How To Use XML Sitemaps To Boost SEO

In the world of SEO, there are a lot of different factors that can influence how well your website ranks on search engines like Google and Bing. One of the most important, yet often overlooked, tools for improving your SEO is the XML sitemap. If you’re a website owner, marketer, or business trying to optimise your site, understanding how to use XML sitemaps can make a big difference to how your content is discovered, crawled, and indexed by search engines. In this article, we’ll explain what XML sitemaps are, how to create and optimise them, and how they can boost your site’s SEO.

What Is An XML Sitemap?

Let’s start with the basics. An XML sitemap is a file that contains a list of all the pages on your website. This file serves as a roadmap for search engine crawlers, letting them know which pages are important and how to find them. Think of it as a guide for search engines, helping them explore your site and understand which content should be crawled and indexed.

Without an XML sitemap, search engines would still be able to find your pages, but they might not discover all of them or might take longer to find new or updated content. For websites with a lot of pages, complex structure, or new content, an XML sitemap becomes essential to ensure search engines can efficiently crawl and index everything.

Why Are XML Sitemaps Important For SEO?

When you add a sitemap to your website, you’re essentially giving search engines a map of your most important pages. This helps them find and index your content faster and more effectively, which can ultimately improve your search engine ranking. Here’s how XML sitemaps help with SEO:

Faster Content Discovery

Search engines are constantly crawling the web to discover new content. If your pages are not listed in a sitemap, they might take longer to be found. With an XML sitemap, you provide a clear list of URLs that need to be indexed, helping search engines find new content quicker.

Better Crawling Efficiency

Crawling a website can be time-consuming for search engines, especially for large sites with many pages. By submitting a sitemap, you ensure that search engines can crawl your website more efficiently, focusing on the most important pages.

Improved Indexing

Once a page is discovered by a crawler, it needs to be indexed before it can show up in search results. A sitemap helps search engines quickly identify and index your pages, so they appear in search results faster.

Enhanced Reporting

Submitting an XML sitemap gives you access to detailed reports in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. These tools can show you how many of your pages are indexed, any issues that may be preventing certain pages from being indexed, and overall performance data.

How To Create An XML Sitemap

There are two main ways to create an XML sitemap: static and dynamic. Let’s look at both.

1. Static Sitemap: A static sitemap is a simple, manually updated file. Once created, it won’t update automatically when you add or remove pages from your site. If you use a static sitemap, you’ll need to make sure you update it every time you add or change content, which can be time-consuming.
2. Dynamic Sitemap: A dynamic sitemap is automatically generated and updated whenever you make changes to your website. This is the preferred method, as it ensures your sitemap stays up-to-date without requiring constant manual intervention. Dynamic sitemaps are especially useful if you add or update pages regularly.

Most websites use a content management system (CMS) like WordPress, which makes it easy to create a dynamic sitemap. For example, the Yoast SEO plugin for WordPress automatically generates and updates an XML sitemap for you.

If you don’t use a CMS or need more control, you can create a dynamic sitemap using tools like Screaming Frog or by asking a developer to create a custom script for your website.

Valid XML Sitemap Format

To ensure your sitemap works correctly, it needs to follow the correct format. Here’s what you need to include:

1. XML Version Declaration: This tells search engines that the file is in XML format.
2. UTF-8 Encoding: This ensures that all characters used in the sitemap can be properly understood by search engines.
3. Namespace Declaration: This tells search engines what rules the sitemap follows. Most sitemaps use the following declaration: “http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9”.

Inside the XML file, you’ll list each URL with the following two key elements:

• <loc> (Location): This tag contains the absolute URL of the page. It should match the URL shown in the browser’s address bar, including the correct protocol (http or https).
• <lastmod> (Last Modified): This optional tag is highly recommended. It tells search engines when the page was last updated, which can help them prioritise crawling of pages with fresh content.

Types of Sitemaps

There are a few different types of sitemaps, but the most common ones you’ll encounter are:

1. XML Sitemap Index: This is a sitemap for sitemaps. If your website has more than 50,000 URLs or a large file size, you’ll need to split your URLs into multiple sitemaps. These sitemaps can then be combined into a single XML sitemap index file.
2. Image Sitemap: If your website contains a lot of images, you can create a separate image sitemap to help search engines crawl and index them more easily. However, it’s now recommended to use structured data (JSON-LD) to mark up image content rather than relying on a dedicated image sitemap.
3. Video Sitemap: Similar to image sitemaps, video sitemaps help search engines index video content on your website. If you use a lot of video, adding video-specific tags to your sitemap can improve the visibility of your videos in search results.
4. Google News Sitemap: If you have a news website, you can create a Google News sitemap. This is used to submit article URLs to Google News, but it should only include articles that are no older than 48 hours.
5. HTML Sitemap: Unlike XML sitemaps, which are for search engines, HTML sitemaps are designed for human users. They’re a way of helping visitors navigate your website more easily. However, many modern websites don’t need HTML sitemaps if their internal linking is strong.

XML Sitemap Optimisation

Now that you understand what XML sitemaps are and how to create them, let’s dive into how you can optimise your sitemaps to get the best results for SEO.

1. Only Include Important Pages: When you create your sitemap, make sure it only includes pages that you want search engines to crawl. You don’t need to include pages like login pages, 404 error pages, or any pages that are not relevant for search engines.
2. Ensure Your Sitemap Is Error-Free: Use sitemap validators to check that your sitemap is properly formatted and doesn’t contain any errors. You can also use tools like Google Search Console to check for errors in your sitemap.
3. Leverage Sitemap Reporting: Both Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools offer sitemap reporting. This helps you track which pages have been indexed, spot issues, and monitor the health of your website’s crawling and indexing.
4. Keep Your Sitemap Up-To-Date: If you add new content or change existing content on your site, make sure your sitemap reflects these changes. A dynamic sitemap will automatically do this for you, but if you’re using a static sitemap, be sure to update it regularly.
5. Group URLs by Type: If your website is large, consider grouping your URLs into separate sitemaps based on page type (e.g., products, articles, categories). This makes it easier to manage and can help search engines focus on the most important pages first.

Conclusion

XML sitemaps are an essential tool for SEO. They help search engines discover, crawl, and index your content faster and more efficiently, which can improve your visibility in search results. By creating a dynamic sitemap, ensuring it’s properly formatted, and optimising it for your website’s needs, you can give your site a better chance of ranking higher in search engine results pages (SERPs).

Remember, the goal of an XML sitemap is to make it easier for search engines to crawl and index your website’s important pages. By following the best practices outlined in this article, you’ll be on your way to boosting your site’s SEO and improving its performance in search results.