Sitemap.

According to Google, a sitemap is a file in which you provide information about the pages, videos, and other files on your website. Search engines read it to crawl the website more efficiently. This almost always refers to the XML sitemap, a machine-readable list of URLs. It’s especially important for your business when you want new pages to be found quickly—such as a new services page or a new location. However, according to Google, the sitemap is only a suggestion. There’s no guarantee that all listed pages will be crawled and indexed.

How a Sitemap Works

The XML sitemap follows an open protocol described on sitemaps.org. According to Google and sitemaps.org, a single sitemap may contain no more than 50,000 URLs and must not exceed 50 MB in uncompressed size. Larger websites split the list into multiple files and consolidate them into a sitemap index file.

According to its own documentation, Google only uses the "lastmod" modification date if it can be verified as accurate. Google completely ignores the "priority" and "changefreq" fields. There are two common ways to ensure that the crawlers find the file: You can submit it via the Sitemaps report in Google Search Console, or you can add a line to your robots.txt file that includes "Sitemap:" followed by the file's full URL.

What Your Business Should Keep in Mind

Only include pages that you want to appear in Google. According to Google, the sitemap should contain the canonical URLs—that is, only the preferred URL for each piece of content—and these should be listed as complete, absolute URLs rather than relative paths. Thank-you pages, test pages, and duplicate versions have no place there.

Check to see if your system already generates the sitemap on its own. According to Google, a CMS like WordPress, Wix, or Blogger has likely already submitted the sitemap to search engines on its own. In projects, we often see that there’s also an old, manually uploaded sitemap that lists pages that have long since been deleted.

Submit the sitemap to Search Console and review the errors. According to Google, the Sitemaps report shows when the file was retrieved and what errors occurred during processing. For more information on how to make the most of this tool, see "How to Use Google Search Console Effectively."

Frequently Asked Questions About the Sitemap

Does every website need a sitemap? Not necessarily. According to Google, a small website with about 500 pages or fewer that has good internal linking may not need one. At the same time, Google notes that most websites benefit from having a sitemap.

What is the difference between this and an HTML sitemap? An HTML sitemap is a standard page for humans that links to all the important subpages; it’s often accessible via the footer. An XML sitemap, on the other hand, is intended for search engines and is not meant for visitors. Neither of them replaces good navigation: According to Google, the search engine will find most of a website anyway if the linking structure is well-organized.

How quickly does a submitted sitemap take effect? There is no set timeframe. Google explicitly states that submitting a sitemap is merely a suggestion and not a guarantee that the file will be downloaded or used for crawling.

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