When you’re putting together a website, it’s arguably the main consideration to make sure search engines can find and navigate all of your pages easily. This becomes even more important if you’re adding new content to an already indexed site or competing in a particularly competitive niche. That’s where a sitemap comes in handy.

A sitemap, you guessed it, acts like a map of your site for search engines, making it easier for them to crawl each page and point the right users to the right pages and resources, helping internet users to find what they’re looking for. 

While not every website needs one, if increased traffic and leads are a goal, you really should have a sitemap.

In this post we’re going to break down everything you need to know about this, but first, for newcomers to the whole idea:

What is a Sitemap, exactly?

A sitemap is simply a file that sets out your website’s structure. It lists your pages and shows how they’re connected.

Search engines such as Google and Bing use sitemaps to understand your content better – like which pages are most important, or which version of a page you want to be ranked in search results.

You can also create sitemaps aimed at real users, if you think your site could be made easier to navigate by this. These help people find the pages they need, improving their overall experience on your site.

At its core, a sitemap helps you organise your website content. Depending on its type, it might include:

  • URLs for each page
  • Structure or hierarchy of the site’s pages
  • Last updated date for each URL
  • How frequently each page changes (like weekly or monthly)
  • Language for each page, if applicable
  • Entries for images and videos
  • Entries for news or timely content

Why Sitemaps Matter for SEO

sitemap example

It’s true that search engines don’t need sitemaps to find your content – they can crawl through internal links to discover pages. But a sitemap can make life much easier for them, especially if some of your content is a few clicks away from the homepage.

Sitemaps can also bring orphan pages (those not linked from anywhere else on your site) to search engines’ attention whereas they may otherwise not have been indexed in the search engine at all.

For your content to show up in search results, it needs to be accessible to crawlers like Googlebot and Bingbot. Sitemaps give you a direct way to highlight your most important pages, leading to better visibility, quicker indexing, and potentially higher traffic.

Sitemaps can also share details like how often a page is updated and what kind of content it holds, helping search engines prioritise what to crawl.

Types of Sitemaps: XML vs HTML

There are two main kinds of sitemap: XML and HTML. Each serves a different purpose, and you can choose to use one or both.

XML Sitemaps

XML sitemaps are mainly for search engines. They help crawlers find and understand your content.

They’re usually stored in the root directory of your website – like https://www.yourwebsite.com/sitemap.xml.

You can also hide your sitemap from visitors or competitors by renaming it or moving it to a subfolder.

Types of XML sitemaps:

  • Image-focused sitemaps – These highlight important images on your site and help search engines find and index them, which is great for sites that heavily feature visuals.
  • Video-specific sitemaps – If your site features videos, these sitemaps provide details like the video’s title, duration, and subject, so search engines can better understand and index them.
  • News content sitemaps – Designed for websites with constantly updated news content, these help search engines identify and index your latest articles quickly.

Alternatively, you can add tags for images, videos or news directly into your main sitemap file.

An XML sitemap can’t have more than 50,000 URLs or be bigger than 50 MB. If you’re dealing with lots of images, videos or news articles, creating separate sitemaps for each is usually the best approach.

HTML Sitemaps

HTML sitemaps are designed for people. They’re basically web pages with links to your main sections – think of them as a user-friendly directory. They are far from necessary, but can still be helpful in many cases.

Sitemaps and Accessibility

Accessibility is all about making your website usable for everyone, including people with disabilities. 

While it’s not a direct ranking factor for SEO, following these guidelines improves the experience for all visitors.

Creating a Sitemap

The first step is deciding whether to create a sitemap by hand or automate it. If your site is small (under 100 pages), you might create it manually. For bigger sites, automation will save you time.

Manually Creating an XML Sitemap

To build an XML sitemap by hand, list all your URLs in a text editor, including any relevant tags like the last modified date (lastmod). Make sure you follow the Sitemap protocol.

Creating an HTML Sitemap

For an HTML sitemap, list out the key pages and organise them in a clear structure. Then have a developer build the page and add it to your site.

Using Sitemap Tools and Plugins

There are loads of plugins and generators out there to make sitemap creation much easier. For example, WordPress users can turn to plugins like Yoast SEO, RankMath, or Simple Sitemap to generate and update XML sitemaps automatically.

If you’re not on WordPress, check out tools like:

  • XML-Sitemaps.com
  • Dyno Mapper
  • WriteMaps
  • Screaming Frog
  • Octopus.do

These can handle even large or complex sites, with some offering visual sitemaps for easier editing.

Choosing What to Include in Your Sitemap

For XML sitemaps, include only the URLs you want indexed. Skip anything that’s blocked by robots.txt, password-protected, or admin-only.

For HTML sitemaps, keep it focused on what visitors need – no need to list every outdated or irrelevant page.

Deciding How Many Sitemaps You Need

If your site has more than 50,000 URLs, lots of images or videos, or is news-heavy, consider creating multiple sitemaps. This makes it easier for search engines to crawl everything.

For example, an ecommerce site with thousands of product pages might split its sitemap into separate files for each category.

Best Practices for Sitemap Optimisation

Even with automated sitemap generators, it’s good to check and refine your sitemap regularly:

  • Remove tracking parameters and special characters from your URLs to keep them clean
  • Only include canonical URLs to avoid duplication
  • Avoid listing URLs that are marked with a “noindex” tag
  • Use UTF-8 encoding so that your sitemap works correctly with special characters
  • Include language-specific tags when applicable
  • Use a sitemap index file if you have several sitemaps for one website
  • Consider dynamic sitemaps that update in real-time as your content changes

It’s also a good idea to review your sitemap at least once a month, or whenever you make major site changes.

Submitting Your Sitemap

how to submit a sitemap

To make sure search engines are using your sitemap, submit it directly. For Google, log in to Google Search Console, select your site, and head to the “Sitemaps” section under “Indexing.” Pop in your sitemap URL and click “Submit.”

You can do the same for Bing, Yahoo, and others using their webmaster tools.

Monitoring Your Sitemap

Keep an eye on how your sitemap is performing. In Google Search Console, you’ll see messages about errors or crawl issues. These can include:

  • Invalid dates in your sitemap
  • Exceeding the 50,000 URL or 50 MB limit
  • Compression problems
  • Broken or missing URLs (like 404 errors)
  • Unsupported file formats

If you see any errors, take steps to fix them. You can also use tools like Semrush’s Site Audit or Screaming Frog to monitor for issues and get recommendations.

Here are some handy tools for sitemap creation and maintenance:

  • Yoast SEO (WordPress plugin, automated sitemap generation)
  • PowerMapper (HTML, XML and visual sitemaps)
  • Screaming Frog (generate XML sitemaps and find errors)
  • Semrush Site Audit (spot sitemap errors and more)
  • Slickplan (visual sitemaps for team collaboration)
  • Sitebulb (audit sitemap for SEO)
  • MonSpark (real-time monitoring)

Choose tools that fit your website’s needs – for example, Slickplan is great for team visualisation, while Yoast SEO is perfect for WordPress sites.

As we’ve hopefully covered, sitemaps aren’t strictly required, but they’re a powerful tool to help search engines and visitors find what they need. A clean, well-maintained sitemap boosts your SEO, speeds up indexing, and improves accessibility for everyone. 

So, take the time to set one up and keep it up to date – your website will thank you for it!