Could someone explain whether its better for SEO to have a google xml sitemap or just a regular file with anchor links to each page (html) will suffice.

Incidentally, is it normal practice in a html site map to just list those non-restricted pages ie. not anything that requires password access?

Neither. The html is in theory better for ranking since it will assign particular text to your links, but if there's no real content on the page, it's not likely to help very much, or be seen as important compared to the rest of your site.

Site maps aren't for climbing a spot in the rankings. They're for telling the search bots what pages in your site are updated with the most frequency.

Did I hear a distant "what is best for real users"??



Guess not, must be just my imagination!

what about txt?

Sitemap XML is for the search engine and Sitemap HTML is for the user/visitor.

Why not do both. Both will help search engines and the HTML site map will help users navigate the site.

if you want every page of your site to be crawled by SE's ( Search Engines) use the XML format. But if you want to help your site visitor to easily navigate through your site use the HTML format.

Really a XML sitemap is only needed with a new website, as time progresses and your web pages get indexed it's only need for web pages that are newly created. However, I always provide a fresh XML Sitemap for search engines.

XML sitemap is for search engines like google and etc. sitemap in txt format is for yahoo.com

but i am use xml, html, ror and txt

Both are important its depand on user what he will use by the sitemap search engine find how many links are available on particular website.

Like others have said.. both formats have a purpose. I would recommend a xml version if your site is new. A html version if your site has pages that may not show up on your main navigation... it is a way for your users to find those pages that may be several layers in.

I personally tend to use xml sitemaps, particularly if it is a new site. But thats just personal preference really

Search google for sitemap generator and you will find some webpages that do free sitemap for you, it should be XML, upload it on your server and go to google webmaster tools and verify your site and show your sitemap xml to google, so it can help you for better seo