There are different types of sitemaps: the Conventional ones, which are in either .txt or HTML format; and the Special one, which is in XML form. The difference between the two is that conventional sitemaps are for both human and spider use while the latter is specifically for the Googlebot spiders. This is why the XML Sitemaps are called Google Sitemaps. Yahoo and MSN still keep the HTML format. Both the Conventional and Special forms can be used on your website and it will not be penalized by Google for the duplication. XML Sitemaps follow the Google Sitemap Protocols.

How do Search Engine robots use sitemaps? They will follow every single link on your sitemap that leads to the pages of your site and thus, the pages will get crawled and then indexed. SEO experts believe that best place to put the sitemap link for the conventional sitemap is on the homepage at the top right side of the page.

XML Sitemaps are made especially for Google. The conventional ones do not give Googlebot spiders any restriction on what pages they can crawl. There are some parts of the website that cannot easily be reached by the Google crawlers. Examples of these are the dynamic elements behind a search form. But Google sitemaps provide web developers with a way to direct Google to the pages on their site that they want to be crawled and give details on what order these pages should be crawled, how important they are in comparison with one another and how often they are updated or revised.

You can also use Sitemap Generators to create sitemaps for you. Sitemap Generators crawl the URL you provide and generate sitemap details and the number of pages in that website. You can just download the generated file and save it as “sitemap.xml”. You can try the Sitemap Generator at http://www.sitemapz.com/

Once the sitemap is created, the next step is to submit it to Google.

Using a sitemap might not bring results too easily but keep in mind that search engines dynamically improve their sitemap indexing algorithms and in time, they will surely index websites faster through sitemaps.