The Google Webmaster Central blog announced that they have just released a new Sitemap generator that works on both Linux/Apache and Microsoft IIS Windows-based servers. The Sitemap generator is different and possibly smarter than other Sitemap tools because it uses web traffic, log files and other methods to find new or modified URLs. You can download the new tool over here.

Why go through the process of setting up a Sitemap file? Well, Google themselves said on the Sitemap Generator page, “you are more likely to get better freshness and coverage in search engines” if you submit a Sitemap to Google. Plus, there are some reports to validate that claim.

Related Topics: Google: SEO | Google: Webmaster Central | SEO: Submitting & Sitemaps | Top News

About The Author: Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here. For more background information on Barry, see his full bio over here. See more articles by Barry Schwartz