What is the Sitemap? How do I Create a Sitemap?

what is a sitemap

What is the concept of “sitemap” that you often encounter in the process of technical optimization of your website? Is having a sitemap for a website mandatory for SEO? What are the SEO benefits of the XML sitemap you will use and how to create such a structure?

In the continuation of this comprehensive content prepared by Seorative experts, you will find very detailed information about the concept of sitemap. Don’t forget to contact us for more and to start your site’s technical SEO process.

If you’re ready, let’s get deeper!

What is Sitemap?

The structure in which all the pages on a website located in the web world with a certain domain are listed according to their hierarchical structure is called a sitemap. Sitemaps are divided into three in terms of their general structure: sitemaps produced by designers, human-visible listings, and, of course, the most frequently used structured listings in the web world to appeal to search engine bots.

What is the Purpose of an XML Sitemap?

The main purpose of an XML sitemap is to provide Googlebots or other search engine bots visiting the website with an easy way to understand the overall structure of the site and show the hierarchical structure of the pages. In this way, Googlebots can easily reach almost every page on the site without any crawlability problems. Thus, the indexing process is indirectly accelerated.

When are sitemaps created?

Looking at the history of sitemaps, it is possible to say that Google’s use of this concept can be traced back to June 2005. 

The step in which the sitemap is created while setting up a website can be the designer’s step of creating the site itself. In addition, after the design of the entire site is completed, a sitemap can be created according to the existing page hierarchy.

Why are Sitemaps Important?

In order for the pages on a website to be ranked in the relevant queries on the SERP, the relevant pages must first be crawled by Googlebots first. Rendered and crawled web pages enter the indexing process and after getting indexed, they start to stand out by strengthening their ranking over time (of course, if they have high-quality unique contents).

The sitemap allows Googlebots to crawl and index all pages except the pages for which you use the noindex tag. In this way, you will not have a single page that does not reach the user.

How do I create an XML Sitemap?

Want to create a sitemap? You can use the sitemap generator, use the WordPress sitemap tools, or employ one of the options you found by doing a general free sitemap generator search.

Google supports many sitemaps in XML, RSS, mRSS, Atom 1.0, or Text format.

You can use automatic sitemap creator tools, or you can write it manually if you wish. Here is a simple example where Google shows the simplest version of the sitemap. Those who want to create an XML sitemap and those who know how to code can easily create a similar structure for their site and add it to the source code. For this, follow the steps below:

  1. Determine and collect the pages.
  2. Code the page URLs with the appropriate format.
  3. Do a general check.
  4. Add to the site root.
  5. Add to robot xls files.
  6. Submit the sitemap.

In addition to that, if you don’t want to waste time and prefer using a tool, we can say that Screamingfrog XML Sitemap Generator is very popular in the industry (we will talk about it below).

How to Submit Sitemap To Google?

You can easily submit your sitemap via Google Search Console. For this, follow the steps below:

  1. Find the page on your site where you positioned the sitemap. This page can be at a URL similar to the following structures: ‘’site:example.com filetype:xml”, “site:example.com inurl:sitemap”, ”www.example.com/sitemap.xml”
  2. Log into your Search Console account and mark the location by leaving the correct URL.
  3. There should be a menu that says “Index” in the left site navigation panel. This menu should have ”Sitemaps”. Click here.
  4. If a sitemap you used before is there, you should remove it first. If not, you can skip this step. In this case, proceed directly under the ”add a new sitemap” option.
  5. Your work is done! Googlebots will show their hard work to check and verify your sitemap!

Which Pages Should Be in XML Sitemap?

The relevancy of the URL should be the first consideration when determining which sites to include in your XML sitemap. In order for a URL to not display in search results, you must include the ‘noindex, follow’ element in the HTML code. The fact that you have removed this from your XML sitemap does not imply that Google will not index the URL. If Google is able to locate this page by following the links, it is possible that the URL will get indexed.

Types of Sitemaps

There are a plethora of sitemaps available nowadays. It is not conceivable to state that one is superior to the other in terms of quality. Each one of them has its own set of traits to offer. In addition, the regions of application may differ from one another. It is possible to pick the sitemap that is most appropriate for a website if one is familiar with the many sorts of sitemaps.

HTML Sitemap

During the early years of the internet’s popularity for communication, HTML sitemaps were commonplace. Despite the fact that it is an ancient method of sitemap building, it is still in use today. HTML sitemaps are still preferred by many websites, particularly those with a lot of material and pictures. The fact that HTML sitemaps are exceptionally quick is the primary reason for their popularity. HTML sitemaps are useful for obtaining information about the content or contact information on a website. Nowadays, the majority of websites include an HTML sitemap at the bottom of their pages. The maps that are produced in this manner unquestionably improve the user experience.

XML Sitemap

Search engine spiders, not humans, are the intended audience for XML sitemaps. Therefore, it may be claimed that they are somewhat complicated in their nature. It is possible to construct XML sitemaps by yourself or with the help of specific tools. It is necessary to manually submit the XML sitemap to search engines when it has been prepared. Search engine spiders are alerted to the existence of the material and index it as a result. It is possible to boost indexing performance by using XML sitemaps that are properly set up without mistakes. If you don’t have an XML sitemap, it is still feasible to index material; however, the ranking will be affected since search engine spiders will be late to discover the content. This results in a significant decrease in organic traffic. In terms of XML sitemaps, the first thing that springs to mind is the search engine Google. We can categorically state that this website map is associated with the search engine Google. If it is critical for you to appear in the Google search result list, we highly advise that you create a sitemap for your website.

Image Sitemap

The image sitemap is the section of a website that lists the photos that are available. It may be claimed that it is particularly beneficial for persons who are visually oriented. It is simple to develop a visual sitemap for websites that have just a small number of pictures. However, it can be said that as the number of photos on a website grows, the task of creating a website map gets more challenging. An image sitemap enhances the probability that the photographs on your website will be seen in search results by increasing the number of images on your website. The image sitemap allows for the discovery of images that would otherwise be inaccessible to search engine crawlers. Images may be listed in a separate sitemap that you can construct. Additionally, visual information may be included in the site map of the material to aid in the listing process. This is fully dependent on your preferences and requirements.

Video Sitemap

The structure of a video sitemap is quite similar to that of an image sitemap. In general, it may be claimed that they both contain the same information. Videos posted to a website may improve their ranking if they are utilized effectively. This will help your website stand out in the minds of visitors to your website. The usage of videos on websites is a significant contributor to overall website traffic. The videos you use may encourage individuals of various backgrounds to visit your website. An XML video sitemap may be built manually or with the help of a variety of software applications.

News Sitemap

The news sitemap has been particularly developed to draw attention to certain material. Crucial keywords are those that are intended to draw attention to important factors, such as the date of publication. It is possible to say that they are distinct from other XML web sitemaps as a result of these characteristics. In order to integrate Google news sites in the news program, it is now necessary to submit news sitemaps. Any news website that does not have a news sitemap will not be included in the news section.

Create an XML Sitemap Using Screaming Frog

If you want to create an XML sitemap using Screaming Frog, follow these steps:

  1. First of all, open SEO Spider and ensure that your website is crawled fully. At this stage, the pages on your site will be listed by the tool.
    Then click on the “Sitemaps” button from the top menu. You will see “images sitemap” and “XML sitemap” options. Click on XML sitemap. Caution: make sure the crawling is complete before doing this. Otherwise, some pages on your site may be excluded from the sitemap.
  2. Then select the pages you want to include in the sitemap via the easy-to-use panel. You can choose which of the pages with the response code will be included in the sitemap, -not on a page basis, but categorically- For example, you may want all pages with response code to be excluded or pages with 2xx, 3xx, 4xx, or 5xx codes to be included.
  3. If there are pages that you want to be excluded from the sitemap, select them one by one. For example, only one of the pages with duplicate content should be included.
  4. Also select the last modified date.
  5. Set priority values ​​for URLs.
  6. Set Change Frequency values ​​for URLs.
  7. Then click ‘Next’. Your sitemap file will be created automatically!

Are you ready to discover more? Contact the Seorative team now and leave all the details, from XML sitemap to all other technical optimization works, to the experts! Fill in the contact form below, our team will call you, and talk about what we can do for your brand!

close

Oh hi there 👋
It’s nice to meet you.

Sign up to receive awesome content in your inbox, every month.

We don’t spam! Read our privacy policy for more info.