maandag, september 17, 2007
Sitemaps
Sitemaps are little xml-based files that describe the navigation logic of your site. I've used ASP.NET Sitemap components and the associated SiteMapDataSource, Tree and Menu components in the top bar menu of about2findout.com. The whole site structure is written in a file called Web.sitemap, and all navigation components read from it. The file is also localised.
Google also uses sitemaps to index websites, and webmasters can configure their sitemap on the Google Webmaster Central site. It allows the Google crawler robots to better understand your site and what to index. But guess what: the asp.net sitemap xml file and the one Google piloted are not compatible... Luckily, there is a free component on Bertrand Le Roy's blog that converts the asp.net one into one the Google crawler understands. The component is obsolete now because it is in the ASP.NET Futures release, but as I only use stable asp.net releases I'm going to stick with this component until the ASP.NET Futures stuff is released in production.
Google also uses sitemaps to index websites, and webmasters can configure their sitemap on the Google Webmaster Central site. It allows the Google crawler robots to better understand your site and what to index. But guess what: the asp.net sitemap xml file and the one Google piloted are not compatible... Luckily, there is a free component on Bertrand Le Roy's blog that converts the asp.net one into one the Google crawler understands. The component is obsolete now because it is in the ASP.NET Futures release, but as I only use stable asp.net releases I'm going to stick with this component until the ASP.NET Futures stuff is released in production.
Labels: about2findout, sitemap
