What Does XML Mean?

So you’ve seen XML in the news lately? Asked yourself, what is XML?

Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a computer language that allows a programmer to have flexible control over the structure, transportation and storage of data. XML doesn’t truly DO anything. There are no predefined XML tags. The programmer would name their own tags to describe the elements of the document. Then, the programmer would still have to design an application to send the details of their XML document.

XML Example

<letter> <to>Tim Lancaster</to>
<from>James Morrison</from>
<subject>Great website design information</subject>
<content>I just read this great blog post at dogeatdogdesigns.com and thought you should too!</content>
</letter>

Google uses XML documents to access information about your website. Generally, the file used is called “sitemap.xml” and is submitted to Google through their Webmaster Tools. Each of Dog Eat Dog Design’s websites include an XML sitemap to inform Google what pages are important and what pages don’t need to be indexed.

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