XML Sitemap Vs HTML Sitemap

[mark.smith]

Hi,

I want to integrate the sitemap for my site, as we all know sitemaps are very important as they are very helpful to serach engines crawling. But the question is that , which sitemap either XML or HTML is more useful or both should be used.
i am looking for your suggestion as i have to use them in one of my site....

Thanks....
=============
Mark Smith.
Web Design Wales Carmarthenshire Swansea Tenby
Activity Break Wales Communication Research

[Dubbya]

I think you're misunderstanding the purpose of an xml sitemap.

To a crawler, the HTML sitemap is just another HTML file and it gets spidered exactly the same way. If you've only got a few links, say less than 100, the bulk of you site is bound to get indexed naturally. Eventually, all of your pages should end up in the search engine index.

Unlike the HTML file, a properly formatted .xml sitemap file lists every page you want listed and, depending on your preferences, the date the file was created, updated and even the importance you place on each file as it pertains to your site theme or content.

Once you've created and uploaded the xml file, you can alert search engine spiders as to its' existence in a few different ways. Point to it in your robots.txt file, link to it from your pages and wait for the spiders to visit your site (which is what you're currently doing with your HTML sitemap file), or submit it to the top three search engines manually through their respective interfaces or simply by pinging them if required.

Updating a xml sitemap with each site update or modification, allows you to alert the search engines that you've got new content that you'd like them to spider. Doing this helps ensure that pages that have not been indexed, pages that may not be linked to within your base site navigation, or pages that were previously overlooked, receive a visit.

In the eyes of a spider, new content means more relevant content, resulting in better placement in the SERPs. It's like hanging out a banner saying "hey, check this out! My site is new and improved!".

Another benefit is that telling the spiders that you're updating your site is more likely to generate more frequent visits from the spiders. It's the same reason blog sites send pings to RSS feeds and why blogs are a great way to get your site to rank well.

There's no guarantee that the pages will be indexed immediately but you'll have done what you can to tell the spiders that the pages and new content exist and you'll have provided a clear and concise path to them.

Finally, if you're able to do some scripting, you can use a script to parse the xml file and dynamically build a hierarchical HTML sitemap page that users can actually follow and you'd no longer have to worry about using or updating a hard-coded HTML file.

Which is more important? without question, it's the XML sitemap.

Google Sitemap Generator for Windows :: GSiteCrawler

Reference the XML file in your robots.txt file:

User-agent: * 
Sitemap: http://yousitehere/sitemap.xml

.02

[torpengkute]

For me there is no Difference with that...

The only thing that I know is .XML is the requirement format of Google...

[Dubbya]

Here's a little more info directly from the Google blog.

Q: Can I just submit the site map that my webmaster made of my site? I don't get this whole XML thing.

A:There's a difference between a (usually HTML) site map built to help humans navigate around your site, and an XML Sitemap built for search engines. Both of them are useful, and it's great to have both. A site map on your domain can also help search engines find your content (since crawlers can follow the links on the page). However, if you submit an HTML site map in place of a Sitemap, Webmaster Tools will report an error because an HTML page isn't one of our recognized Sitemap formats. Also, if you create an XML Sitemap, you'll be able to give us more information than you can with an HTML site map (which is just a collection of links). Learn more about supported Sitemap formats.

Q: Which Sitemap format is the best?

A: We recommend the XML Sitemap protocol as defined by sitemaps.org. XML Sitemaps have the advantage of being upgradeable: you can start simple if you want (by just listing your URLs), but—unlike a text file Sitemap—you can easily upgrade an XML Sitemap later on to include more metadata. XML Sitemaps are also more comprehensive than an Atom or RSS feed submitted as a Sitemap, since feeds usually only list your most recent URLs (rather than all the URLs you want search engines to know about).

Source: Official Google Webmaster Central Blog: Sitemaps FAQs

[innominds]

.XML format would be better to show Google. But when you want to show it to your visistors, then keep .html format sitemap.
So prepare 2 sitemaps: one for google and the other for your visitors.