Subject areaChannels and tools
Also known asXML sitemapsite map
A sitemap is the list of a website's pages.
It comes in two forms for two different audiences. The XML sitemap (a file format machines can read) lists page addresses, with the date of their last change, and helps search engines find them all, including the poorly linked ones. The HTML sitemap is an ordinary page that shows people the structure of the site and helps them find their way.
The XML sitemap usually lives at /sitemap.xml and is declared to search engines in the robots.txt file or through their webmaster tools. Listing a page in the sitemap makes it easier to discover, but whether it shows up in results is still the engine's decision; this is why the sitemap belongs to technical SEO and works alongside internal links rather than replacing them.
An example
A manufacturer adds fifty new product pages to its website; it lists them in the XML sitemap and submits it to Google Search Console and Bing, so the engines discover them without waiting to reach them through links.
Enrico Giubertoni. Licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0: you may quote, translate and adapt this entry with the author’s name and a link, stating any changes. For commercial use, write to info@enricogiubertoni.com
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