Raj from India is unsure how to go about creating a sitemap. He asks whether it would be better to use the traditional HTML or the more fashionable XML. Software engineer Matt Cutts answers this question from the point of view of the ubiquitous Googlebot.

Matt assures him that both work great for their purpose. With an XML sitemap, the Googlebot may not be able to crawl every page listed but it can certainly aid in discovering new pages. An HTML sitemap, on the other hand, will absolutely help Googlebot crawl through the listed links and this makes it easier to discover all of the pages on the site. Users also prefer the HTML version since it is much more readable for those who may want to use it for site navigation.

If webmasters had to choose just one of these methods, then Matt would recommend going with HTML just because the sitemaps created with it will work equally well for end-users and search engine spiders. Fortunately, there is no real need for people to limit themselves to just one. Matt encourages the use of HTML and XML sitemaps at the same time to get the best of both worlds.
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Which is better: an HTML site map or XML Sitemap? –