Sitemap
A sitemap is a file that lists the addresses of your site's important pages, and when they last changed, for search engines. It is usually published as sitemap.xml. It helps search engines find new and updated pages more easily.
What is a sitemap?
A sitemap is a file that lists your site's pages for search engines. It is usually an XML file published at yourcompany.com/sitemap.xml. It holds the address of each page and, optionally, when it last changed. It is made for search engines, not visitors.
Here is an everyday case. A company adds a blog post every week. If nothing on the site links to the new post yet, a search engine may find it late. The sitemap adds the post to the list with its date, and the search engine checks the list on its next visit. On a well-built site, the sitemap updates itself with every new page.
Why does it matter?
A sitemap speeds up discovery on large sites, new sites and sites with weak internal links. It does not guarantee a page gets indexed. It just tells the search engine the pages exist. The list should contain only live pages you want found. Deleted or redirected addresses should come off. Once you add the sitemap to Google Search Console, you can also see which pages were read.
A sitemap is one of the technical foundations of SEO. We list the others in SEO-friendly website. Every site we build ships with an automatic sitemap, as described on our web design page.
Frequently asked questions
Does a small website need a sitemap?
A site with a few well-linked pages can manage without one. It does no harm and is easy to set up, so most sites include it.
Where do I submit my sitemap?
Add its address in the Sitemaps section of Google Search Console. Listing it in your robots.txt file helps other search engines find it too.
How many pages can a sitemap hold?
Up to 50,000 URLs per file. Larger sites use several sitemap files and an index file that lists them.
Sources
- 01 Learn about sitemaps · Google Search Central
- 02 Sitemaps XML format · sitemaps.org