No one knows the secrets of Google’s algorithms except Google (and sometimes I wonder if the algorithm is even too complex for some at Google to know how it works).

That said, there are some things that Google flat-out says doesn’t matter if we do them or not. Does that mean we shouldn’t do them? No, it doesn’t.

In a perfect world, our websites and Google will perform exactly how they should and in our favor. In reality, any number of things can go sideways when search engines crawl a site.

If it doesn’t harm a website to implement something that may make it better for search engines to crawl and understand – and it’s easy enough to do – then why not do it?

XML sitemaps and priority tags, change frequency tags, and URL ordering are some of those debated SEO tactics. Let’s discuss:

• XML sitemap basics
• Priority tags
• Change frequency tags
• So, should we use the tags?
• URL sequencing
• FAQ: How does the priority tag affect Google’s crawling behavior?

XML Sitemap Basics

An XML sitemap is a file that webmasters create and put on their site to tell search engines like Google and Bing about the pages, images, and videos that are on the site.

The sitemap works like a map, helping ensure more thorough crawling and indexing. However, an XML sitemap does not guarantee that search engines will index or crawl all pages, nor will a sitemap impact your rankings.

(Check out our primer on XML sitemaps for more information.)

There are optional tags that some people like to include in their sitemap, such as the priority tag and the change frequency tag. Google’s official stance is that it ignores both.

Then there is the practice or URL sequencing (ordering the URLs in your sitemap in order of your priority). Google says it ignores this, too.

But should we ignore it? Let’s talk next about these three practices.

Priority Tags

The priority tag tells Google how important the page is from 1 (the highest) to 0 (the lowest).

Sitemap priority values go from 1.0 to 0.0 with the 1.0 value indicating the most important page on the site. Priority values look like so: 1.0, 0.9, 0.8, 0.7, 0.6, 0.5, 0.4, 0.3, 0.2, 0.1 and 0.0. For instance, 1.0 would likely be the homepage.

If you use this tag, it doesn’t mean that Google will crawl the pages you think are important the most. It is up to the algorithm to determine what is most relevant and priority may not match. You can try to figure out which pages get crawled the most by looking at server logs.

In general, when using the priority tag you’d assign values like this:

• 1.0 – 0.8 = Category pages, homepage, top landing pages
• 0.7 – 0.4 = Blog articles, secondary category pages, subcategory pages
• 0.3 = 0.0 = Pages that are not as important like outdated content or utility-type pages

Change Frequency Tags

The change frequency tag is meant to tell Google how often pages are updated on your website. In theory, Google would view it and make a decision on whether to crawl that page again based on when it was last updated.

Again, Google’s official stance is that it ignores the change frequency tag. And, Google’s John Mueller has clarified that it is better to “specify the time stamp directly so that we can look into our internal systems and say we haven’t crawled since this date therefore we should crawl again.”

This tag is most certainly irrelevant if it’s not accurate. As Mueller mentions in the video above, “we see a lot of sites they give us this information in the sitemap, they said it changes daily or weekly, and we look in our database and it hasn’t changed in a month or years.”

So, Should We Use the Tags?

The fact that the tags are mentioned in Google’s XML sitemap documentation at all as “optional” is confusing – especially when they say they ignore them. Does Googlebot really ignore them every time? It’s hard to know. It is always better to use them, especially last revision dates (<lastmod>).

I believe there is another option you can do with your sitemap to indicate how you want the search engines to crawl. Google also says it ignores this method, though, but stick with me.

We’ve seen some success with indexation through URL sequencing, which I’ll talk about next.

URL Sequencing

URL sequencing is the practice of ordering the URLs in your sitemap according to priority – but not in the way the priority tag works. Google ignores the priority tags, so Google thinks all pages are “equal” thus sequence does not matter … at least for priority. But the pages are not equal in real life, especially if you have poor crawl budgets.

We strongly recommend that you sequence the URLs in your XML sitemap in a way that addresses both the concepts of priority and change frequency without using the tags. Here, the goal is to get key pages indexed faster.

And BTW, only use URLs that match the canonical tags found somewhere on your site or that are important pages!

For example, this is a sequence emphasizing the most recently modified pages:

1. One-day-old recently changed entries (new redirect targets, new or revised pages) [500 entries per XML page]
2. One-week-old entries as above, just a bit older [500 entries per XML page]
3. Remaining 200 code pages (sorted descending by impressions) [1000 entries per page]
4. Any other redirecting pages (30x codes) [5k per page]
5. Images and videos [500 per page]
6. 404 pages [10k per page]
7. The rest [10k per page]

Essentially what you are doing is providing a roadmap to the search engines about the pages you believe need to be crawled based on newness. You want all pages to get into the index and believe that the pages spidered last week are already there – but new pages are not. Use our sequencing directives above.

Why bother doing this if Google has explicitly said it ignores priority and sequence?

Given unlimited crawl budget, few website redirects, and no errors, all files get crawled. Priority and sequence do not matter. Google is right if assumptions hold.

But they don’t hold. There is a crawl budget, and it is eaten away by redirects and 404s. If you have anything other than a page (image, video, hreflang, etc.), the time estimates are wrong. Throw in any significant errors and the remaining files in the XML sitemap are ignored.

While in an ideal world priority and sequence do not matter, in a crawl budget world they do matter. In my experience, the sequence of the URLs to the search engine is all that matters.

We have found that this increases the number of pages spidered and decreases the “abandoned due to error” issues.

Final Thoughts

Yes, it is up to the bots to decide how to handle XML sitemaps. However, implementing something that could potentially help search engines crawl and index your website content – if easy enough – is never a bad idea.

Our SEO experts can help you optimize your site so that it can be easily crawled and indexed. Reach out to us for a free consultation.

FAQ: How does the priority tag affect Google’s crawling behavior?

Priority tags within XML sitemaps play a crucial role in determining the importance of web pages to search engines like Google. As an expert in SEO, I can attest to their significance in optimizing website crawling and indexing.

When it comes to Google’s crawling behavior, priority tags act as signals that inform the search engine about the relative importance of different pages on a website. By assigning values from 1.0 (highest) to 0.0 (lowest) to each page, webmasters can guide Google to focus on crawling the most critical content first. However, it’s essential to understand that while priority tags provide guidance, the final decision on crawling and indexing still lies with Google’s complex algorithms.

Webmasters assign higher priority values (usually between 1.0-0.8) to pages they consider important such as category pages, homepages, and landing pages in order to ensure they are crawled often and therefore more visible to users. Lower priority values tend to be given for less significant pages such as blog articles or utility pages.

Despite the option to use priority tags, it’s crucial to recognize that Google may not always adhere strictly to these assigned values. The search engine’s algorithms continuously evaluate various factors, such as the relevance and freshness of content, user engagement, and crawl budget constraints, to determine the optimal crawling strategy.

As an expert in the field, I advise webmasters to complement the use of priority tags with other SEO best practices. One such approach involves optimizing URL sequencing to further guide Google’s crawling behavior. By structuring URLs in a sequence that reflects the importance and freshness of content, webmasters can potentially influence crawl frequency positively.

To leverage priority tags effectively, webmasters should regularly monitor server logs and analyze how Google’s bots interact with the site. This data can provide valuable insights into which pages are crawled more frequently, helping webmasters refine their XML sitemap strategy over time.

While it’s true that priority tags can be a valuable tool for guiding Google’s crawling behavior, they should not be relied upon in isolation. Expert SEO practitioners understand that a holistic approach, combining priority tags, URL sequencing, and other SEO best practices, yields the best results. By staying informed about Google’s evolving algorithms and maintaining a user-focused approach, webmasters can optimize their website’s crawling and indexing, ultimately leading to improved search engine visibility and user experience.

Step-by-Step Procedure: Optimizing Priority Tags for Google’s Crawling

1. Identify Critical Pages: Analyze your website’s structure and content to determine the most important pages that require frequent crawling.
2. Assign Priority Values: Assign priority values from 1.0 to 0.0 to each page in your XML sitemap, with 1.0 indicating the highest priority.
3. Prioritize Top Landing Pages: Ensure that your homepage and other critical landing pages receive high-priority values, reflecting their importance.
4. Categorize Content: Group similar pages into categories and assign appropriate priority values based on their significance to your website’s goals.
5. Consider Freshness: Factor in the freshness of content when assigning priority values. Newly updated or time-sensitive content may warrant higher priorities.
6. Monitor Server Logs: Regularly review server logs to track Googlebot’s crawling activity and identify pages with low crawl rates.
7. Analyze User Behavior: Use web analytics to understand user behavior on your site, helping prioritize pages that attract higher user engagement.
8. Optimize URL Sequencing: Structure URLs in a sequence that aligns with content importance and freshness, reinforcing priority tag signals.

9. Implement Last Revision Dates: Include lastmod tags in your XML sitemap to provide additional information on content freshness.
10. Regularly Update XML Sitemap: Keep your XML sitemap up to date with new content and changes to ensure accurate priority signaling.

11. Focus on User Experience: Keep your website user-friendly and engaging, as positive user signals can influence crawling behavior indirectly.
12. Address Crawl Errors: Identify and fix crawl errors promptly to ensure that valuable pages receive appropriate attention from Googlebot.
13. Regularly Review Crawl Budget: Monitor your website’s crawl budget and adjust your priority tag strategy accordingly.
14. Avoid Keyword Stuffing: Use priority tags strategically and avoid keyword stuffing, as it can lead to ranking penalties.
15. Utilize XML Sitemap Index: If your website has a large number of pages, consider using an XML sitemap index to manage crawling signals efficiently.
16. Consult Google’s Webmaster Guidelines: Stay informed about Google’s recommendations and updates related to XML sitemaps and priority tags.

17. Test and Iterate: Continuously monitor the effectiveness of your priority tag strategy and make adjustments as needed.
18. Foster High-Quality Backlinks: Quality backlinks can enhance your website’s authority and may indirectly impact crawling behavior.
19. Leverage Structured Data: Implement structured data to provide additional context to search engines about your content.
20. Seek Professional Advice: If in doubt, consult with SEO experts or professionals to fine-tune your priority tag strategy and improve crawling efficiency.

By following these steps and adopting a comprehensive approach to SEO, you can optimize priority tags effectively and improve Google’s crawling behavior on your website. Remember to regularly review and adjust your strategy based on performance metrics and industry best practices.

The post XML Sitemaps: Why URL Sequencing Matters Even if Google Says It Doesn’t appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

An XML sitemap is a file that webmasters create and put on their site to tell search engines like Google and Bing about the pages, images, and videos that are on the site. This content list works like a map, helping ensure more thorough crawling and indexing.

The XML sitemap is created using XML (Extensible Markup Language), a type of markup language used on the web in which tags share information.

Not only do XML sitemaps tell the search engines all the URLs that you want indexed and crawled, but they also provide other information, such as how frequently you update the pages.

An XML sitemap differs from an HTML sitemap in that the XML sitemap is just for search engines. On the other hand, an HTML sitemap is a webpage on your site that contains links to help visitors navigate to the important pages on your site.

Now that you have definitions in hand, let’s talk about:

• Why XML sitemaps are an SEO best practice
• Special types of sitemaps to consider
• How to create an XML sitemap
• How to submit an XML sitemap
• A case study and final thoughts
• FAQ: How do XML sitemaps enhance search engine optimization, and what are the benefits they offer?

XML Sitemaps: An SEO Best Practice with Benefits

For SEO purposes, you must build an XML sitemap and keep it up to date to help ensure that search engines index and crawl all the important pages on your site.

While some view an XML sitemap as “nice to have,” it’s actually an SEO best practice for every site to have at least one — even though Google says that sites under 500 pages might not need it.

Sure, search engines should be able to find all the pages by following links on the site, but the reality is that many sites don’t follow proper linking architecture. So, it can be hard for search engines to discover the content.

Benefits of XML sitemaps include:

• They improve the crawl rate and indexation on a site.
• They can help you spot problems (for Google, check Search Console).
• They provide other useful information to search engines about your site.
• They alert search engines to new pages and hopefully get them indexed sooner than if you waited for search engines to find them.

Now that we’ve gone over some benefits, it’s worth noting what XML sitemaps cannot do:

• An XML sitemap does not guarantee that a search engine will index or crawl all pages, nor will it pass any link popularity or help with subject theming.

• An XML sitemap will not impact your rankings. However having a higher number of pages indexed in the search engines may increase your chances of ranking.
• An XML sitemap should not be relied upon as a way to fix crawling issues. If there is an indexation problem, also look at other factors like the architecture of the site or the quality of the content and its links rather than relying on an XML sitemap alone.

Special XML Sitemaps to Know

Other than the standard XML sitemap, it’s good to know about key sitemaps specific to content such as news, images, and video. Here, we’ll primarily go over Google sitemaps. You can learn more about Bing sitemaps here.

News XML Sitemaps

If you are a publisher of news-related content and don’t have a news sitemap, you may not be getting the visibility you want. For articles that have been published in the past two days, a news sitemap contains URLs for them. Create news sitemaps in addition to your generic XML sitemaps. For more, learn how to create a news sitemap.

Video XML Sitemaps

Video sitemaps can help Google find and understand your video content by telling it exactly where and what the video content is on your site. Video content includes webpages that embed videos, URLs to video players, or the URLs of raw video content. If Google cannot discover the video content at the URLs provided, it will ignore them. Note that while Google recommends using video sitemaps and schema.org’s VideoObject to mark up videos, it also supports mRSS. You can also view Bing’s guidelines on video sitemaps here.

Image XML Sitemaps

Image sitemaps help Google discover images on your site — especially those reached via JavaScript. You can suggest the most important images on your page that you want included in Google.

How to Create an XML Sitemap

You could create a sitemap manually, but using a sitemap generator makes the job easier. And to help you, there are many good third-party tools for creating XML sitemaps. One is Microsoft Bing’s free server-side Bing XML Sitemap Plugin, which can automatically generate two types of XML sitemaps that any search engine can read:

• Comprehensive sitemap, which includes all files (except any you disallow in your robots.txt file)
• Recently updated sitemap, which includes URLs of changed files only (useful for your own tracking or for prioritizing the pages that search engines should crawl)

Here’s a useful video from Google on creating an XML sitemap:

We also cover how to create sitemaps (both XML and HTML versions) in our SEO Guide.

For Large Websites

XML sitemaps are especially useful for large sites to make sure all the URLs are discoverable by search engines.

Large websites may need to break their list of URLs into many XML sitemaps. This ensures that the number of page URLs per sitemap doesn’t exceed the limit.

XML sitemaps can contain up to 50,000 page URLs.

You can have separate XML files by media type if you have original videos, news,​ images, etc., that you want to be indexed. So, for example, if you have videos on your site, create a specialized video XML sitemap to help make sure the search engines find your video files.

As a bonus, if you break down your XML sitemaps into smaller sitemap files, maybe by site sections, it allows you to watch your indexation performance for each section of your site and identify where indexation issues exist.

You can then create a sitemap index file that lists all the sitemap files on your site. To optimize sitemap files, you can also compress the file using gzip.

XML Sitemap Tips

The required XML tags are: <urlset>, <url>, and <loc>. The tags <urlset> and <url> are for formatting the XML, and <loc> is for identifying the URL.

Optional metadata tags are:

• <lastmod> – last modified date
• <changefreq> – how often the page changes (such as hourly, daily, monthly, never)
• <priority> – how important the page is from 0 (the lowest) to 1 (the highest)

Site owners aren’t required to use the optional tags, but the engines may consult them when deciding how often they should recrawl pages. Google states that it does not use the <priority> or <changefreq> tags at all. While Google may consider <lastmod>, it does not base decisions on this tag.

If you use these tags, keep them accurate to help the search engines better crawl your site. Pages that you are optimizing should be set to a higher priority. If you have archived pages that you haven’t updated in years, set to a low priority with a <changefreq> of “never.”

Upload to the Site

Once you have created the ​sitemap file, upload it to the root of your website (for example: https://www.your-domain-name.com/sitemap.xml). Now it’s time to let the search engines know about it using your robots.txt file.

A robots.txt file is simply a text file saved at the root of your website that gives instructions to visiting search engine spiders.

Your robots.txt file should look like this, with a sitemap directive line for each of your different XML sitemaps:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /tmp/
Disallow: /filename.html
Sitemap: http://website.com/my-sitemap1.xml
Sitemap: http://website.com/my-sitemap2.xml

If you have multiple sitemaps, or if your CMS generates files with some unique names, then all you have to do is mention them by name in the robots.txt file, one per line. Or if you have created a sitemap index file, then you can specify just the index file location in the robots.txt and list all your separate sitemap files in the sitemap index.

That’s it! Now you can let the search engines do the rest.

Submitting a Sitemap

Some people prefer to submit the sitemaps manually. This is primarily due to timing. A submission is known to start the indexing instead of waiting for the search engine to give you a turn.

Another reason to submit a new sitemap to Google is to check it for errors. Google tries to continue parsing a sitemap file even if it has minor errors. However, if the XML is badly formed, then it could cause Google to ignore all entries after the badly formed entry (like a missing “>” or “</url>” tag). The Sitemaps report in Search Console will tell you if any problems were encountered, such as:

Has errors: The sitemap could be parsed but has one or more errors; any URLs that could be parsed from the sitemap will be queued for crawling.

You can proactively submit your XML sitemap(s) to Google and Bing as follows:

• Google: Log in to your Google Search Console account and go to Sitemaps.
• Bing: Log in to Bing Webmaster Tools. Then see the Sitemap widget on the dashboard or go to the Sitemaps feature.

Google Search Console’s Sitemaps tool lets you submit a sitemap and view history.

XML Sitemap Case Study

After diagnosing that a client with a large website had only 20% of pages indexed, we implemented several tactics to help. We resubmitted their standard XML sitemap and fixed a large number of errors coming up on the client’s Search Console account.

We also submitted specialized XML sitemaps and implemented canonical tags throughout the entire site, as it had a large amount of duplicate content.

Indexation results jumped from 24% to 68%! And this percentage keeps growing, resulting in significant improvements in organic search traffic.

Final Thoughts

The goal of XML sitemaps is to help search engines crawl efficiently and thoroughly. You facilitate this by creating a sitemap and using the appropriate tags so the engines can understand how to best crawl your site.

As a final note: Be sure to keep your XML sitemaps up to date. If you add or remove pages, make sure your sitemap reflects that. You should also check Google Search Console frequently to ensure that Google is not finding any errors in your sitemap.

You can find more information about the sitemaps protocol at sitemaps.org.

If you need help with your website’s organic search performance, contact us for a free quote for SEO services.

FAQ: How do XML sitemaps enhance search engine optimization, and what are the benefits they offer?

XML Sitemaps have emerged as a fundamental tool for bolstering search engine optimization efforts. These structured documents serve as a roadmap for search engine crawlers, directing them to all the essential pages of your website. This proactive approach ensures that search engines can efficiently discover and index your content, thereby improving your website’s overall visibility in search results.

One notable benefit of XML Sitemaps is their ability to prioritize content. You can guide search engine bots toward your most critical pages by assigning priority levels to different pages. This becomes particularly advantageous when dealing with large websites or those with intricate structures, preventing vital pages from being overlooked during crawling.

Furthermore, XML Sitemaps facilitate the inclusion of additional metadata about each page. Search engines rely on this information to make informed indexing decisions that ensure your latest and relevant content gets priority. Metadata provides this tool, helping search engines determine when a page was last changed and its update frequency compared to others on your site. With such metadata in hand, search engines are better equipped to prioritize indexing decisions accordingly and give it the focus it needs.

Incorporating XML Sitemaps also leads to quicker indexation of new or updated content. When you publish fresh material or change existing pages, the sitemap signals to search engines, prompting them to crawl and index the changes sooner. This feature is invaluable for time-sensitive content, such as news articles or limited-time promotions.

In a competitive online landscape, user experience is paramount. XML Sitemaps indirectly improve user experience by ensuring visitors can easily find your content through search engines. When your website ranks higher in search results due to effective indexing, it attracts more organic traffic, which in turn can lead to higher engagement, conversions, and business success.

XML Sitemaps are an essential asset in modern SEO strategies. Their ability to guide search engine crawlers, prioritize content, and expedite indexation significantly impacts a website’s visibility and user engagement. By integrating XML Sitemaps into your SEO practices, you harness a powerful tool that enhances your online presence and sets the stage for sustainable growth.

Step-by-Step Procedure: Enhancing SEO with XML Sitemaps

1. Understand XML Sitemaps – Get acquainted with XML Sitemaps, as they serve as navigational tools for crawlers.
2. Generate XML Sitemaps using either a CMS plugin or an XML Sitemap Generator Tool.
3. Include Essential Pages: Ensure that your XML Sitemap includes all crucial pages of your website, including main content, category pages, and important internal links.
4. Set Priority and Frequency: Assign priority levels and update frequencies to pages within the XML Sitemap to guide search engine crawlers toward important content.
5. Add Last Modification Dates: Incorporate the last modification dates for each page in the XML Sitemap to indicate when the content was last updated.
6. Submit Sitemaps to Major Search Engines. Submit your XML sitemaps via major search engines such as Google and Bing’s respective webmaster tools to submit them as searchable indices.
7. Update your Sitemap Regularly: Keep an XML sitemap updated whenever new content or any alterations are added or changes to your website.
8. Monitor Crawl Errors: Periodically check for crawl errors and issues related to your XML Sitemap in the webmaster tools.
9. Optimize Site Structure: Ensure your website’s structure is organized and user-friendly, which indirectly benefits XML Sitemap functionality.
10. Prioritize User Experience: Focus on providing valuable and relevant content to enhance user experience, which contributes to improved search rankings.
11. Create High-Quality Content: Craft high-quality, informative content that naturally incorporates relevant keywords to attract organic traffic.
12. Utilize Internal Linking: Implement effective internal linking strategies to guide users and search engine crawlers through your website.
13. Monitor Analytics: Regularly monitor website analytics to track the impact of XML Sitemaps on search engine visibility, traffic, and engagement.
14. Stay Updated on SEO Trends: Stay informed about evolving SEO practices and algorithm changes to adapt your XML Sitemap strategy accordingly.
15. Optimize for Mobile: Ensure your website is mobile-responsive, as mobile-friendliness is crucial in search engine rankings.
16. Promote Social Sharing: Encourage social sharing of your content, as social signals indirectly influence search engine rankings.
17. Manage Duplicate Content: Address duplicate content issues, as they can affect your website’s search engine performance.
18. Optimize Images: Compress and optimize images to improve website loading speed, positively impacting user experience and SEO.
19. Secure Your Website: Implement security measures such as SSL certificates to establish a secure browsing environment, which can enhance search rankings.
20. Regularly Audit and Update: Regularly audits your XML Sitemaps, content, and SEO strategies to adapt to changing search engine algorithms and user behavior.

The post What Is an XML Sitemap and How Do I Make One? appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

• Help the search engines find your content
• What is a sitemap? 
• How to create an XML sitemap
• How to create a HTML sitemap
• How to submit your XML sitemap to search engines
• FAQ: How can I create an effective sitemap to enhance my website’s search engine optimization?

Help the Search Engines Find Your Content

What is a Sitemap: a sitemap is a file that tells a search engine information about the pages, images, videos, and other sitemaps and the relationships and importance of them. Search engines (Google, Bing, and others) use this file to crawl your site. There are two forms of sitemaps: HTML and XML.

Spiders use Sitemaps to index your content: the common SEO tool to make that happen is a Sitemap, a file that points to the important pages on your site and that is used by the search engines when they are scheduled to spider your site. A search engine spider needs to know your content exists and we need to help that process with sitemap files.

Creating a sitemap for your website and keeping it up-to-date are important SEO best practices. Search engines can crawl and index your website more completely if you create a sitemap for reference.

This necessary SEO lesson covers how to create a sitemap so you can welcome search engine spiders and help them find their way around when they visit.

What Is a Sitemap?

There are two kinds of Sitemaps: HTML and XML, and they serve very different SEO purposes. An XML sitemap is a text file webmasters create that tells search engines like Google and Bing about pages, images, and videos on your website. An HTML sitemap serves site visitors and identifies the important parts of your website.

XML: Basically, it’s a list of all the URLs (the page addresses) that you want indexed ​for your site — URLs of web pages, images, videos, and other content files on the site — formatted with a few XML tags.

HTML: It is a website page that is friendly to visitors and helps them to locate key parts of your website. This, as a webpage, is crawled by search engine spiders. It is believed that a page in the HTML sitemap is a very important page and it may influence search results rankings.

Learn how to create a sitemap for your website. Creating HTML and XML sitemaps is the best way to tell search engines about your webpages for indexing.

XML vs. HTML Sitemaps

XML sitemaps should not be confused with HTML sitemaps, which are regular web pages created to help human visitors get around a website. Each has SEO benefits, so you should create both XML and HTML types for your site. Here are the differences:

How Many Sitemaps Should I Create?

Every site needs at least one XML sitemap. Having an up-to-date XML sitemap is really an essential SEO best practice. Likewise it is a best practice to have a HTML sitemap for your users.

(By contrast, submitting your site manually is an optional task. You ​only need to do a submission occasionally, such as when you launch a new site, add a new site section, or change content and don’t want to wait for the crawlers to find it.)

Large websites may need to break their list of URLs into multiple XML sitemaps. This ensures that the number of page URLs per sitemap doesn’t exceed the limit. Although an XML sitemap can contain up to 50,000 page URLs, we recommend not more than 2,000 per XML file to improve SEO coverage.

It is also recommended (for any size website) that certain types of files be listed in their own specialized sitemap: videos and news ​are two examples. Therefore, if you have videos on your site, create a specialized video XML sitemap to help make sure the search engines find your video files.

SEO GUIDE BONUS VIDEO

In another useful video from Google Webmaster Help, Matt Cutts answers why it’s important to offer an HTML sitemap AND an XML Sitemap.

Listen as he explains that since they meet different needs, both are important, especially for search engine crawl​ing.

How to Create an XML Sitemap

You can create a sitemap manually, but using a sitemap generator makes the job easier. There are many good third-party tools for creating XML sitemaps automatically. One is Microsoft Bing’s free server-side Bing XML Sitemap Plugin, which can automatically generate two types of XML sitemaps that can be read by any search engine:

• Comprehensive sitemap, which includes all files (except any you disallow in your robots.txt file)
• Recently updated sitemap, which includes URLs of changed files only (useful for your own tracking or for prioritizing the pages that search engines should crawl)

NOTE: Any search engine can read your XML sitemap files because they comply with Sitemaps.org protocol.

How to Create a HTML Sitemap

Simply put, this is a page on your site that is commonly by convention linked to in a footer (sometimes page header) that will help a user that is having difficulty locating what they want on your site. Under normal circumstances it is a limited list of links to key areas of your website. If you have a site search you should be sure to include it because often a user of this page is lost. Simply make a page of key links and link to it from every page template in the footer.

Since the HTML sitemap is referenced via links from your site pages there is no need SEO to submit it separately – the search engines can easily find and spider it.

How to Submit Your XML Sitemap to Search Engines

You can submit your XML sitemap(s) to Google and Bing using the Sitemaps feature within their webmaster tools:

• Google: Log in to your Google Search Console account. Under the Crawl menu, choose Sitemaps.
• Bing: Log in to Bing Webmaster Tools. You can use the Sitemap widget on your Dashboard or go to the Sitemaps feature, located under the Configure My Site section.

The above methods let you proactively submit your XML sitemap file(s) to the search engines if you want to. Regardless, make sure you specify your XML sitemap’s location in your robots.txt file, where the spiders are sure to find it the next time they come crawling. (A robots.txt file is simply a text file saved at the root of your website that gives instructions to visiting search engine spiders.) Your robots.txt file should look similar to this, with a Sitemap directive line for each of your different XML sitemaps:

User-agent: *

Disallow: /tmp/

Disallow: /filename.html

Sitemap: http://website.com/my-sitemap1.xml

Sitemap: http://website.com/my-sitemap2.xml

That’s it! Once you create your XML sitemaps and tell search engines where to find them using your robots.txt file, the search engine spiders should do the rest. If you need more details on creating a Sitemap, see Google’s Search Console Help.

Next in the SEO tutorial, you’ll learn how to use rich media elements properly to make your site more engaging and more rankable.

Next Lesson

Need more SEO tips?
Building an XML Sitemap

Related blog posts and articles:

• XML Sitemaps in SEO – Part 1
• 10 Video SEO Tips to Improve Rank and User Experience
• How to Set Up Google Search Console (Webmaster Tools)

FAQ: How can I create an effective sitemap to enhance my website’s search engine optimization?

An essential aspect of boosting your website’s search engine optimization is creating an effective sitemap. Sitemaps provide search engines with a map for navigating your website and indexing its content while improving user experience by giving a clear view of your website structure. Here are expert tips for creating a sitemap with significant impact.

1. Understanding its Importance: A sitemap allows search engines to better discover your website by listing all pages, posts, and resources contained within. This makes indexing content much simpler for search engines.
2. Prioritize Hierarchy: Create your sitemap hierarchically, beginning with the homepage and branching outward toward other sections. This arrangement aids both users and search engines in understanding your site’s organization.
3. Include All Content Types: Your sitemap should encompass various content types, such as web pages, blog posts, images, videos, and any other relevant media. This inclusivity ensures that search engines index all valuable content.
4. Utilize XML Sitemaps: XML sitemaps are specifically designed for search engines, providing them with crucial information about your site’s URLs and their priority. Generate an XML sitemap and submit it through Google Search Console and other search engine webmaster tools.
5. Update Regularly: Keep your sitemap updated whenever you add new pages or content to your website. This dynamic approach informs search engines about fresh content and changes, accelerating indexing.

Constructing an effective sitemap requires careful consideration of both technical and user-oriented aspects. By implementing these tips, you can create a sitemap that enhances SEO and improves your audience’s overall browsing experience.

Step-by-Step Procedure: Creating an Effective Sitemap for SEO

1. Recognize the Importance: Understand why a sitemap is essential for search engine optimization and user experience.
2. Map Your Website’s Hierarchy: Identify the main sections of your website and establish a hierarchical structure.
3. Incorporate All Content: Include web pages, blog posts, images, videos, and other relevant content types in your sitemap.
4. Choose XML Format: Opt for an XML sitemap designed for search engines and contains vital information about your URLs.
5. Use Sitemap Generators: Leverage online tools or plugins to generate XML sitemaps for your website.
6. Prioritize URLs: Assign priority levels to URLs in your sitemap to indicate their importance.
7. Include Last Modification Dates: Specify the last modification date for each URL to inform search engines about updates.
8. Submit to Webmaster Tools: Use Google Search Console and other search engine webmaster tools to submit your XML sitemap.
9. Regularly Update Your Sitemap: Whenever new content is added or changes are made, update your sitemap accordingly.
10. Check for Errors: Ensure your sitemap is error-free and follows the XML format correctly.
11. Monitor Indexing: Track how search engines index your website after submitting the sitemap.
12. Integrate Sitemap on Your Website: Place a link to your sitemap in the footer to aid users in navigation.
13. Use HTML Sitemap: Create an HTML version of the sitemap for user convenience and link it from your homepage.
14. Implement Mobile Responsiveness: Ensure your sitemap is optimized for mobile devices to cater to mobile users.
15. Regularly Audit Your Sitemap: Periodically review your sitemap for any broken links or outdated content.
16. Optimize Image and Video URLs: Include image and video URLs with relevant metadata for better multimedia search visibility.
17. Consider Multilingual Sites: If applicable, create separate sitemaps for different language versions of your website.
18. Monitor Performance: Monitor how your sitemap impacts SEO and user engagement metrics.
19. Stay Updated: Stay informed about changes in search engine algorithms and sitemap best practices.
20. Continuously Improve: Evolve your sitemap strategy based on performance insights and industry trends.

By following these detailed steps, you can create an effective sitemap that significantly enhances your website’s search engine optimization and overall user experience.

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