A sitemap is a file that contains the pages of a site. It is typically hosted in a URL but it is not common. First, it is important to realize that a site is composed of pages.
Many of these pages are not relevant enough to be positioned. A search engine may struggle to understand the website’s structure when crawling it.
It could be difficult to determine which pages are more important, which pages are updated more often, and what the relationship is between them. The sitemap is an effective solution and takes the center stage here.
A sitemap doesn’t mean pages not listed in it won’t be crawled. It is simply a guide that bots may consider when checking.
The most popular sitemap format is XML, which stands for an extensible markup language. It’s accepted by all major search engines, including Google, Yahoo!, and Bing. com.
What is the best way to use a sitemap for SEO?
The sitemap file is used to assist search engines to understand a site. And it also helps to identify pages on the site. It is therefore a fundamental requirement for any SEO job.
It does not necessarily mean that it is illegal or that traffic will be harmed by its absence. Also, it does not happen this way. It is still one of the elements that can be done without major problems and will greatly help in achieving your SEO goals.
What is the point of a sitemap?
Sitemaps should be present on all websites. It is essential for optimizing a website’s construction and it is also part of any good SEO techniques. But, it’s not always necessary to have one.
Sitemaps can add value in two situations.
First, a website is too large. The bots might not be able to crawl all pages in-depth and leave some pages out of their directories. A sitemap will help the bot reach all pages that we wish.
If they are not well-linked, this can also occur. This is most common with floating pages that do not contain internal links to other URLs.
This is the second scenario. We are talking about new websites or sites that have few external links. But do internal links help SEO?
These sites should be indexed as soon as possible. A sitemap can be helpful in this situation.
How to create a sitemap:
Although it might seem difficult to create a sitemap there are many ways to do so.
The most popular are:
Sitemaps.com: It is an easy-to-use online tool. Simply enter the domain to which you need a sitemap. It’s ready to be deployed once it has been generated.
Google XML sitemap: If your website was developed in WordPress, it’s even easier. You can use several plugins to create a sitemap such as Google XML Sitemaps. This tool updates automatically every time you add new content.
How do you inform Google about your sitemap?
After the sitemap has been obtained, it is time to notify Google. A Google Search Engine account is the easiest way to do this. Crawl > Sitemaps.
A second alternative that may be more suitable is to include a line robots.txt which indicates the existence of the sitemap. The robots.txt file is the first one that the bots will crawl.
Sitemaps of other types
It is important to note that you can create simple page sitemaps. However, you also have the option to generate video sitemaps and image website maps.
These will allow you to make search engine tracking faster and improve your website’s indexing. For more digital marketing-related help and advice contact Digital Specialist today.
