How much do site maps help?

[JNani]

Hi everyone,

I am considering using sitemaps for my website but I was wondering if anyone could tell me how much help they actually are before I go through the trouble of setting them up?

How much of an improvement would you attribute to using site maps?

Thank you,
Nani

[jnui]

I think if you have a well made site, that is well linked then a xml sitemap will not be a huge improvement.

but if your site is new, or if your pages are not well linked, or you want to add non linked pages then it will help loads.

[veselino]

Well, it is always good to create a sitemap. It helps google to crawl your site better and to understand the structure of the site.

[shinem]

Agreed, I always ensure I have an xml sitemap when launching a new site to ensure indexing issues are avoided