It’s been a few years since Google first brought out the Python Sitemap Generator back in 2005 and many third-party programmers have since created sitemap generators to help webmasters create better sitemap files. Google’s new Sitemap Generator is different than most that we’ve seen in the past. Typically, a sitemap generator works by spidering a website in order to create a list of files and folders for the sitemap. Google’s new software takes a different approach. Rather than spidering a website, the software finds new and modified URLs based on your webserver’s traffic, its log files, or the files found on the server. Google claims that this approach increases the speed in which the sitemap generator can find URLs and calculate the relevant metadata.
Once Google’s Sitemap Generator has collected the list of URLs, it is capable of creating several types of sitemaps. The most common sitemap is the XML Sitemap for Web Search which is based on the sitemaps.org standard. You can also use the software to create mobile-friendly sitemaps and code search sitemaps for any source code that you have made available to users.
Once the sitemap is created, the Sitemap Generator can send a ping to Google’s Blog Search for all of the new or modified URLs. Other search engines that support the sitemaps.org standard can also be pinged with Google’s software. The new web-based administration console provides webmasters access to various features that make sitemap administration a breeze.
The Google Sitemap Generator is a server plug-in that can be installed on both Linux/Apache and Microsoft IIS Windows-based servers. Google provides detailed installation instructions in the Google Sitemap Generator documentation. You will need administrative access to your web server in order to install the plug-in. You can find more information on the new Google Sitemap Generator here.
