Regarding Sitemaps : What exactly is it?

[DreamSkape]

Hi,

I created a small website, but the Google does not seem to go beyond the main page, at least not the one I want to be displayed in the results, the "Your Dreams" page.

While on the webmaster site of Google, it provided much information but the technical language is beyoond my comprehension. can anyone tell in a simple way:

1. how to create a sitemap,

2. where to place it,

3. how to let google know that it is there, and

4. Do I need to provide any link from the home page to the sitemap.

The website is http:/dreamskape-content.110mb.com

It seems as the Google bots did not crawl other links on the pages as I could comprehend using the site command in Google.

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Regards,

DreamSkape

Signed: Saturday, February 21, 2009, 11:27:39 AM IST

[CoffeeFiend]

All your questions are answered here

[DreamSkape]

Tons of thanks.. All of the answers were there... but still there is a small confusion.

Do I just leave the sitemap in the directory or do I have to place a URL on the home page.

Or is the option in webmasters dashboard, "Submit Sitemap" is sufficient?

[DreamSkape]

Hi All,

Thanks to all those who tried to help me. I got the correct directions and followed the path to reach the exact point that solved all my queries.

The sitemap format that most of the Search Engines follows is given at

http://www.sitemaps.org/protocol.php

The sitemap can be created in any format. However the best is XML format. Do not use any HTML editing software to create as they add their own code towards the begingin of your sitemap that makes Google show error with the sitemap file.

The best method is to open Notepad, write your code as per the specifications and examples in the above site and save it as sitemap.xml. Then using the Google Webmaster Dashboard, submit it to Google. And yes, prior to that please upload the sitemap to the root directory or to the directory where your main file lies (whose URLs have been mentioned in the sitemap file).

It was all so simple... So i thought I should share my newly acquired knowledge with everyone here.

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Regards,

DreamSkape

Signed: Saturday, February 28, 2009, 1:20:10 PM IST