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Technical SEO

What Is XML Sitemap?

An XML sitemap is a file (typically at /sitemap.xml) that lists all the important URLs on your website along with metadata like last modification date, change frequency, and priority. It helps search engines discover and crawl your pages more efficiently.

Why XML Sitemap matters for SEO

XML sitemaps are especially important for large sites, new sites, and sites with poor internal linking. They tell search engines which pages exist and which are most important. Submitting your sitemap to both Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools is essential. Bing submission is particularly important because ChatGPT uses Bing as its search layer.

Pro tip on XML Sitemap

Generate an XML sitemap including only canonical, indexable URLs. Submit to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. Add a Sitemap directive to your robots.txt. Update the sitemap when you add or remove pages. Remove noindexed pages from the sitemap.

Related terms

Crawl BudgetSitemaps help search engines allocate crawl budget to your most important pagesRobots.txtInclude your sitemap URL in robots.txt via the Sitemap directiveIndexationSitemaps improve the chance that new pages get indexed quickly

Learn more

Free XML Sitemap Generator Free XML Sitemap Validator Technical SEO Audit Checklist

Check xml sitemap on your site

Sitemap CheckerCheck a sitemap end to end: the file against the sitemaps.org protocol, then a live check of the URLs inside it. One pass, one health score.Sitemap ComparisonCompare two sitemaps and see exactly which URLs were added, removed, and kept. Catch the pages a migration or a regenerated sitemap silently dropped.Sitemap URL ExtractorPull every URL out of a sitemap or sitemap index and download the list as CSV, TXT, or JSON. Handles nested indexes and gzipped files.

Is your sitemap up to date? CrawlRaven checks your sitemap against your actual site structure and flags missing or extra pages.

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