I’ll get straight to the point – Small websites don’t need a Sitemap. Google will easily index a small website without a Sitemap, so there is very little point in building a Sitemap for a small site. Google’s John Mueller stated:
“With a site of that size, you don’t really need a Sitemap file, we’ll generally be able to crawl and index everything regardless.”
A Sitemap sole purpose is to serve as a guide for Google robots. For large websites I recommend going with a XML Sitemap and HTML. XML Sitemap can be multiple files, but they are not visible to a user, only a search engine spider.
HTML sitemap are can be a benefit both humans and robots. When Matt Cutts from Google was asked if you had a choice, which one would you pick, he picked an HTML Sitemap because both users and spiders can chew on it.
You can watch Matt Cutts video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hi5DGOu1uA0&feature=player_embedded
Sammy’s 2 cents: Be sure let Google know what your XML & HTML Sitemap is in Google Webmaster!
Still have questions about sitemaps or xml sitemaps? Email us @ sammy.noorani@revsystems.com
