Making a Free Sitemap for your Website

Websites are virtually invisible until indexed by search engines and in order to be successfully indexed, you must have a sitemap. Luckily, you do not have to have to be an expert web designer to create a quality sitemap. The internet’s largest search engine offers a sitemap generator for free, or you can choose to create an XML-based sitemap with a free online tool.
XML Sitemaps

 
Know Your Sitemaps

A sitemap is exactly what it sounds like: a map of a website. From here, the links to every page are laid out all in one place. This makes it easy for search engines to crawl every searchable page on a website. It isn’t enough to have a sitemap written in the standard HTML, anymore. Google’s bots now only recognize XML based sitemaps. Luckily, Google also provides a way for business owners and/or webmasters to create a free, XML-based sitemap. The following refers to the Windows-based platforms, but you can also download a generator for Linux-based platforms.
(See Resources)

Prerequisites for Using Google’s Sitemap Generator

Check your website for broken and nofollow links. Fix the broken links and make sure all the links you wish to be indexed are doFollow links. If you have deleted files on your web server, be sure to clear them or designate them as nofollow links before generating your sitemap.

The generator has been tested and shown to be usable with Microsoft 2003 and 2008 platforms and internet information services 6.0 and 7.0.

Download and install the generator to your computer. You will need to have 100 MB to 1 GB of usable space, depending on the amount of unique URLs you have on your server.
(See Resources)

From here, you can configure the generator according to pages you wish to be indexed and how much of the system resources it should use, and also set up a schedule for generating new sitemaps as you add more pages to your website(s). You will also be able to choose whether or not to have your sitemap submitted to search engines automatically upon sitemap creation.
Google Code – Information on Sitemap Generator

Alternative: Generate an XML Sitemap Online

XML-Sitemaps.Com offers a free online generator you can use. The process is fairly simple though you must be extra careful to be sure the links you have on your pages and in your directory folder are links you wish to have as part of your sitemap.
XML Sitemaps

Type the full URL of your website into the box on the XML-Sitemaps.Com homepage; choose options such as automatic changes and priority, and then click “Start” to generate a map of your website. As soon as it is finished, you will have the option of choosing from several different file formats. Choose XML, as this is the type search engines recognize and follow.  

Save the file to your computer, then upload it to the “public_html/” folder on your server.

To submit to Google, you will need to use Google’s webmaster tools. You can sign in with a simple Google account. From there, Google will guide you with site submission.

(See Resources)

The Difference between Using Google’s Generator and Using the Online Alternative

While the alternative method mentioned above is a much simpler process, if you have many domains or would like to track web server traffic, it will be worth your while to use Google’s sitemap generator. For smaller sites and few domains, the online alternative will do nicely. The online tool also lets you choose other file formats. XML-based sitemaps may be how search engines map your site, but they do not look good to site visitors. The online tool lets you create an HTML-based sitemap you can use on your site for the use of your visitors.

Resources

Download Google’s Sitemap Generator

Linux Installation – Google Generator

Google Webmaster Tools