Suppose you are developing a website as a developer or just willing to have your website. In that case, you must be aware of the term ‘Sitemap.’ It is one of the search engine optimization strategies. A good sitemap is a sine-qua-non for a website. It is a way to show concise information on your website.
It is one of the most crucial factors when Google decides your ranking among the millions of the same content websites.
You don’t need to be a pro SEO specialist; you can do on your own just by following the steps we will discuss ahead in the blog.
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| what is sietmap |
What is a Site Map?
A sitemap is a file that comprises information about your web pages, contents, and files on the website and the relations among them. All search engines, including Google, go through this file to crawl over your websites. It reflects that which of the pages and files are more necessary on your website.
It can be an XML file that lists all the pages of your website. The term ‘XML’ stands for ‘Extensible Markup Language.’ The complex algorithms of different search engines use this file to index your web page
When will be some information is being searched on it.
Types of Site map:
There are mainly four types of sitemaps:
Normal XML file sitemap
A video sitemap
A news sitemap
An image sitemap
Normal XML file sitemap:
A normal XML file site map is one of the most frequent and commonly used site maps. It is primarily of an XML file that links different web pages of your websites.
Video sitemap:
This type of site map consists of video content. It particularly specifies to Google about the video content over the website.
News sitemap:
News sitemaps help Google to find Google news content over your websites.
Image sitemap:
An image sitemap briefs Google about the images present over your web pages.
Why do you need a site map?
It is a very pertinent question, why do you need a site map. If your web pages are correctly linked, Google can easily index your web content when someone searches for the same. A sitemap helps Google to crawl over your web pages more efficiently.
But, you should also know that a site map does not guarantee that entire items of your web pages will be indexed and crawled. Due to Google’s complex and regularly changing algorithms, crawling and indexing are getting difficult nowadays. However, it helps you out mostly. One who creates a sitemap for their website gets benefitted from it.
If your site is vast enough and pieces of information are over the different pages, then you must have a sitemap for better understanding. Also, a sitemap is vital to link your content pages to each other.
If your website is new and comprises fewer external links, it is good to have a site map. It will index your content correctly; otherwise, Google might miss your web page.
If your website contains many media, including images, videos, or else, having a good site map would help you get better traffic.
How to create a site map:
If you are willing to create a site map for your website but do not know how to start. Don’t fuss; we are here to help you out. You have landed on the best page over the internet. We will acquaint you with how to create a sitemap from the very scratch.
There are five simple steps to create a perfect sitemap:
Reviewing the page structure of your website
Coding your URL
Validating the code
Adding a sitemap to the root and robots.txt page
Submitting the sitemap
Reviewing the page structure: Reviewing the page structure means seeking the importance of those web pages and arrange them in a flow chart for better understanding. Flow chart might be hierarchical or listwise, but make sure it would be as per the importance of those webpages. This will helps search engines to index your web pages in a better way.
Coding your URL: Now, after reviewing each page structure minutely, it is time to code the URLs of those pages. For coding purposes, use XML tags. XML tags are similar to HTML tags. You can easily code those URLs.
There are various text editors available for free, you can use any text editor for coding purposes, and Google will undoubtedly help you code them.
Validating Code: Always ensure there should not be any error in the code of a sitemap, to ensure its proper function. You cannot have bugs in the sitemap code. That is why it is always being recommended to use tailor-made tools to avoid any human errors. It will also validate your codes. There are various XML sitemap validator tools available. That cannot only point out the bugs but will also rectify.
Adding a sitemap to the root and robots.txt page: Search for the root folder of your site and add that sitemap file to it. It will also add a page to your website. Along with the adding sitemap to the root folder, you should also add this to the robot.txt file, under the root folder itself. Robot.txt file gives direction to the crawlers to index your web page against any search.
Submitting the sitemap: Now, once you finish creating the sitemap and adding the site files, submit it to the search engines.
To do this, go to the Google Search Console. Look for the ‘craw’ l and then ‘sitemaps’ within it. Then click on ‘Add’ on the top right corner, check for any error, and then hit ‘Submit.’
Conclusion:
So this is all about the site map. How to create a site map and why it is essential. We hope this article has been beneficial to you and will save you time and effort. So, always make sure to have a good site map to reap maximum benefits out of your websites.