Using keywords and tags to grow your website is one method that everyone is aware of. However, there are numerous SEO tips that people are oblivious to, which are remarkable in improving performance. Sitemap is one of them. It’s like a blueprint that helps the search engine find, crawl, index, and understand the essential pages on your site. It even tells Google the location of the pages on the website. Not just that, there’s more to discover when it comes to a sitemap. So read this blog till the end to know what a sitemap is, its types, and the process of adding it to your site to boost the ranking.
Table of Contents
What Is A Sitemap?
A sitemap is a file that encompasses the list of URLs of all the pages available on your website. These URL helps Google understand your site along with the pages included. In addition, it also provides hassle-free navigation to users visiting the site. Some marketers believe that sitemaps are outdated SEO techniques and entirely unnecessary to employ. However, some believe it’s one of the modern ways to handle and store all your content across the site.
Types Of Website Sitemaps
Google uses four different types of website sitemaps to understand your sites.
XML sitemaps: Sitemaps that fit the search engine crawler design format are known as XML format.
HTML sitemaps: HTML sitemaps are like regular site pages that users navigate to get the answer to the query.
Video Sitemap: Video sitemaps are another way to convert the context of the website or the video.
News Sitemap: This sitemap type assists search engines in finding Google-worthy news.
Image Sitemap: Image sitemap, again, as the name puts it, helps Google understand the context of the image on your site.
How To Create Sitemaps?
To create sitemaps on your site, you must create one using a plugin like Yoast SEO or Google XML Sitemaps if your CMS (Content Management System) doesn’t automatically update your site. Some CMSs immediately update your site when you add or edit the pages. But when it’s not, in some cases, you would need more technical experience and skills that can also be laborious.
How To Submit Sitemaps To Google?
Submitting your sitemaps to Google is quite a process when it’s done through the Google Search Console, formally known as webmaster tools.
1. Log In To Your Google Search Console Account
Log in to your Google search console account if you already have one. Select the website link in the top left corner.
2. Navigate To “Sitemaps”
When you select the website link, you will see different options in the left panel. Navigate to the sitemaps option under the indexing section. You will see two options: “Add a new sitemap” and “submitted sitemaps.” You need to focus on adding a sitemap as you are submitting one.
3. Find The URL Of Your Sitemaps
There are four sitemap types, but one of them that is used to optimize websites is XML sitemaps. To submit the sitemap to your site, it is first important to find an XML sitemap. Here are the top three methods to do it:
- Get the most common placement
- Use a search operator
- Check your robots.txt
4. Add Your New Sitemap
Once you get the sitemaps, submit them to the “Add a new sitemap” section of the report. Paste the URL and click submit. You will see the imprompt of the sitemap submitted successfully. It will take a few minutes to show that in the submitted sitemaps section. That section keeps the record of the details of when the sitemaps were last read and how many pages of it Google has discovered so far. The remarkable fact about the submitted section is that it tells you the status of the sitemaps so that you know if there’s any issue with the sitemap submitted.
Conclusion
Sitemap is a significant aspect of SEO to optimize your site and rank top on the search results. However, many aspects like sitemaps are available that users don’t give more attention to, such as, Heatmap! Now that you know everything about sitemaps consider adding it to your site to improve its performance.
