[FAQ]

Hey everyone,

I’m using an SEO plugin on my WordPress site, and it automatically created a file called sitemap.xml. I can see the link to it in the plugin settings.

I know it’s supposed to be ‘good for SEO,’ but I don’t really get why. It’s just a big list of all my pages and posts. It’s not like a human user is ever going to look at this, right?

How does this file actually help Google? Does having one make my site rank higher? I’m just trying to understand if this is something I need to be actively managing or if I can just let the plugin handle it and forget about it.

Thanks.

[Jeff Bullas]

This is a fundamental part of good technical SEO.

Short Answer: An XML sitemap is important because it’s a text file that acts as a roadmap, helping search engines like Google discover, crawl, and index all of your website’s content more efficiently.

It doesn’t directly make you rank higher, but it’s a crucial communication tool that ensures no content gets missed.

The main purpose of this text file is to help search engine crawlers understand your site’s structure. First, it ensures the discovery of all your content, as it provides a direct list of all the URLs for your pages, posts, and even images that you want indexed, which is especially useful for new pages or content that isn’t well-linked to from other parts of your site. Second, it helps with crawl efficiency by telling search engines exactly which text-based pages are the most important and how recently they were updated. Finally, to get the full benefit, you must submit the URL of this sitemap file directly to Google Search Console; this simple act tells Google where your roadmap is and encourages it to check that file regularly for new content, speeding up the indexing of your new blog posts and videos.

Cheers,
Jeff

[Author]

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