Building and submitting HTML and XML sitemaps

- You've probably heard about sitemaps,…but many people don't understand that…there are actually two different kinds of sitemaps:…HTML and XML.…In fact, when somebody talks about the sitemap…it's not always clear what they're referring to.…For many years site owners have created basic HTML sitemaps…to help both site users and the search engines…find their way through the site.…For users, it's another navigational tool.…For the search engines it ensures that every page…can be found through plaintext links.…

In fact, a sitemap can help resolve…the sort of navigation problems…that we've discussed in an earlier video.…As we've also learned earlier,…you need plenty of text links in your site to tell…the search engines what the reference pages are about.…The search engines look at the anchor text in a link…to get more clues about the subject of the page.…So HTML sitemaps are a good thing…and you would do well to add one to your site.…In 2005 though, we will introduce the XML sitemap,…a file that is designed for the search engines,…