What is an XML sitemap?
An XML sitemap is a file that lists the pages a website wants search engines to know about. Google describes a sitemap as "a file where you provide information about the pages, videos, and other files on your site, and the relationships between them." It says search engines read it "to crawl your site more efficiently."
A basic entry looks like this:
<url>
<loc>https://www.example.com/local-moving</loc>
</url>
Does a sitemap get pages indexed?
Not by itself. Google says a sitemap "helps search engines discover URLs on your site, but it doesn't guarantee that all the items in your sitemap will be crawled and indexed." Submitting one "is merely a hint."
Google also ignores some optional fields: "Google ignores <priority> and <changefreq> values."
How do you submit a sitemap?
Two common ways, according to Google:
- Search Console: submit it in the Sitemaps report, which shows when Google read it and any errors. See what is Google Search Console.
- robots.txt: add a line such as
Sitemap: https://www.example.com/sitemap.xml. See what is robots.txt.
Does a moving company need one?
Most website platforms create one automatically. Google says a site with "about 500 pages or fewer" that's well linked may not need one, but that "in most cases, your site will benefit from having a sitemap." A sitemap should list only the final, indexable version of each page. See what is a canonical tag.