What is a sitemap?

A sitemap is a file that gives an overview of the important pages on your website, so search engines can find and crawl them more easily. The most common form is the XML sitemap, made specifically for search engines. A good sitemap mainly helps larger and newer sites get indexed faster and more completely.

What is a sitemap for?

A sitemap works as a route map for crawlers. It lists your most important URLs and can include information about when pages were last changed. That way you help search engines crawl and index your content efficiently.

XML versus HTML sitemap

An XML sitemap is meant for search engines and contains a structured list of URLs. An HTML sitemap is a page for visitors that shows the structure of the site. For SEO, the XML sitemap is what matters most.

Submitting your sitemap

Submit your sitemap in Google Search Console and reference it in your robots.txt. Keep it up to date: include only indexable, relevant pages and remove expired URLs. This is a standard part of technical SEO.

Does every website need a sitemap?

Small sites are often crawled well without one, but a sitemap is always a good idea, especially if you have a lot of pages.

Does WordPress generate a sitemap automatically?

Yes, often through an SEO plugin such as Rank Math, which keeps an up-to-date XML sitemap for you.

What is a sitemap used for?

A sitemap helps search engines find and crawl all the important pages of your site. Especially on larger or new websites, it makes sure no page is overlooked. You submit the sitemap in Google Search Console.

How do you create a sitemap?

In WordPress, SEO plugins such as Rank Math or Yoast generate an XML sitemap automatically. You can usually find it at yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml. You can also make one by hand, but for most websites the automatic version is faster and error-free.

There are several types of sitemaps, each with its own purpose:

Type	For whom	What it contains
XML sitemap	Search engines	The important, indexable pages of your website
Sitemap index	Search engines	An overview of multiple sitemaps, for example for pages, posts and categories
Image or video sitemap	Search engines	Extra information about images and video, so they are easier to find
HTML sitemap	Visitors	A page with links to all the important sections of your site

1. Let it be created automatically. In WordPress, SEO plugins such as Rank Math and Yoast do this for you; the sitemap is then usually at /sitemap_index.xml.
2. Check the contents. Only pages that are allowed in Google belong in it: no pages with a noindex, no redirects and no duplicate addresses.
3. Submit it. Add the sitemap in Google Search Console under Sitemaps, and in Bing Webmaster Tools as well.
4. Keep an eye on it. After major changes, check whether Google reads the sitemap without errors.

A lesson from our own practice: on large websites the sitemap is often split into several files and stored temporarily. If you change a lot of pages at once, pages can drop out between those files. So refresh the sitemap after a big update and check that everything is in it exactly once.