What is a sitemap?
A sitemap is, in other words, a map of the various pages on your website.
What are sitemaps used for?
Typically, the primary purpose of a sitemap is to give search engine crawlers a better understanding of the structure and the various URLs on the website. Through a correctly configured sitemap, you can optimise the site crawl budget and ensure that search engines more quickly discover new pages on your website — such as new products — and subsequently index them.
If your website contains pages that are not actively linked to from anywhere on the site, you can also increase the chances of search engines finding and indexing them by including them in a sitemap.
In addition, one type of sitemap — HTML sitemaps — can also be used to help visitors navigate around the website.
This can be particularly relevant in cases where there are many levels in the navigation structure of the website — typically more than 3 levels.
The two types of sitemaps
As briefly mentioned above, there are two different types of sitemaps: XML sitemaps and HTML sitemaps.
XML sitemaps
XML sitemaps are sitemaps created in the so-called ".xml" format and are intended exclusively for search engines. This is also the type of sitemap that most people refer to when they use the term "sitemap" today.
In an XML sitemap, you can add various parameters to the URLs you mark up — such as priority (<priority>) and when they were last modified (<lastmod>).
Best practice for using these additional markup attributes in your XML sitemap is something we cover later in this post, under the section "Best practice for setting up XML sitemaps".
HTML sitemaps
HTML sitemaps are sitemaps that, as the name suggests, are created in HTML — the language that the browser displays to you as a visitor on a website.
HTML sitemaps can therefore be used by both search engines and website visitors. A few years ago, several SEO specialists recommended having an HTML sitemap on your website to help Google better understand your site and to distribute internal link value.
Today, however, a sitemap in .xml format — primarily intended for search engines to help them discover new pages on the domain — is sufficient.
A counter-argument for having an HTML sitemap for users is most often: "If an HTML sitemap is necessary to help visitors navigate around your website, the problem is more likely with your navigation structure or UX" — an argument we agree with.
If you already have an HTML sitemap, you do not need to delete it. However, if you have an HTML sitemap but no XML sitemap, we recommend getting an XML sitemap set up and submitted to Google as soon as possible.
Best practice for setting up XML sitemaps
As mentioned above, there are several additional markup attributes you can apply to the URLs in your sitemap.
Below you will find a complete list of these:
- <loc>Short for location. Used to mark up the address/URL</loc>
- <lastmod>Stands for last modified. Used to mark up when the page was last updated</lastmod>
- <changefreq>Stands for "Change frequency" — i.e. how often the page changes. This markup can give Google an idea of how often they should crawl the URL</changefreq>
- <priority>Priority on a scale from 0.0 to 1.0. The default value is 0.5</priority>
In our experience, it is only necessary to mark up <loc>. It can also be fine to mark up <lastmod> if done correctly and the pages are frequently updated. We generally do not recommend <changefreq> and <priority> markup, as it is easy to get these wrong and thereby confuse search engines more than they help.
Additionally, John Mueller from Google has stated that Google ignores <changefreq> and <lastmod> markup: https://www.seroundtable.com/google-priority-change-frequency-xml-sitemap-20273.html. John has also stated that Google ignores <lastmod> in the vast majority of cases: https://www.seroundtable.com/google-lastmod-xml-sitemap-20579.html.
Our general recommendation is therefore simply to mark up the URLs — i.e. <loc> for all your URLs.
Would you like to optimise your website's structure and ensure that search engines can easily find and index your pages? We can help you set up a correct XML sitemap and ensure that your website is fully optimised for search engines. Fill in the form below, or call us on 30 12 42 72 for a no-obligation chat!
