Knowledge Base

What is Sitemap XML and Why is it Necessary for Your Website?

Sitemap XML is a file that provides search engines with a roadmap to discover and index the pages on your website. Simply put, it is a list of all the important pages of your website and provides search engines with information about how often these pages are updated and their relationships with each other. If you want to be successful in SEO efforts, creating a sitemap and submitting it to search engines is a critical step.

Sitemaps are especially important for large, complex, or new websites. They help ensure that search engines find and index all of your pages. Additionally, if your website has frequently updated content, sitemaps can help search engines notice these updates more quickly.

Why Should You Use Sitemap XML?

• Better Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Sitemaps improve your SEO by helping search engines better understand and index your website.
• Faster Indexing: Especially for new websites or frequently updated sites, sitemaps allow search engines to discover and index new pages faster.
• Comprehensive Indexing: Sitemaps help search engines find all the important pages on your website, so no page is overlooked.
• Update Notification: Sitemaps notify search engines how often your pages are updated, allowing updated content to be indexed faster.
• Alternative URL Notification: Sitemaps can be used to notify search engines of different URLs with the same content (e.g., mobile and desktop versions).

In summary, sitemap XML is a powerful tool that helps improve your SEO by ensuring that your website is better understood and indexed by search engines.

How to Create Sitemap XML?

There are several different ways to create Sitemap XML:

1. Creating Manually: The Sitemap XML file is a simple text file and can be created manually. However, this method is not practical for large and complex websites.
2. Using Sitemap Generation Tools: Many online sitemap generation tools are available. These tools automatically create a sitemap XML file by scanning your website. For example, tools like XML-Sitemaps.com can be used.
3. Using CMS Plugins: Sitemap generation plugins are available for content management systems (CMS) such as WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal. These plugins automatically update your sitemap as the content on your site changes. For example, Yoast SEO or Rank Math plugins for WordPress have sitemap generation features.

Manual Sitemap XML Example:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.example.com/</loc>
    <lastmod>2023-10-27T10:00:00+00:00</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>1.0</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.example.com/about-us/</loc>
    <lastmod>2023-10-26T14:00:00+00:00</lastmod>
    <changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.8</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.example.com/contact/</loc>
    <lastmod>2023-10-25T09:00:00+00:00</lastmod>
    <changefreq>yearly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.5</priority>
  </url>
</urlset>

Explanations:

• <urlset>: The root element of the Sitemap file.
• <url>: The tag used for each URL entry.
• <loc>: Specifies the URL of the page.
• <lastmod>: Specifies the last modification date of the page (in ISO 8601 format).
• <changefreq>: Specifies how often the page changes (always, hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, never).
• <priority>: Specifies the priority of the page compared to other pages (a value between 0.0 and 1.0).

How to Submit Sitemap XML to Google Search Console?

After creating your Sitemap XML file, you need to submit it to Google via Google Search Console. This allows Google to find your sitemap and crawl your website more effectively.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Log in to Google Search Console: Go to Google Search Console and log in with your Google account.
2. Select Your Website: Select the correct website from your registered websites in Search Console.
3. Go to the "Sitemaps" Section: In the left menu, find and click on "Sitemaps" under "Indexing".
4. Enter the Sitemap URL: In the "Add a new sitemap" section, enter the URL of your sitemap XML file (e.g., `https://www.example.com/sitemap.xml`).
5. Click Submit: After entering the URL, click the "Submit" button.
6. Check the Status: Google will process your sitemap and notify you of the status. After successful submission, you should see "Success" in the "Status" column.

Important Notes:

• Make sure the Sitemap URL is correct.
• Make sure the Sitemap file is accessible on your website.
• Google does not process your sitemap immediately. The processing time may vary depending on the size and complexity of your website.

Things to Consider in Sitemap XML

Here are some important points to consider when creating and submitting Sitemap XML:

• Valid XML Format: Make sure your sitemap file is in a valid XML format. Incorrect XML can prevent search engines from processing your sitemap.
• Correct URLs: Make sure all URLs in your sitemap are correct and up-to-date. URLs with broken links or incorrect redirects can negatively affect your SEO.
• Canonical URLs: If there are different URLs with the same content, use canonical URLs in your sitemap. This helps search engines understand which URL is the primary one.
• Keep Up-to-Date: Keep your sitemap up-to-date as the content on your website changes. When you add new pages or update existing pages, update your sitemap accordingly.
• Splitting Large Sitemaps: There are limits to the size of Sitemap XML files and the number of URLs they contain. For large websites, you can overcome these limitations by dividing your sitemap into smaller parts (using a sitemap index file).
• Robot.txt File: By adding the URL of your Sitemap XML file to your robot.txt file, you can more easily inform search engines where your sitemap is located.

Sitemap XML and SEO Relationship: Real-Life Examples

Here are a few examples showing the impact of Sitemap XML on SEO:

Case Study 1: E-commerce Site

A large e-commerce site had thousands of product pages. Before using Sitemap XML, Google was only able to index a portion of the product pages. After creating a Sitemap XML and submitting it to Google Search Console, the number of indexed product pages increased significantly. This led to a noticeable increase in organic search traffic and sales.

Case Study 2: News Site

A news site published hundreds of new articles every day. Before using Sitemap XML, Google was slow to index new articles. By regularly updating the Sitemap XML and submitting it to Google, the news site ensured that its new articles were indexed faster. This increased the news site's visibility in Google News and helped it gain more traffic.

These examples demonstrate the positive effects of Sitemap XML on SEO. Sitemap XML can help search engines better understand, index, and rank your website, helping you increase your organic search traffic and grow your business. You can professionally manage your sitemap optimization with our SEO Consulting services.

Sitemap Types: Alternatives to XML Sitemap

While Sitemap XML is the most commonly used type of sitemap, alternatives are also available:

• HTML Sitemap: Designed for users, it is a page containing links to all important pages on your website. Although not as important as XML sitemaps for search engines, it can improve user experience and help search engines crawl your website more easily.
• Video Sitemap: For websites hosting video content, video sitemaps provide search engines with information about your videos (title, description, duration, etc.). This can help your videos appear better in search results.
• News Sitemap: For news sites that want to be included in Google News, news sitemaps provide information about published news articles.
• Image Sitemap: For image-heavy websites, image sitemaps provide search engines with information about your images.

Comparison of Sitemap Types:

How to Fix Sitemap XML Errors?

Having errors in your Sitemap XML can prevent search engines from properly indexing your website. Google Search Console offers tools to help you identify and fix errors in your sitemap.

Common Sitemap XML Errors:

• Invalid XML: Your sitemap file contains errors in XML format.
• Inaccessible URLs: Some URLs in your sitemap return a 404 error or are otherwise inaccessible.
• Blocked URLs: Some URLs in your sitemap are blocked by the robots.txt file.
• Redirecting URLs: Some URLs in your sitemap redirect to another page.
• Too Large Sitemap: Your sitemap file exceeds the size or number of URLs limits.

Troubleshooting Steps:

1. Check Google Search Console: Go to the "Sitemaps" section in Google Search Console and check the status of your sitemap. If there are any errors, read the error messages carefully.
2. Use an XML Validator: Use online XML validator tools to check if your sitemap file is valid in XML format.
3. Check URLs: Manually check all URLs in your sitemap and make sure they are accessible. Fix broken links and update redirects.
4. Check the Robots.txt File: Make sure that the URLs in your sitemap are not blocked by the robots.txt file. If necessary, edit your robots.txt file.
5. Split the Sitemap: If your sitemap file is too large, split it into smaller parts and create a sitemap index file.
6. Resubmit the Sitemap: After fixing the errors, resubmit your sitemap to Google Search Console.

Sitemap XML and Mobile SEO

Mobile SEO refers to the optimization efforts made to ensure that your website ranks well in search results on mobile devices. Sitemap XML can play an important role in your mobile SEO.

Sitemap XML Optimization for Mobile SEO:

• Mobile-Friendly URLs: Include URLs in your sitemap that belong to mobile-friendly versions of your website (e.g., m.example.com or URLs using responsive design).
• Alternative URLs: If your website's mobile and desktop versions have different URLs, use the <xhtml:link> tag in your sitemap to inform search engines about the relationship between these URLs.
• Mobile-First Indexing: Google uses mobile-first indexing. This means that Google uses the mobile version of your website to index it. By including mobile-friendly URLs in your sitemap, you can facilitate the mobile-first indexing process.

Example: Alternative URL Declaration

<url>
  <loc>https://www.example.com/page1</loc>
  <xhtml:link
     rel="alternate"
     media="only screen and (max-width: 640px)"
     href="https://m.example.com/page1"/>
</url>

In this example, the <xhtml:link> tag specifies that the mobile version of `https://www.example.com/page1` is `https://m.example.com/page1`. This helps search engines understand the relationship between mobile and desktop URLs and display the correct URL in mobile search results.

How Often Should I Update Sitemap XML?

How often you should update your Sitemap XML depends on how often your website is updated.

• Frequently Updated Websites: If your website publishes new content every day or every week, it is recommended that you update your sitemap with the same frequency. For example, a news site or blog may update its sitemap daily or weekly.
• Moderately Updated Websites: If your website publishes new content a few times a month, you can update your sitemap monthly. For example, an e-commerce site can update its sitemap when it adds new products or updates existing products.
• Infrequently Updated Websites: If your website is updated very infrequently (e.g., a few times a year), it may be sufficient to update your sitemap only when you make significant changes.

Important Tips:

• Remember to resubmit your sitemap to Google Search Console every time you update it.
• You can automatically update your sitemap using CMS plugins or sitemap generation tools.
• Update the <lastmod> tag in your sitemap as the content on your website changes.

Sitemap XML File Size and URL Count Limits

There are certain limits on the size of Sitemap XML files and the number of URLs they contain. Exceeding these limits is important to ensure that your sitemap is processed correctly by search engines.

Limits:

• File Size: The size of the Sitemap XML file should not exceed 50MB (uncompressed) or 50,000 URLs.
• URL Count: A Sitemap XML file can contain a maximum of 50,000 URLs.

Solutions for Large Websites:

If your website exceeds these limits, you need to divide your sitemap into smaller parts and create a sitemap index file.

Sitemap Index File:

A sitemap index file is an XML file that contains a list of multiple sitemap XML files. This file provides search engines with a single entry point to find all the sitemap files on your website.

Sitemap Index File Example:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<sitemapindex xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
  <sitemap>
    <loc>https://www.example.com/sitemap1.xml</loc>
    <lastmod>2023-10-27T10:00:00+00:00</lastmod>
  </sitemap>
  <sitemap>
    <loc>https://www.example.com/sitemap2.xml</loc>
    <lastmod>2023-10-26T14:00:00+00:00</lastmod>
  </sitemap>
</sitemapindex>

In this example, the sitemap index file contains the locations of two sitemap XML files named `sitemap1.xml` and `sitemap2.xml`. Search engines can crawl this index file to find and process all the sitemap files on your website.