all pages on the website.  Keyword rich sub-sitemaps linked from the root directly are crucial to ensuring your pages get indexed properly.

Google indexes websites using these three methodologies:  crawling your sitemap.xml file, crawling your HTML sitemap and sub-sitemap files and crawling another indexed page which links to the new pages.  These are the best and most efficient ways of getting your website up and visible on the Google search engine.

If you’re looking for the slowest method, then just submit them through ‘site submission’ on Google.  It’s a matter of months vs. weeks.

If you’re using HTML sitemaps, then all of your sub-sitemaps should have a crawlable link to every page on the website.  Yes, I know this sounds simple, but many web companies miss this crucial step and cost themselves indexing of all their sites’ pages.  Sub-directories should be keyword rich and placed in the root directory.  Remember!  Do not exceed 100 links on the page or Google will ignore everything after the first 100.  If you have multiple pages over 100, then you’ll have to create multiple sub-sitemaps using the same methodology as outlined above.

XML Sitemaps (my preferred choice) must be created in the root directory.  There is a limit of 10MB per sitemap XML file.  You can create an XML sitemap with WordPress, Joomla, or any other CMS through downloadable plugins.  Also, you can create an XML sitemap through keyword searching for free XML sitemap services online.

REMEMBER:  Once you’ve created your XML sitemap and you’re ready to go, go to www.google.com/webmaster and create an account.  This way you can tell Google where your sitemap is and that it’s ready to be indexed.

Voila!