Having a sitemap allows search engines to discover the URLs of a site. Some SEO experts even say that it is a potential factor in the ranking of pages on SERP. In this article, I will be discussing the importance of having a sitemap for a website. 

Keep reading till the end to find out more information on the same!

About Sitemap

A Sitemap is a very crucial part of any website. It is essentially a blueprint of sorts for any given website. They help the search engines in locating, crawling and ultimately indexing all of the content of a website. These sitemaps also tell the search engines about the pages which are important for a website. 

Types Of Sitemaps

There are primarily two types of sitemaps of a website – HTML and XML. Here’s a brief explanation of both of them. 

XML Sitemaps

The XML Sitemaps are known to provide machine-readable information. They provide search engines with lists of URLs on different sites. The XML sitemaps are generally sitemaps which are essentially text files that get marked with tags that work in identifying different types of data. 

The URL for an XML sitemap is typically at the root of a domain. 

HTML Sitemaps

In comparison to XML, HTML sitemaps are formatted links that are usually present at a web page’s bottom. This shows the readers what is there on a site. The HTML sitemaps have limited value when it comes to SEO. 

Earlier, HTML was really useful – they offered the bots shortcut links to different pages – that passed link authority and also hyped up the rankings. Presently, the HTML sitemaps are known to simply mimic the links which are already available in either the footer or header. 

Importance Of Sitemaps

There are a lot of SEO tricks and tips that help in the optimization of a website – one of them being sitemaps. Oftentimes, the importance of sitemaps is greatly undermined. Sitemaps make the navigation of a site easier, especially when one has an updated sitemap for their website. It is very important for a website’s communication with the search engine. 

Sitemaps are not necessarily a new concept and have always been there in practices concerning web design. With the adoption of sitemaps by search engines, it has now become even more important to monitor and tailor them properly. 

How To Create A Sitemap?

The way you create your sitemap depends on the way you have built your site and the kind of technical expertise that you are working with. If your site runs on a Content Management System (CMS) – like WordPress or even a website builder like GoDaddy, Squarespace, Site123, or Wix, then it is going to be relatively easy for you to create a Sitemap.

You do not even need to have a coding background for doing this. There are a lot of tools available these days that allow for creating a sitemap. Here is a list of the following tools which help generate a website’s sitemap – Google Sitemap Generator, Yoast SEO, and Slickplan Sitemap Builder.

Do You Need A Sitemap?

If you notice that your site’s pages are not properly linked – then Google won’t be able to find most of your website. There needs to be proper linking so that all of the pages of your website are deemed important. 

Factors That Indicate You Do Need One

Here is a list of factors that automatically indicates that there’s a requirement for a sitemap for a website:

The Site Is Huge

As a general rule, if your site is big then it becomes a bit complex to make sure that every page gets linked by at least other pages of the site. As a result of which, it becomes more likely that Google might not discover at least some of the new pages which get added. 

The Site Possesses Very Less External Links

Googlebot and other web crawlers crawl the web by following through the links right from one page to another. As a result of this, Googlebot might not be able to discover the pages if there are no other sites that link to them. 

The Site Contains A Lot Of Rich Media

Google can take extra information from the sitemaps into consideration for Search. 

Factors That Indicate You Do Not Need One

If your website can relate to any of the following categories then that would indicate that you don’t need to have a sitemap for your site:

The Site Is Too Small

If there are less than 500 pages on your site then, you can avoid submitting a sitemap. When a site is too small that automatically eliminates the complexity of a site and hence sitemaps can then be excluded for them.

The Site Is Comprehensively Linked Internally

This indicates that Google can search all of the important pages of a site by following through the links that start right from the homepage. 

There’s Less Media Rich Content

Sitemaps aid Google in finding and understanding the image and video files, or even the news articles of a site. If you are a person who doesn’t need these results to show up in Search then you can not opt for a sitemap. 

To Wrap It Up!

While having a sitemap does not guarantee that the whole of the items in a website is going to be crawled and indexed. But it is also to be noted, that in most cases, the site that opts for a sitemap is going to benefit a lot from it. 

Thank you for reading up till here. I hope you found the information useful. 

Additional:

• What is Google Analytics?
• What are Google Trends?
• What Is Google Penalty?
• What Is Google Search Console?