Create a site map for my asp.net mvc web site that can be crawled by the search engines

Question

I have created a web site using asp.net mvc-5 . and I have hosted it to one of the hosting provider and I register the web site with Google app.

Now after 1.5 months of publishing the web site online it starts to be returned by search engines mainly Google and Bing. But the search result will not list my web site links (such as contact, our project, our team, etc). now I read that I need to create a site map for my web site as follow:-

1.I need to create a robots.txt inside the root of my asp.net mvc and I need to specify the location of the site map as follow:-

User-agent: *
Disallow:

Sitemap: http://mywebsite.com/sitemap

2.Then I need to create an xml which list my main links.

But I have the following 2 questions regarding creating and submitting a site map:-

1. If I do the above steps , then will search engines be able to understand the site map automatically, or I will have to submit the site map to Google and to Bing ?

2. Is there any change that my site map will be returned in the search result without creating a sitemap.xml . I mean can search engine automatically extract my site urls and create a site map ?

Thanks

Answer 1

The search engines should find the sitemap as you have it. However, I would create accounts for Google and Bing anyway and submit them through their tools.

Having said that, there may be no reason to do this. SEOs like to advise creating sitemaps without context. It is often an unnecessary step. Sitemaps are only required for extremely large sites or sites with content behind a paywall or login. If this is not you, then do not bother.

Sitemaps are generally ignored if Google can crawl your site the traditional way. What Google will do is compare the entries of your sitemap to what it can find on it's own to make sure that your site is properly crawled.

If you are thinking that sitemaps are required for site links, you would be incorrect. One has nothing to do with the other. Google does not guarantee site links for any site and who gets site links changes often. It is possible to gain site links to only lose them again later. One requirement is traffic and popularity. If your site is new, then site links are not automatic and you will have to be patient.