Should I include all content types in my sitemap?

What content should you include in your sitemap? Good question. When the sitemap protocol was first introduced the prevailing wisdom was that you should include all content in your sitemap and let Google sort it out. This meant that everything from your website would be included in your sitemap file (including CSS, images and scripts). But has this ever really made sense? Let's think about it for a second:

• Google has never (and will never) index CSS and script files because they don't contain human readable content
• Image URLs on their own provide the images, but no meta data that helps rank the image
• There are now extensions to the sitemap protocol that support additional content types

After considering these three points it becomes clear that you probably shouldn't include everything in your basic sitemap. Instead, only include URLs that point to HTML and PDF documents (the two document types included in Google's main index).

If your website has important images or videos you want indexed, consider creating a Google Image Sitemap. This extension to the basic sitemap protocol allows you to include additional meta data about your website's images (such as a description and caption). Some automated sitemap tools, such as Inspyder Sitemap Creator, can automatically capture this information and include it in your sitemap.

If your website has videos or mobile content, consider creating a Google Video or Google Mobile sitemap too. These additional sitemap types can help get your website ranked in Google's alternate indexes and will provide better results than including all your content in the basic sitemap format.