XML sitemaps are the hot topic this week on the SEOweb:
I’ve done SEO on sites as small as 4-5 pages. I’ve done SEO on sites with 15,000,000+ pages. I’ve never once recommended the site owner create an XML sitemap and submit it to the search engines. Sitemaps don’t really solve any problems where indexing and crawlability are concerned.
source : http://www.smallbusinesssem.com
Does a Sitemap help in indexing new sites?
The only role of a sitemap is to discover new sites and new URLs. This doesn’t mean Google will spider or index them. However there have been rumors that sitemaps might help in faster crawling and indexing and even in long-tail ranking.
source : http://www.searchenginejournal.com
I have always been a believer that well on-page optimized sites do not require or even benefit much from Google Sitemaps. But at the same time, I also do believe that giving Google extra clues about your site does help. It is something you need to think about. On one hand, by giving Google a sitemap file with all the changes, and a list of your most important pages - you are also giving those details to your competitors. Yes, that Sitemap file is public for Google and for your competitors. It totally depends on your industry.
source : http://www.seroundtable.com/
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