What is an XML Sitemap

When driving, it’s hard to reach a destination you’ve never been to without a satnav, and when on foot, it’s difficult to find it without a map or some signs. 

Well, Google has the same issue as us. 

It is difficult for Google to crawl, read and find all of your web pages on your website if you do not have something installed called an XML Sitemap.

Not to worry – it is actually quick and easy to create and submit an XML sitemap to Google. First, let’s cover what one actually is.

What is an XML Sitemap?

A sitemap is a file (an XML file) which acts as a map of all of the pages on your website, which when submitted to Google, helps Google find your pages, ultimately allowing it to crawl your website quicker. If you want a page or a file to show up in search engines, it needs to be in your sitemap.

What Does it Look Like?

Sitemaps are made for search engines, not humans, so they look pretty odd, especially if you’ve never seen one before.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
	<url>
		<loc>https://ahrefs.com/</loc>
		<lastmod>2019-08-21T16:12:20+03:00</lastmod>
	</url>
	<url>
		<loc>https://ahrefs.com.com/blog/</loc>
		<lastmod>2019-07-31T07:56:12+03:00</lastmod>
	</url>
</urlset>

FAQs

Here are a few answers to some frequently asked questions regarding sitemaps that I’ve heard over the years. If you have any questions, feel free to give me an email on [email protected] or contact us here. 

Do you need a sitemap for AMP pages?

Nope.

How do I create a sitemap for e-commerce websites?

In the exact same way we do for other types of websites!