Did you ever wonder how Google or any other search engine crawler could access all the content of your website? If you have come across this thought, then the sitemap is one of the primary reasons for your pages and blog posts to get indexed on a search engine server. It is important to understand what is a sitemap and why sitemaps are important for a website.
Having sitemaps is one of the most healthy practices when it comes to optimizing technical SEO. And there are several marketers who have implemented sitemaps on websites and received better results in terms of search engine ranking position.
You might have encountered the issue when your pages and blog posts are not getting indexed. This can be due to multiple factors, but sitemaps are one of the reasons for search engine crawlers to understand the content and get it indexed. Likewise, there are many other benefits of using sitemaps for websites that we will be covering in this blog.
Page Contents
What is a sitemap?
A sitemap is a file that consists of lists of all the links to the blog posts and pages published on the website. All the links have been categorized so that it is convenient for the search engine crawler to understand the web structure. With respect to that, your landing page is displayed on a search engine based on a search query.
Sitemaps are like a blueprint of your website. It is the core part in which the search engine can understand how the website has been designed and developed. It also helps to know the location of web pages and makes users/crawlers understand how the content flow works within the website.
Different kinds of sitemaps
The sitemaps are broadly differentiated into two major kinds. Remember that each has its own unique role in driving out traffic to the website and for technical SEO purposes.
1. XML sitemap
An XML sitemap is one of the most popularly utilized sitemap files for the website. The term XML stands for extensible markup language which is a file that search engines can easily understand and crawl the website without any issues.
The XML sitemap appears to be a simple document with all the list of URLs published on the website. There are also other fields from which you can configure such as adding descriptions or you can even set the hierarchy levels of the web pages. You can also insert the date that helps in understanding google crawlers that when was the last page published or modified.
2. HTML sitemap
Image credit: Seobility
HTML sitemaps are also similar to the XML sitemap. The key difference between both these formats is that it is easy to understand for humans, unlike the XML sitemap which focuses only on search crawlers.
The HTML sitemap is used for people who want to understand the website structure and also how the navigation happens. Marketers use HTML sitemap to get better traction from search engines and also help the website visitors to browse through the content.
But there are challenges in implementing an HTML sitemap for the end-user. As it is troublesome for them to scroll through so many pages, it is hard to get what they are looking for.
Other types of sitemaps
The sitemaps are again differentiated between image, video, posts, pages, news, and mobile site map. Each sitemap has its own roles and responsibilities in terms of Search Engine Optimisation for a website.
Examples of sitemaps
List of examples for how sitemaps look like.
If you look at the images, you can see all the list of URLs that have been extracted from the website. These are the URLs to which the blog posts and web pages have been published on the given server.
You can also notice the dates for which the web pages have been published which make the search engine understand the page status.
There are other sets of observations that you can see in the sitemap:
The priority level is represented by using <priority> tags in the site map.
The <lastmod> stands for when is the page or blog post last modified.
<changefreq> this denotes how frequently the web page will be updated. It can be further categorized into hours or days.
The <URL> and <urlset> stand for the type of tags that have been used for every URL that has been published on the website.
Why sitemap is important for a website?
There are many advantages to using a sitemap for a website. Here is a list of major reasons that you need to use a sitemap for a website.
1. Understanding the website structure
As your website will be having plenty of categories and subcategories which have been again regrouped into categories and tags. When there is a use of multiple filtrations the content again gets differentiated. For this purpose, to make the search engine crawler understand you need to use a sitemap for a website.
2. Decide which are the pages that need to get indexed sooner
When you can configure the web pages in terms of priority levels, the website owner has the complete authority to decide which are the web pages that need to get indexed on a primary level. When you build and submit a sitemap to the search console, it helps the search engine crawler to prioritize what pages need to be indexed on a web server.
3. Updating the dates
If you are looking forward to modifying the blog published dates, it is sometimes not possible from the website. In order to complete this process, you can take the help of a sitemap in editing the dates. This makes the crawler to understand when was the page published or modified.
4. Highly beneficial for large websites
The sitemaps are highly beneficial for large websites like e-commerce portals. Because it will be having hundreds of products and thousands of variations for which the sitemap is majorly required for the search engine to understand everything about it.
5. Helps the user to navigate across your website
By using the HTML sitemap, it can help your website visitors to access the content which they need. As it will be having the list of all the pages and posts that have been published on a website with proper categorization, it creates an engaging experience for your web visitor.
Benefits of sitemap for SEO
Here are some of the major benefits of implementing a sitemap on our website for search engine optimisation.
1. Indexes your web pages faster
With the help of the Google search console or Bing Webmaster, you can submit your sitemap for fast indexation. When the search crawlers receive the sitemap, they immediately release out the crawlers to access your web pages. It is one of the instantaneous processes for indexing your web pages faster compared to other methods.
2. Drive more traffic
As you can stay updated on all your web pages to get immediately indexed, you will notice that the traffic is generated towards your website. It is because of the sitemaps that have allowed the web pages to get indexed faster and rank on search engines accordingly.
Concluding thoughts
There is no doubt that sitemaps are highly beneficial for a website and also help in the search engine optimisation of a site. Starting from your pages to get indexed faster till receiving an engaging user experience. Sitemaps are a complete package that should not be ignored by any website owner or marketer.
As marketing professionals are facing a hard time ranking their website on the search engine, they are continuously looking out for new techniques. Sitemaps are one of the most highly result-oriented techniques when it comes to optimizing your website for technical SEO.
When you have gone through this comprehensive guide of what is a sitemap and its importance for a website, I hope that you got clarity for why you need to use it.
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