What is an XML Sitemap?
An XML sitemap is a structured file that lists all important URLs on your website in a format that search engines can easily read. Think of it as a roadmap for crawlers like Googlebot, Bingbot, and other search engine bots — it tells them exactly which pages exist on your site and provides metadata about each page.
The file follows the sitemaps.org protocol, an industry standard supported by Google, Bing, Yahoo, and other major search engines. A sitemap is typically located at example.com/sitemap.xml and can also be referenced in your robots.txt file.
Basic XML Sitemap Example
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
<url>
<loc>https://example.com/</loc>
<lastmod>2025-01-15</lastmod>
<changefreq>daily</changefreq>
<priority>1.0</priority>
</url>
<url>
<loc>https://example.com/about</loc>
<lastmod>2024-12-20</lastmod>
<changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
<priority>0.8</priority>
</url>
</urlset>Why Sitemaps Matter for SEO
While search engines can discover pages through internal links, a sitemap provides a direct, explicit list of all pages you want indexed. Here is why sitemaps are essential for your SEO strategy:
Faster Page Discovery
New pages and recently updated content are discovered faster when listed in a sitemap. Without one, search engines rely on following links from other pages, which can take days or weeks — especially for deeply nested content.
Crawl Budget Optimization
Search engines allocate a limited crawl budget to each site. By listing only your important, canonical pages in the sitemap, you guide crawlers to spend their budget on content that matters most for your rankings.
Metadata Communication
Sitemaps convey metadata like lastmod dates, helping search engines prioritize crawling of recently changed pages. Accurate lastmod values can significantly improve crawl efficiency.
Large Site Management
For sites with thousands or millions of pages, sitemaps are indispensable. Sitemap index files let you organize URLs into manageable chunks, ensuring comprehensive coverage that internal linking alone cannot achieve.
Types of Sitemaps
The sitemaps protocol supports several specialized formats beyond the standard URL sitemap. Each type serves a specific purpose and helps search engines understand different content types:
Standard XML Sitemap
The most common type, listing page URLs with optional metadata like lastmod, changefreq, and priority. Every website should have at least one standard sitemap.
Sitemap Index
A master file that references multiple child sitemaps. Required when your site exceeds the 50,000 URL limit per sitemap. The index file itself uses the <sitemapindex> tag instead of <urlset>.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<sitemapindex xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
<sitemap>
<loc>https://example.com/sitemap-pages.xml</loc>
<lastmod>2025-01-15</lastmod>
</sitemap>
<sitemap>
<loc>https://example.com/sitemap-posts.xml</loc>
<lastmod>2025-01-14</lastmod>
</sitemap>
</sitemapindex>Image Sitemap
Uses the <image:image> extension to help Google discover images that might not be found through regular crawling. This is especially important for sites that load images dynamically via JavaScript.
Video Sitemap
Uses the <video:video> extension to provide metadata about video content, including title, description, duration, and thumbnail URL. Enables video rich results in Google Search.
News Sitemap
Designed for Google News publishers, listing articles published within the last 48 hours. Uses the <news:news> extension with publication name, language, title, and publication date.
What We Check
Our sitemap checker evaluates your sitemap against the signals that matter, grouped from must-fix down to polish. Here is what we look for:
Must-fix
- Sitemap Found — An accessible XML sitemap must exist at a standard location
- XML Structure — Valid XML format required for search engines to parse your sitemap
- URL Content — Sitemap must contain at least one URL entry
- Size Limits — Must not exceed the 50,000 URL or 50MB file size limit
- Absolute URLs — All URLs must be absolute (e.g., https://example.com/page, not /page)
- HTTPS Protocol — All URLs should use HTTPS for security and ranking signals
- Same Domain — All URLs must be from the same domain as the sitemap
Recommended
- XML Namespace — Correct xmlns declaration required for sitemap protocol compliance
- Robots.txt Reference — Sitemap URL should be declared in your robots.txt
- XML Character Escaping — URLs must not contain unescaped ampersands (&)
- WWW Consistency — URLs should not mix www and non-www hostnames
- Child Sitemaps — All child sitemaps in the index must be accessible
Polish
- Valid Dates — All lastmod dates must be valid ISO 8601 format, not in the future
- No Duplicates — No duplicate entries to avoid wasted crawl budget
- Trailing Slash Consistency — URLs should use consistent trailing slash format
- Date Freshness — Lastmod dates should not all be older than 6 months
- Date Diversity — Lastmod dates should vary across pages, not all be identical
Common Sitemap Mistakes to Avoid
Even experienced developers make sitemap mistakes that can hurt SEO performance. Here are the most common issues we see and how to fix them:
Including Non-Canonical URLs
One of the most common mistakes is including URLs that are not the canonical version of a page. If you have both https://example.com/page and https://example.com/page/ in your sitemap, search engines will be confused about which to index. Only include the canonical URL for each page and match your canonical tags.
Setting All lastmod Dates to the Same Value
Many CMS platforms set all lastmod dates to the current date on every sitemap regeneration. Google has explicitly stated that they may ignore lastmod entirely if the values appear inaccurate. Set lastmod to the actual date each page was last meaningfully modified.
Including Blocked or Noindex Pages
Including pages that are blocked by robots.txt or have a noindex meta tag creates conflicting signals. Search engines see the sitemap saying "index this page" while the page itself says "do not index." Only include pages that you want indexed and remove blocked and noindex pages from your sitemap.
Not Updating After Site Changes
A stale sitemap that does not reflect your current site structure is almost as bad as having no sitemap. If pages have been removed, redirected, or their URLs changed, the sitemap must be updated accordingly. Use dynamic sitemap generation (most CMS platforms support this) or update manually after changes.
Sitemap Best Practices
Follow these best practices to ensure your sitemap is working optimally for search engines:
Use Absolute URLs Only
Every URL in your sitemap must include the full protocol and domain:https://example.com/pagenot /page.
Reference in robots.txt
Add a Sitemap: directive to your robots.txt file. This ensures all search engines can discover your sitemap automatically without requiring manual submission.
Keep It Under 50,000 URLs
If your site has more than 50,000 URLs, split them into multiple sitemaps and create a sitemap index file. Each individual sitemap should also stay under 50MB uncompressed.
Use Accurate lastmod Dates
Set the lastmod value to when the page content was last meaningfully changed. Google uses this to prioritize which pages to crawl. Inaccurate dates will cause Google to ignore the field entirely.
Include Only Indexable Pages
Your sitemap should only contain canonical, indexable URLs that return HTTP 200. Exclude redirects (301/302), error pages (404/5xx), pages with noindex tags, and pages blocked by robots.txt.
Submit to Google Search Console
While robots.txt discovery works for most search engines, submitting your sitemap directly through Google Search Console gives you insights into crawl errors, index coverage, and processing status.
Platform-Specific Sitemap Setup
Different platforms and frameworks handle sitemaps differently. Here is how to set up sitemaps on popular platforms:
WordPress
WordPress 5.5+ includes a built-in sitemap at /wp-sitemap.xml. For more control, use plugins like Yoast SEO, Rank Math, or All in One SEO which offer advanced sitemap customization including image sitemaps, post type filtering, and priority settings.
Shopify
Shopify automatically generates a sitemap at /sitemap.xml that includes products, collections, blog posts, and pages. It updates automatically when you add or remove content. Shopify also auto-includes the sitemap reference in robots.txt.
Next.js
Next.js (App Router) supports sitemaps via a sitemap.ts or sitemap.xml file in the app/ directory. The TypeScript approach allows dynamic generation from your data sources, ensuring the sitemap always reflects your current routes.
Static Sites (Gatsby, Hugo, Jekyll)
Static site generators typically generate sitemaps at build time. Gatsby uses gatsby-plugin-sitemap, Hugo has built-in sitemap templates, and Jekyll supports sitemaps via the jekyll-sitemap gem. Ensure your CI/CD pipeline regenerates the sitemap on every deployment.