What is an XML Sitemap? | Importance of XML Sitemap in SEO

What is an XML Sitemap?

XML (Extensible Markup Language) Sitemap is a text file used to extend all URLs of a website. Each URL may contain additional information (metadata). including when files were last updated, how important the files are, and whether there are other versions of URLs created in other languages.

All of this is done to help search engines crawl your website more efficiently, providing the crawlers with any changes, including whether a new page has been added or the old one has been removed. Learn about ASO from here

The XML Sitemap does not guarantee that your pages will crawl and be indexed by search engines. but one that will definitely increase your chances, especially if your navigation or simple internal link strategy does not link to all your pages.

Just go through this amazing video explaining XML sitemaps

What is A good XML Sitemap?

Important consideration regarding XML Sitemap

1. The tag <loc> is mandatory, but the <priority>, <lastmod> tag and <changefreq> tags are optional.

2. Ideally, the XML sitemap should be added to the website’s root directory. All URLs in Sitemap must come from the same host.

3. Only the standard version of all page URLs should be included, so pages should not be redirected or erroneous.

4. The maximum length of a URL is 2,048 characters.

5. While it is possible to manipulate search engines, it is not a good idea to do so, assuming that the content on your page is frequently updated by announcing the tag on a daily basis. If the frequency and priority tags do not reflect reality, search engine crawlers may ignore them.

If you need help creating your sitemap, there are several sitemap generator tools available to help.

What file types are supported by XML Sitemaps?

Google can detect various file types of sitemaps. These are specific to the content type of the site and help search engines find files more easily.

List of sitemap file types:

• HTML
• Mobile
• Image
• Video
• News

Do You need an XML sitemap?

Are you sure you need a sitemap? No, not technically. Your website still works without one, and it can be crawled and indexed by search engines. Also, sitemaps are not used as a ranking indicator, so submitting one may not rank you high.

So why do it? Indexing is the biggest reason you can create and submit your XML Sitemap. Although search engines can technically find your pages without searching, adding a sitemap makes it much easier for them. You may have orphaned pages (missing pages via your internal link) or hard to find. Your sitemap is especially important when you add recent pages or create a brand new site with no more links.

Sitemaps also help search engines crawl your pages smarter. They take the ‘and’ tag into consideration and adjust their crawl frequency accordingly. You will be a little more active about getting search spiders to visit your pages. Increasing the priority level of the page will make pages crawl and index earlier than other, less important parts of your site.

If you have a geo-targeted international site or a site that translates a single page into multiple languages, you can use your XML sitemap to your advantage. As we have shown in our example above, inserting the tag into your sitemap will let crawlers know that you have multiple versions of your page. Search engines may use this information to ensure that users provide the correct version based on language and/or location.

XML Sitemap is like a house blueprint or house map. It serves as a sitemap of the so-called home and its rooms in the form of web pages. Google makes it easy for the traditional home inspector on the web to quickly and easily find all the rooms in your home. This is important and plays an important role in SEO because sitemaps help Google make your site pages easier to grasp. This is important because Google ranks not only websites but also web pages.

There are no risks or drawbacks in using Sitemaps and it helps to improve the SEO of your website, therefore, they are highly supported and recommended for use.

Importance of XML Sitemap in SEO

All websites and their pages are created dynamically, especially on e-commerce sites and shopping sites.

It has been observed that if the site is not well structured it will not generate good links or internal links thus improving the site SEO. Most sites have fewer external links or the newly or newly developed site “Live” launched.

In the case of large or bulky sites, XML sites are highly useful for archived content and may not be well connected.

Other XML site‌map features and considerations

XML Sitemap Configuration and Formatting:

A website content management system essentially provides the facility to create an XML sitemap. If anyone is using these programs or in other words, it is important to make sure that the Auto-XML sitemap generator is in the desired and proper format for the output.

Google sets guidelines and all XML sitemaps must comply with and comply with the specific protocol or sitemap protocol. For sitemap validation, after a generation or after creating an XML sitemap and uploading it to the webserver, you will need search engines. Makes it efficient and easy with the help of Google.

Google Webmaster Tools. Before verifying the upload attempt, you need to make sure the sitemaps are in the correct and proper format and uploaded correctly to the webserver.

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