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Is It Necessary to Have an XML Sitemap If You Want to Boost Your SEO?

12/15/2021 12:00 AM by Admin in Seo (search engine optimization)

Is It Necessary to Have an XML Sitemap If You Want to Boost Your SEO?

A scary term like "XML sitemap" could elicit a strong emotional response from those who are new to SEO or who do not consider themselves experts in the field.

Then then, there's no need to flinch. Although these files fall within the realm of SEO jargon, they aren't difficult to comprehend or put together. Neither a new coding language nor arduous jobs are required. You just need to learn a few fundamental facts and click a few buttons to get started.

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XML sitemaps and how they may help your website's SEO are covered in detail in the sections below.

A sitemap is an XML document that specifies the location of a web page.

To put it simply, a sitemap is a list of URLs that you want Google and other search engines to index.

It's a good analogy to think of an XML sitemap as a conventional map for the internet world. You might think of it as a road plan for your website's content.

The URLs of a website are included in an XML sitemap. An outline of your website's structure, it lists all the pages on your page.
It should be noted that XML stands for "extensible markup language," a language used to encode texts so that they may be read by computers as well as by people.

Consider our website. URLs like these would be included in our Allseotoolfree.com XML sitemap:

What's the Purpose of an XML Sitemap, Anyway?

Data on the internet is cataloged and indexed by crawlers used by search engines. The term "crawlers" doesn't refer to spiders or scary bedbugs that haunt your dreams. Crawlers are computer programs, which we refer to as "spiders" since the word is a good match. As users sift through all the content on a website, they give off a sense of an all-encompassing presence (just without the heebie-jeebies).

In terms of their ability to analyze data, crawlers are among the most sophisticated machines on the market. However, why not make it as simple as possible? Crawlers can more easily scan and index your website's content when you build an XML sitemap.

It's possible that your number of pages indexed by search engines like Google may increase after a crawler has completed its task. If this happens, it might have an effect on your results.

In a nutshell, an XML sitemap serves as a list of your site's pages. It allows the crawlers to get the information they need to properly index your site.

Your pages may benefit even more from a well-crafted URL list. It's possible to be even more detailed and inform search engines like Google and Bing:

The last time we made any changes to these pages.

The importance of a page in relation to the rest of the website is measured by its priority level.

How to find and index material that is hidden deep inside your website's hierarchy.

Are you wondering about how a list of URLs represents all this data? You may see the enumeration here:
Changes are made to a page on a monthly basis (changefreq).

According to lastmod>2018-06-17, this page was latest modified.

To put it another way, how essential a page is relative to other pages:

How Can an XML Sitemap Help Me?

The speed of these files is one of the most important advantages. A list of URLs is a fast approach to get Google to index your website's pages.

Your website will be crawled and indexed within minutes by the search engine if you don't ignore your SEO efforts. Good on-site SEO tactics must still be implemented on the pages if they are to get a substantial rating.

A list of URLs is also useful for the following reasons:

More information about your website and what it includes is sent to Google by adding a sitemap.

It tells Google that you're making changes to your website content (search engines love hot-off-the-press content, as they often deem it more relevant).

A website with a lot of material and pages, yet where certain pages might get lost in the architecture, can benefit from this feature.

Large websites may benefit from this tool.

What XML Sitemap Elements Are Necessary?

All of your most important HTML landing pages should be included in an XML sitemap. Let's take a closer look.

You're probably proud of your website, regardless of whether you developed it yourself or hired a professional development team to do it. It's likely to include all the pages a company website should have, including a "Privacy Policy" page, a "Services" page, and everything else.

Dozens (if not hundreds) of pages devoted to discussing your company's value and supporting material about your services are likely on your website. Your pages will include information about the places in which you operate and the services that your staff deliver.

Wouldn't you want to include all of these URLs in your list? This idea may seem like a no-brainer, but don't rush to apply it.

For starters, you should familiarize yourself with the two primary categories of web pages: static and dynamic.

A utility page is like a car's mechanical parts: useful, but not the first thing a user notices. An "About Us" page or a "Terms and Conditions" page are two examples of utility pages. These pages are a must-read for your visitors since they provide vital information. You may want to avoid having a utility page as a user's initial impression of your organization or brand. For more investigation, a utility page is provided (not an introduction for potential customers).

Landing pages are like a car's magnificent metallic or matte finish – think of it as a beautiful facade. It's important to create landing pages to achieve a particular purpose, such as downloading a brochure, purchasing a product, or subscribing to your company's email. You should develop as many landing pages as possible, even if your site serves as one. Converting visitors into customers is easier when you use a goal-oriented strategy.
The purpose of an XML sitemap is to convey to Google what your web pages are all about. Google will get overwhelmed if you send it a large number of URLs. An important consideration is the crawl budget (the number of sites Googlebot can access and index in a certain amount of time).
Keep your crawl budget for important pages in mind. "About Us" pages are important, but let's face it: Google doesn't care about them and they won't have any impact on organic search.

What's the Purpose of an XML Sitemap Including Only Landing Pages?

There is nothing more important to your online presence than your landing pages. When you design and develop them effectively, they will attract more people and encourage them to take action with your business.
For sites with organic value, conserve your crawl budget by simply including landing pages.

There are vital "utility" pages on every website, and Google is aware of this. Unfortunately, these utility sites aren't vital to Google and other search engines, and therefore don't provide the ideal user experience.

XML sitemap generators and XML sitemap validators need you to guarantee that your XML file specifies just the pages you need to include.

An XML sitemap isn't the end-all and be-all, but it is a good starting point. You may have your website crawled in one of two methods by search engines: The first approach is to visit a page on your website and use the internal link structure to go around. All of your pages, including utility pages, will be accessible if users pick this route. That's all right.

Your sitemap is the second. Keep your sitemap file to a minimum and focus on the pages that are most important to your business. Making ensuring your sitemap is correctly generated and set up is all that's required if you want to instruct Google on how to crawl your website.

XML Sitemap Creation

Generator XML Sitemap Creation

If you're wondering how to construct an XML sitemap, we've already answered the topic of what is an XML sitemap and how it works.

Automated or human creation are two ways to accomplish this goal.

Creating a list of URLs automatically is a cinch to do. An XML sitemap generator is all you need to do to create an XML sitemap of your website. Finally, the generator will crawl your web pages for a period of time (anything from a few minutes to many hours). Your web page count will affect the speed of a generator.

The Screaming Frog Spider is my favorite way, although it's a bit more difficult to operate than a standard generator. "Screaming Frog is a real-life web crawler.
The XML sitemap generator will take care of the rest, and you'll be ready to go. As this requires some expertise in web development, you may want to enlist the aid of a friend or your web development business to assist you.

Google Search Console and your robots.txt file may then be updated to include a link to your sitemap's URL.

Is it going to cost you a lot to have access to a generator? The answer is no. XML sitemap generators may be found on a wide range of websites. For websites with less than 500 pages, many of these technologies are offered for free. If you have a large number of pages, you may need to upgrade to a more complex version of the program.

An XML sitemap may be generated using a generator. If you don't want to go through the hassle of signing up for an account, you can just enter your website's URL and watch the scanning process begin.

You won't have to do anything if your website is based on WordPress or Shopify. Your WordPress sitemap may be generated automatically by plugins like Yoast or All in One SEO if you're using Shopify. As you continue to add pages to your site, they will automatically update.

Hand-coding an XML Sitemap

Using an XML sitemap generator is the quickest and simplest solution, but it's not the only one you have. Alternatively, you may generate an XML sitemap from scratch using a text editor. To get a feel for how it all works, these are the steps you may take to manually construct an XML sitemap:

Make a List of Things to Look for

When creating an XML file, keep in mind that it is essentially a list of all the pages on your website. Only URLs that you wish Google to index should be included in your URL list.

You may remove your company's post-purchase "Thank You" page and "Login" page. As an alternative, concentrate your efforts on sites that Google should include in its index. Does the page self-canonicalize? is a question you might ask if you have a more technical grasp of SEO. Is the website able to produce a status code of 200? Consider adding the URLs to your list if they match these requirements.

Gather Your Documents

It's a good idea to start compiling your list of URLs at this time. Online crawlers or what's known as a "human crawl" may be used for this task. Crawling your website like a human requires that you go through every primary menu item and scroll to the bottom of every page.

Small to mid-sized websites should be crawled by a person, according to our recommendation. As a result, you'll be better able to gauge how user-friendly your website is to visitors.

The URLs you gather may be grouped into many categories, such as Services/Products, Blogs, and General when you begin collecting them (like About Us and Contact Us pages).

When creating a well-structured list of URLs, this category will help.

The Third Step Is to Program Your URLs

This stage requires the use of a text editor. To store an XML table, just use XML.

Add all of your URLs to a new urlset> tag with their corresponding URL and location tags. To close the urlset> tag, type /urlset>.

Check Yourself

You should always double-check your list of URLs, whether you used a generator or wrote it yourself. If you do this step, you'll get a list of URLs that have been optimized for search engines like Google.

An XML sitemap checker may be used to verify your work (also called an XML sitemap validator).

Checking an XML sitemap using an XML sitemap checker is easy. To begin, save your sitemap.xml file and rename it sitemap.xml. XML sitemap validation is available online from there. This is a service that many websites provide for free. You should receive a notification that reads something like, "We've found this document to be well-formed XML," when you upload your file.
The checker will notify you if there are any mistakes in your paper. Using this feature, you will be able to quickly discover the issue by quoting the text that contains it.

As simple as failing to open an end tag element may be flagged by a validator. Using this tool is a great way to fine-tune your website's XML file since no errors will go overlooked.

Add the File with Your List of URLs to Your Root Directory.

Your XML file should now be placed in your website's root directory. You can either do it yourself, or you may hire a developer to do it for you.

You may access your website's list of URLs by visiting yourwebsite.com/sitemap.xml once you've completed this step. There are numerous prominent websites that have hundreds of pages when you search for "Apple" on Google.

Make a list of the URLs You Want to Block in the Robots.txt File.

As a text file, the robots.txt should be included. It tells the crawler what to do while it's browsing your site. You may access the file by going to yourwebsite.com/robots.txt in your root folder.

To guide the crawler to the correct location, include the following line in your robots.txt file: "Sitemap: https://yourwebsite.com/sitemap.xml."

Please keep in mind that this step will only be effective if your website is safe. Instead of HTTP, HTTPS should be used.

Your XML Sitemap Has Been Submitted!

You may input your list of URLs either manually or automatically. Your finished output will be put to good use throughout the submission process.

The most popular search engines in the world are Google and Bing, however, Google has a significant lead over Bing. To be on the safe side, send your XML file to Google and Bing, the two most important search engines, and include a reference to it in your Robots.txt file.

Search engine submission

Google Search Console (GSC) is the first place you should go to log in to. Click "Crawl" at that point. Select "Add/Test Sitemap" from the "Sitemaps" menu. Using the appropriate form, type in "sitemap.xml" or the slug you picked for your sitemap and click "Submit."

In Google Search Console, create a sitemap for your website

Bing submission

The method of submitting your URLs to Bing will be identical. Logging into your Bing Webmaster Tools (BWT) account is the first step. Click "Configure My Site" and then "Sitemaps" to finish the process of adding sitemaps. Finally, click the submit button after entering the whole URL of your XML file.

It's important to keep an eye on your list of URLs once you submit them to a search engine. Instead, make an effort to frequently check-in. Keeping an eye on your URLs helps guarantee that search engines are effectively indexing them.

While it's not uncommon to see some of your pages being ignored by search engines, it's also not uncommon for search engines to merely scan a small percentage of your URLs. You may use an XML sitemap validator again if you detect a lack of activity on your site.

Bing Webmaster Tools sitemap submission

Your Robots.txt File's URL Adding

Your robots.txt file should include the URL of your sitemap. There are two areas where Google may locate your sitemap file, just like there are two methods for Google to crawl your website.

There are two ways for them to acquire it: Google Search Console or your robots.txt file. You may think of your robots.txt file as a "instruction book" for search engines. In this section, you may set up restrictions that prevent search engines from accessing particular parts of your site. Additionally, you may guide them in the direction of your sitemap.

It's a cinch. Go to the robots.txt file, and at the bottom of the file, just name your sitemap as follows:

In your robots.txt, provide a reference to your sitemap.

Is an XML Website Right for Your Website?

Sitemaps are essential for all websites. If your website is private and you don't want to be discovered online, there's no reason not to. What if you don't?

No company, no matter how large or little, should pass up the opportunity to be found online.

Do You Need Assistance Creating an XML Sitemap? Get in Touch With Us Right Now!

Creating a sitemap is a skill that can be learned by anybody. If you want to do it correctly, you'll need a good deal of expertise.

Don't bother learning this talent if you don't have the time or patience for it. If you want, you may hire a digital marketing agency like Allseotoolfree to create an XML sitemap for your website. Contact a professional now so that you can concentrate on operating your company and not worry about the

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