An XML (Extensible Markup Language) sitemap is a text file used by search engines to understand your website’s structure while crawling it. Essentially, it is an organized list of URLs, providing a roadmap of your website that allows search engines to discover and index your content.
Google’s Search Central explains this by stating, “A sitemap can provide valuable metadata associated with the pages you list in that sitemap: Metadata is information about a webpage, such as when the page was last updated, how often the page is changed, and the importance of the page relative to other URLs in the site” (Google Search Central, Sitemaps).
For instance, if your site has pages that are not properly linked to each other (in other words, they are not discoverable through a typical search spider crawl of the website), these pages can be listed and located via an XML sitemap. This can be particularly helpful if your site is built in JavaScript, as search engines can struggle to read JavaScript and an XML sitemap can ensure that all your pages are discovered and indexed.
It’s also worth noting that XML sitemaps are beneficial for extremely large websites. For a site with thousands or even millions of pages, it can make sure that search engines are able to discover and index the content that may otherwise remain hard to discover.
Silktide describes the value of an XML sitemap, stating, “XML sitemaps can be used to indicate information such as: The total number of pages in a website, The total number of indexed pages in a website, When a page was last changed” (Silktide, Understanding XML sitemaps). This information can be an important aspect of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) efforts, as it can help to direct search engines to the content you wish to highlight.
Additionally, XML sitemaps can offer advantages for new websites and blogs. They can help search engine spiders to quickly discover and index your new website’s content, which can help it start ranking on search engine results pages more quickly.
In sum, an XML sitemap is essentially a directory of webpages designed for search engine crawlers. By properly setting up an XML sitemap, you can facilitate better communication with search engines, providing detailed information and enabling them to more easily discover all the pages on your site.
Sources:
1. (Google Search Central, Sitemaps)
https://developers.google.com/search/docs/advanced/sitemaps/overview
1. (Silktide, Understanding XML sitemaps)
https://silktide.com/glossary/xml-sitemap/
