Google Sitemap Protocol – Explanation and Tools

The Google Sitemap Protocol allows a webmaster to tell Google about URLS on a website that are available for crawling. A Sitemap is an file that lists all of the available URLs for a site. It also provides web site owners the ability to put additional information about each URL: the time and date it was last updated, how often the content of the web page changes, and how important the web page is in relation to other URLs that belong to the site. In short, the Google Sitemap Protocol provides an easy way for search engines, primarily Google, to crawl the site more intelligently.

The Google Sitemap Protocol is particularly beneficial in situations when it is difficult for users to access all areas of a website through the browseable interface. For example, a site with a large “archive” or “database” of resources that aren’t well linked to each other (if at all), only accessible via a search form.

The webmaster can generate a sitemap using the Google Sitemap Protocol containing all accessible URLs on the site and submit it to search engines. For dynamically created sites or web sites using Flash or AJAX, the Google Sitemap Protocol may be the only way to get the website fully indexed.

Note that the Google Sitemap Protocol is only a supplement to other search engine submission processes and does not in any way replace the existing crawl-based mechanisms that search engines already use to discover URLs. By submitting a sitemap using Google Sitemap Protocol to a search engine a webmaster is only helping that engine’s crawlers to do a better job of crawling their site(s).

Using the Google Sitemap Protocol does not guarantee that your web site pages will be included in search engine indexes nor does it influence the way that your web site pages are ranked by a search engine.

After a sitemap is submitted via Google account, Google provides current crawler problem reports after a simple verification procedure to ensure only the web site owner gets access to the stats area.

There are several free online Google Sitemap Protocol Tools that will generate a Google Sitemap for your web site:
GSiteCrawler (Windows)
Tipue (Windows)
Sorrowmans Sitemap Protocol Tools (Windows)
Site Map Pro $ (Windows)
AllWebMenus $ (Windows)
GWebCrawler & Sitemap Creator $ (Windows)
CoffeeCup Sitemapper $ (Windows)
Gsitemap (Windows)
PHP XML Sitemap Generator $ (Windows)
MediaCET Diadematus (Windows)
Odin Assemble $ (Windows)
Rage Google Sitemap Protocol Automator $ (OSX)
Map-IT Sitemapper $ (Windows, Mac)
GoogleSitemapsWin (Windows)
Devintelligence Sitemap Protocol Generator (Windows)
G-Mapper (Windows)
IntelliMapper (Windows)
GY SiteMapper (Windows)
Site Magellen(Windows)
A1 Sitemap Generator $ (Windows)