What is the difference between sitemap.xml and sitemap.aspx?

November 25, 2010 , , , ,

What is the difference between sitemap.xml and sitemap.aspx?
In the training you recommended that we have a sitemap and the address would be www.companyname.sitemap.xml. Our sitemap on our website is www.tribepr.com/sitemap.aspx. What is the difference and will this impact on the effectiveness with search engines?

Hazel Willox – Tribe PR –

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  • http://new.yodelay.com Duncan Johnson

    Hi Hazel,

    A sitemap.xml is the standard format for sitemaps that are indexed and read by the Search Engines. It is basically made for Spiders and Robots to get a snapshot overview of every page on your site.

    A sitemap.aspx is the same as a sitemap.htm or sitemap.php. It is made for human consumption and although can be read by a Search Engine Spider/Robot it is not designed for it.

    Everyone should have a sitemap.xml that is automatically updated when you add a new page of content.

    I can see you guys don’t have one. You can go to http://www.xml-sitemaps.com to create one (it only scans first 500 pages though). You also need a robots.txt file that references it. (helps with auto indexing of your pages)

    User-agent: *
    Disallow:
    Sitemap: http://www.tribepr.com/sitemap.xml

    Once you have done that you can let The Google know you have a real sitemap.xml in your Webmaster Central area: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/

    I will email both of these over to you. However the sitemap.xml I have created for you is static. You need to get your tech chaps to get your website to create one automatically on-the-fly when you add new content.

    I hope that helps, let us know if there is anything else we can help you with.

    Duncan