What is a Sitemap?
A sitemap is a file that provides a structured list of all the pages and content (such as images, PDFs and images) available on your website. They are used to provided users (HTML sitemaps) and search engines (XML sitemaps) with a clear overview of your website’s structure. It can also include other information such as the date the page was last modified or how many image are on a page.
Why Are Sitemaps Important For SEO?
To be able to rank your webpages, search engines need to find, crawl, and index them effectively. While Google can discover pages on a website by following internal and external links, some pages are not so easily accessible.
That’s why search engines, like Google, use sitemaps. It is a complete snapshot of your website and helps them to understand what pages you think are important and use this file to crawl your site faster and more efficiently – including pages that may not be easily accessible through internal linking or backlinks.
Sitemap Best Practices
Creating a sitemap is an essential step in optimising your website for search engines, but it’s equally important to follow best practices to ensure your sitemap is effective.
Include Important Pages
Make sure to include all the crucial pages of your website in your sitemap. This includes product pages, services, blog posts, and any other content that you want search engines to crawl. By highlighting your most valuable content, you increase the chances of those pages being crawled and visible in the search results.
No Index Irrelevant Pages
To maintain a clean and efficient sitemap, avoid including pages that are not relevant for indexing, such as thank-you pages, login pages, or duplicate content. Instead, use the “noindex” tag for these pages to prevent search engines from crawling them. This helps search engines maximise their crawl budget and focus on your most valuable content.
Submit Your Sitemap in Google Search Console
Once you’ve created your sitemap, the next step is to submit it through Google Search Console who will then periodically revisit your sitemap to find new pages.
To submit your sitemap:
- Sign in to your Google Search Console profile
- Select your property.
- Click Sitemaps in the left menu
- Enter your sitemap URL.
- Click submit.
