![]() ![]() What’s critical here is that you state the absolute URL, including its HTTP:// or HTTPS:// protocol. The tag is the parent tag for each URL in the XML sitemap: īetween the opening and closing, you must state the location of the URL in a nested tag. This short snippet of code tells search engines the URL set has ended. It’s important to note the urlset gets closed at the bottom of the XML document: Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft support this sitemap standard – it’s the one I recommend you use. You’ll notice the protocol mentioned in the example above is the 0.9 standard. ![]() It begins by stating which protocol standard the sitemap.xml uses: The URL set is a container for all the URLs in the sitemap. Place the XML declaration at the top of the sitemap.xml file. ![]() The XML declaration also states the XML version and character encoding used. In simple terms, the XML declaration tells search engines they are reading an XML file. Let’s break each one down: XML Declaration However, when you know what each of these components means: They can certainly look confusing if you’ve never encountered one before: What Does an XML Sitemap Look Like?Īs I already pointed out, XML sitemaps are for search engines, not humans. It can be a quick and easy way to give it a ranking boost. This means they can pass a boatload of their incoming PageRank to other pages on the website via internal links. HTML sitemaps also distribute PageRank throughout a website.īecause HTML sitemaps are commonly linked from every page on a site (via a navigational link in the footer), they have a ton of PageRank flowing to them. That’s because it’s a web page designed for humans – as well as robots.įor humans, an HTML sitemap aids better navigation through a website.įrom a search engine’s perspective, an HTML sitemap is a helpful tool for URL discovery (assuming the sitemap is being crawled and the links contained in the sitemap are followed).īut, that’s not their only value for SEO: It looks very different from an XML sitemap. This information helps search engine schedulers better evaluate when and how often to recrawl a particular URL. Plus, how often do those URLs change, and which new ones got added to the site. They help search engines like Google comprehend which URLs to crawl and what gets priority. XML sitemaps are feeds explicitly designed for search engines. HTML sitemaps use hypertext markup language (HTML)īut aside from the code they use, they also serve different functions: XML SitemapĪs you can see, XML sitemaps are not human-friendly.XML sitemaps use extensible markup language (XML).You can add two types of sitemap to your site an XML sitemap and an HTML sitemap. You can use an XML sitemap to provide additional information to search engines, like when your content was last updated and which pages are higher priority. If those pages don’t have hyperlinks pointing to them, they will not be findable by web crawlers.Īn XML sitemap (submitted to search engines) ensures that search engines can find any pages you want to be included in SERPs. Let’s say you have web pages that are not linked from anywhere on your site – or the web at large. You should list in your XML sitemap any webpage (or file) you want to display in search engines.īecause a sitemap ensures your content is discoverable. It lists your website’s important content in XML format, so search engines can easily find and index your content and ultimately display it in search engine results pages. ![]() What is an XML Sitemap? (And Why the Heck Should You Care)Īn XML sitemap is a roadmap for search engines.
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