Helping search engines find your pages.
WHAT A SITEMAP IS
A file listing your pages, so search engines can find them.
WHY IT HELPS
Pages not well linked internally may otherwise be missed.
It also tells search engines when pages changed.
HOW TO CREATE ONE
An SEO plugin generates and updates it automatically.
Do not maintain one by hand.
WHAT IT SHOULD CONTAIN
Pages you want indexed.
WHAT IT SHOULD NOT CONTAIN
Pages marked not to be indexed Redirected pages Pages returning errors Duplicate pages
THAT INCONSISTENCY
A sitemap listing pages you told search engines not to index sends conflicting signals.
SUBMITTING IT
Search Console, once. It is then checked automatically.
WHERE IT LIVES
Usually your domain followed by /sitemap.xml or similar.
WHAT TO CHECK
That it loads That it contains what you expect That Search Console reports no errors
FOR LARGE SITES
Multiple sitemaps, with an index.
Plugins handle this.
