XML Sitemap

Definition

An XML sitemap is a file (usually at /sitemap.xml) that lists the URLs on your website that you want search engines to crawl and index. It includes metadata about each URL — when it was last modified, how frequently it changes, and its relative priority. While not required for ranking, sitemaps help search engines discover pages faster, especially on large sites, new sites, or sites with complex navigation. Best practices: include only canonical, indexable URLs; exclude noindex pages, redirects, and duplicates; keep under 50,000 URLs per sitemap (use a sitemap index for larger sites); submit to Google Search Console; and update automatically when content changes.