What is a Sitemap?

A sitemap is a simple file that lists all the web page URLs associated with a website, that is used for indexing the pages on search engines like Google, Bing, and others.

When a sitemap is submitted to Search engines all the URLs included in a sitemap will be indexed, ranked, and make available for search results, which makes it easy for search engines to discover specific content on a website.

Why do we need a Sitemap?

Sitemaps are not required for a website to be found by search engines but are required to identify and index different sections of a website by search engine crawlers or spiders or bots.

So, it is highly recommended to have a Sitemap with all the different sections, links and 

Types of Sitemaps

There can be two types of Sitemaps.

  • Sitemap.xml
  • Visual Sitemap

Sitemap.xml file is used for submitting the URLs to Search Engines.

Visual Sitemap is nothing but an additional web page on a website, listing all the sections and their links used for making navigation easy for users visiting a website.

How to create Sitemap.xml?

If you are using a Content Management System (or CMS), then there are some useful plugins that will automatically create and submit sitemaps to search engines.

For example All In One SEO Plugin or Yoast SEO Plugin for WordPress.

Otherwise, it has to be created manually utilizing the sitemap.org sitemap protocol.

Follow the below steps to manually create a Sitemap.xml file.

  • Identify all the pages that need to be indexed
  • Create Sitemap.xml including URLs and their metadata
  • Validate the content of Sitemap.xml using the below link
  • Add sitemap.xml to the root of the website folder structure
  • Link sitemap.xml location in robots.txt file
  • Submit sitemap.xml file to all Search Engines

How to create a Visual Sitemap?

User the below website to easily create a visual sitemap in a few simple steps.

Submitting Sitemap to Search Engines

Once the Sitemap is created for your website, make sure to submit it to all the search engines that you want to index and rank.

Follow the below links for more details.

Guide for submitting Sitemap to Google

Guide for submitting Sitemap to Microsoft Bing

Overall

Having a Sitemap for a website boosts its search engine presence by indexing its web pages.