How RSS Makes Your Site Attractive to Search Engines: RSS Tutorials and Tips - XML Sitemaps
(Page 3 of 8 )
For an XML sitemap, the format is a little different. First, we should look at the tags that Google uses for their sitemap syntax. Here is an example sitemap index.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<sitemapindex xmlns="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap/0.84">
<sitemap>
<loc>http://somehermitcrabsite.com/hermitcrabsinfo.xml</loc>
<lastmod>2005-08-15</lastmod>
</sitemap>
<sitemap>
<loc>http://somehermitcrab.com/hermitcrabproducts.xml</loc>
<lastmod>2005-08-15</lastmod>
</sitemap>
</sitemapindex>
This is a sitemap index that tells Googlebot where to look for the sitemap(s). This is not necessary if you only have one sitemap. However, notice there are two sitemaps listed here. One is for regular hermit crab information, and the other is for hermit crab products. This is a good idea if you have two types of URLs to have indexed, such as articles and news, and products. One could even go so far as to have another sitemap here, hypothetically titled “hermitcrabcategories.xml” to get the product categories indexed. The reason this is a good idea is that most individual products and categories are keyword rich, and you know SEO’s love keyword rich content.
“Note: A Sitemap index file can only specify Sitemaps that are found on the same site as the Sitemap index file.”*
What these tags mean:
- The first two lines is the protocol information Google uses for an XML sitemap. The first line tells it what version of XML is being used, and tells Google that it is UTF-8 encoded. Google sitemaps must be UTF-8 encoded.
- The second line indicates the schema, or structure, used. The <sitemapindex> and </sitemapindex> tags “ encapsulates the file and references the current protocol standard,”* indicating that it is a sitemap index, and not the sitemap itself. These tags are parent tags of the set.
- The <loc> and </loc> tags are similar to our <link> and </link> tags, but notice the URL is at the beginning of the set. This is because it is the most important part of the set. This is a child tag of the <sitemapindex> and </sitemapindex> tags.
Next: A Look at XML Syntax and Definitions >>
More Search Optimization Articles
More By Jennifer Sullivan Cassidy
