Why should I create a Sitemap?

#why-sitemap

• Sitemaps are a way for webmasters to give Google additional information about pages on their site - for example, how often each page is updated, when each page was last modified, and the relative importance of pages on the site. This information won't increase your ranking in Google's search results, but it can help speed up the discovery of new and updated pages on your site. In addition, Sitemaps are a great way to tell Google about pages on your site that may not be easily crawled by Googlebot - perhaps because they consist of dynamic or non-text-based content (such as AJAX or Flash).

Some folks have claimed that their sites were penalized after they submitted Sitemaps. Is this a coincidence?

#sitemap-penalty-myth

• Yes. Google will not penalize you for submitting a Sitemap. Sitemaps provide an extra way for us to understand what pages you have on your site, and can help speed up the discovery of new and updated pages on your site. But neither HTML nor XML Sitemaps replace the normal crawling process. Having a Sitemap will not increase your ranking in Google's search results pages - but it will not reduce it, either.
  

HEY! Someone's being particularly mean / rude / consistently posting off-topic stuff / spamming.

#rude-posters

• We do reserve the right to ban both spammers and folks who are contributing only stress and ill-will via personal attacks and the like.  However, there's much you can and should do yourself:
  • Ignore the trolls and jerks.  Replying to them only feeds their ego and flames the bad karma.
  • Rate their posts one star.
  • Report the post (click More options, then click Report this message).

I really like FAQs. Got any more?

#more

• You can find even more answers to common questions in Popular Picks.