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A sitemap is a file (most often in XML sitemap format) in which you give a search engine a list of all the important pages on your website. Think of it as a table of contents for robots. Instead of Googlebot having to discover every page on its own by following links, it gets a clear list served up directly. This helps a great deal, especially with large, new or poorly linked websites, to make sure nothing important gets lost and everything makes it into the index.
Where the word comes from
The name is self-explanatory. It combines “site”, meaning a website or place, and “map”. A sitemap is literally a map of a website. And like any map, it is there to help you find your way, so that a visitor or a robot does not get lost and can reach all the important places. Sitemaps originally started out as HTML pages for people. Only later did they mainly become a machine-readable file for search engines.
A short history of sitemaps
Google introduced the XML sitemap format in 2005 as a way for websites to report their pages to it directly. Yahoo and Microsoft joined shortly afterwards, creating the shared sitemaps.org standard that still applies today. Sitemaps thus became a universal language between websites and search engines. Today, most websites generate them automatically. On WordPress, SEO plugins or the core itself take care of it, so you hardly need to worry about the technical side. Even so, it is worth knowing what belongs in a sitemap and what does not. Search engines have become more sophisticated recently, and the sitemap is no longer such an essential component. On most websites I use Yoast, which you simply switch on.
How a sitemap works from an SEO perspective
An XML sitemap contains a list of the URLs you want in the index, optionally with additional details such as the date of the last change. The search engine downloads it, goes through the list and gets a clear overview of the website’s structure. It is important to know that a sitemap does not guarantee indexing, but it makes discovering pages much easier and faster. It works best combined with good website architecture and internal linking. A link to the sitemap is also included in the robots.txt file and submitted to Google Search Console. On WordPress, an SEO plugin handles it automatically.
Why sitemaps matter
A sitemap is cheap insurance against a search engine overlooking important pages. On a small, well-linked website it may not change much, because the robot will find the pages anyway. But for a large e-shop, a new website without backlinks or a website with a deep structure, it often makes the difference between pages getting into the index quickly or not at all. It also gives the owner, and me as a consultant, a valuable overview. When I look at the sitemap, I can tell straight away how many pages the website has and how many of them are actually in Google’s index.
The bigger picture
The sitemap is a nice example of an old idea finding a new use. Maps have accompanied humankind for thousands of years, from cave engravings and nautical portolan charts to today’s navigation systems, and they have always served the same purpose: not getting lost and finding the way. A website map is just the latest in the series, this time for a landscape of links and pages. And just as with a real map, a good map shows only what matters. A sitemap stuffed with junk URLs confuses a search engine in exactly the same way that a map marking every footpath and pothole would confuse a hiker.
The most common mistakes
- A sitemap full of URLs with noindex, 301 redirects or errors (or deleted 404 pages) that do not belong there at all. Only pages with a 200 status belong in a sitemap.
- An outdated sitemap that is not updated after changes to the website.
- A missing link to the sitemap in the robots.txt file and in Google Search Console.
- Relying on the sitemap alone instead of a proper internal structure and linking.
Questions about sitemaps
What is a sitemap?
A file, most often in XML format, in which you give a search engine a list of the important pages on your website so it can find them and add them to its index more easily.
How do you create a sitemap?
On most websites, the system or an SEO plugin generates it automatically. On WordPress, an SEO plugin takes care of it. Elsewhere, you can use an online sitemap generator.
Does a sitemap guarantee indexing?
No. A sitemap makes discovering pages easier and faster, but it does not guarantee indexing itself. That depends on the quality and accessibility of the content.
