A guide to XML sitemaps and their importance

Sitemaps are a great way to help search engines to find new and existing content on your website. Not only do they allow you to select the pages you want to be shown in search results, but the ones you don’t want to be indexed by search engines as well.

What are XML sitemaps?

An XML (Extensible Markup Language) sitemap is used by search engines to find content on your website, as this lists all the pages on your site that you want indexed by search engines like Google. You can easily see if your website already has a sitemap or not, by visiting https://[www.yourdomain.com]/sitemap.xml.

How can I setup an XML sitemap on my website?

If your website is built with WordPress, the best free plugin to install on your website is Yoast SEO which automatically generates an XML sitemap for your website so that search engines can easily find the content on it.

You can even see our XML sitemap, which is generated by Yoast SEO, here.

What’s the value in XML sitemaps?

XML sitemaps aren’t a ranking factor for your website so won’t affect how it ranks in search results, but having a sitemap can make it easier for search engines to find new and existing content on your site, and allows you to have more control on what content you want indexed by search engines.

What about HTML sitemaps?

HTML sitemaps are also a great way for search engines to find new content on your site, and can help with your website’s internal linking. They are also useful for visitors and they enable them to easily find the content they are looking for on your website. The best practice is to link to your HTML sitemap in the footer of your site. This will enable search engines and human visitors to find your HTML sitemap easily.

At Engage Web, we offer search engine optimisation (SEO) services to help improve your website’s performance in search results and bring in more visitors. To find out more, have a chat with our friendly team today.

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Jonathon Roberts

Jonathon lives and breathes marketing, boasting a degree in Business Management and Marketing Management and a diverse list of experiences both professional and voluntary. Having grown up in the thick of the digital and social media age, he has been quick to dive into online marketing and search engine optimisation in his career and spare time, spanning such fields as academics, local business and sport.

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