A sitemap is  an XML file,that lists the URLs of a site.  The sitemap file can be used to inform search engines like google on the pages available on a site and when those pages have been modified.  The search engines require a particular format for the sitemap xml file. Let me give a brief on sitemap creation for google.

Create an xml file(say sitemap.xml). Its better to create the xml file dynamically using the scripting language like php, jsp etc.

Format of sitemap xml  accepted by google:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap/0.84" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap/0.84 http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap/0.84/sitemap.xsd">
<url>
<loc>http://domain.tld/</loc>
<lastmod>2008-01-01</lastmod>
<changefreq>daily</changefreq>
<priority>0.1</priority>
</url>
</urlset>

The points to be remembered when creating a sitemap are:

1. Sitemap should start with the tag <urlset> and end with </urlset>
2. Each set of xml entry shouild start with <url> and end with </url>
3. <loc></loc> contains the url
4. The <lastmod> tag expects a date in the  format YYYY-MM-DD,  or the date format can be in w3c format.
5. The <changefreq> tag expects one of the  values: always, hourly, daily, weekly, monthly etc.
6. The <priority> can be a value between 1.0 and 10

7. Replace special charecters from xml file.
Character                   Replacement
Ampersand     &         &amp;
Single Quote    ‘         &apos;
Double Quote  “         &quot;
Greater Than   >        &gt;
Less Than       <        &lt;

8. Encoding should be UTF-8 mode
9. The maximum permitted size of a sitemap file is 10 MB.

Sample PHP  code for sitemap generation:

$xml = '';
$xml =  "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?>"."\n";
$xml .= "<urlset xmlns:xsi=\"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance\" xsi:schemaLocation=\"http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9 http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9/sitemap.xsd\" xmlns=\"http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9\">"."\n";
for($i=0;$i<$subLimit;$i++){
$title = str_replace("&","&amp;",strip_tags($response['title']));
$loc = str_replace("&","&amp;",strip_tags($response['location']));
$com = str_replace("&","&amp;",strip_tags($response['company']));
//$loc1 = $row['job_jobs_location'];
$title = htmlentities($title, ENT_QUOTES, "UTF-8");
$com = htmlentities($com, ENT_QUOTES, "UTF-8");
$loc = htmlentities($loc, ENT_QUOTES, "UTF-8");
$date = $response['date'];
$date = strtotime($date);
$date = date(DATE_W3C, $date);   //Date in w3c format
$xml .= "<url>"."\n";
$xml .= "<loc>http://www.jobtreks.com/jobresult/$title/$com/$loc/$id</loc>"."\n";
$xml .= "<lastmod>$date</lastmod>"."\n";
$xml .= "<priority>0.50</priority>"."\n";
$xml .= "<changefreq>weekly</changefreq>"."\n";
$xml .= "</url>"."\n";}
$xml .= "</urlset>";
$fh = fopen('sitemap.xml', 'w'); //After exceuting this file, an xml file called sitemap.xml is created.

We are happy to announce the release of our much awaited new version of the web site of CabotSolutions.com. With tight schedules on client projects, our own internal projects often take a back seat. It is challenging to commit resources and energy to finish in a timely fashion. This site has been in the works for at least 3 months. Many iterations of changes have gone into it, and I am sure our designers and programmers have felt the pain. However I appreciate the effort that went into it and thank everyone involved especially our Designer Naveen, and Developers Jinsy P and Shibu T.

This new version of the site includes many enhancements such as a new portfolio management system, a blog, and many SEO optimisation features. Stay tuned for more updates on the site.