Well, it has been a long time coming but finally the big 3 (Google, Yahoo and MSN) are teaming up to workout one universal standard for sitemaps.
Up to now, each Search Engine has had their own rules when it comes to sitemaps. Thankfully, if your website is already using Google Sitemaps, you don’t need to do anything different. Now, Yahoo and Microsoft will read that same sitemap format (whew!). The only real difference is that Google Sitemaps will be renamed to Sitemaps 0.90.
Other Search Engines have been invited to participate, which will truly make this a universal decision. They have even started a website to get the word out: http://www.sitemaps.org/.
Of course, having a sitemap uploaded does not guarantee higher rankings for your website. It simply helps the Search Engine robots find all of your pages. That means, if you don’t have one, you really should get one created. Let us know if you need some assistance with this and we will help out.
