<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?>
<urlset xmlns=”http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9″>
<url>
<loc>http://www.domain.com /</loc>
<lastmod>2008-01-01</lastmod>
<changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
<priority>0.8</priority>
</url>
<url>
<loc>http://www.domain.com/catalog?item=vacation_hawaii</loc>
<changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
</url>
<url>
<loc>http://www.domain.com/catalog?item=vacation_new_zealand</loc>
<lastmod>2008-12-23</lastmod>
<changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
</url>
<url>
<loc>http://www.domain.com/catalog?item=vacation_newfoundland</loc>
<lastmod>2008-12-23T18:00:15+00:00</lastmod>
<priority>0.3</priority>
</url>
<url>
<loc>http://www.domain.com/catalog?item=vacation_usa</loc>
<lastmod>2008-11-23</lastmod>
</url>
</urlset>

Before we continue with the exact steps of generating your Site map,  I will provide you with some general information on Site maps.

Before It We Should Know the meaning of a Site Map.

What is a Sitemap?

For the purposes of this tutorial we will focus on Sitemap Protocol 0.9 introduced by SiteMaps.org which is a standard, validated and used by Google and most other search engines.

A Sitemap allows you to create a file hosted among the other files in your account that informs the search engines of all pages your website contains. In other words, it provides the search engine with detailed information about the content of your website.

Although Sitemaps are mainly used to improve the index process of your website by search engines, they can be used to provide accessibility to certain pages as well. For example, pages that are not accessible via your menus, can be indexed by the search engine if you want.

The Sitemap does not affect the normal way crawler bots index your page – it just extends the visibility and accessibility of your content.

In My Next Post I Will Write About The Sitemap format with Examples , how to have multiple Sitemaps and Sitemap index and How to validate your Sitemaps etc..So Plz Visit Again For More Details….

Thanks.