What is sitemap.xml and why does a website need it?
Sitemap.xml is an XML file with a list of all your site's pages that you give to search engines so they find and index them faster. Contains URLs, last modified date, priority, change frequency. Especially needed for new sites, large e-commerce with deep nesting, and sites with dynamic content. Without sitemap, search engines find pages via internal links — slower and not guaranteed.
Sitemap.xml is an XML file with a list of all your site's pages that you give to search engines. It's a "treasure map" for bots — instead of wandering links, they get a ready list. Especially important for new sites, large e-commerce, and sites with deep nesting.
What it contains
- <loc> — full URL.
- <lastmod> — last modified date.
- <changefreq> — update frequency (Google ignores).
- <priority> — 0.0 to 1.0 (Google ignores).
Limits
- Max 50 000 URLs per file.
- Max 50 MB uncompressed.
- For more — use sitemap-index.
This question is also asked as:
- •what is sitemap.xml
- •sitemap purpose
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