The sitemap is an index page for your readers and is a list of the sites contents for the search engine crawlers. While the layout of most medical sites is pretty simple, the value of a sitemap for the search engine bots can not be understated. A sitemap, for the search engine, will make sure that the contents of your site are properly found, and thus indexed, by the search engine robots.
The largest search engines Bing, Yahoo and Google all use the same sitemap protocol. In the older days, webmasters (those people that create web pages) would have to submit a webpage to a search engine to get “crawled.”
Two Ways to Get “Found”
By creating a sitemap, the web developer may choose to either submit the sitemap to a search engine, or, simply wait to be “found.”
A sitemap does not guarantee either being crawled or indexed, but it is the best way to let a search engine learn about your site. It is one of the most important ways to maximize your web sites Search Engine Optimization.
Submitting a SiteMap
Regardless of the size of your site, you’ll need a sitemap. Sitemaps also ensure that your internal links are connected and give the search bots a way to learn about your site.