sitemap.xml
Sitecheck Team
What a sitemap is and how it helps crawlers discover your important URLs.
A sitemap.xml file lists the important URLs on your site and provides metadata (last modified time, priority, change frequency) to help crawlers find and prioritize pages.
Why it matters: A well-formed sitemap speeds discovery of new and updated pages and helps search engines index canonical URLs efficiently, especially on large or richly-parameterized sites.
Quick tips:
- Include only canonical, indexable URLs in your sitemap.
- Split large sitemaps and reference them using a sitemap index file.
- Submit your sitemap in Search Console and reference it in robots.txt.
See also: robots.txt and Canonical Tag.