The popularity of search engine optimization (SEO) as an effective way to drive website traffic and achieve a higher organic search engine ranking has resulted in website owners focusing increasingly on sitemaps. Sitemaps, as the name suggests, are a navigation tool that helps search engine crawlers “crawl” or index the content on your website. It’s important to understand the best practices for sitemaps in order to maximize their effectiveness.
A sitemap is typically a hierarchical list of all the important pages on your website. It gives the search engine's crawler an easier time indexing your website and makes sure they include all the important pages in your website when it comes to organic search engine rankings. The most common type of sitemap is an XML sitemap, which is a text file that can be uploaded to the root directory of a website. However, the more advanced HTML sitemaps are also recommended for larger websites.
One of the most important sitemap best practices is ensuring that the files are organized in a logical hierarchy that reflects the order of your main navigation. This will help the search engine crawlers understand the structure and layout of your site, and make it easier for them to index your content.
Another key sitemap best practice is to include canonical URLs in the sitemap. This is especially important for websites with duplicate content. Canonical URLs eliminate any confusion that arises when a search engine crawler encounters duplicate content, and tells the crawler which version of a certain page that the website owner prefers.
Sitemap best practices also include frequently updating the sitemap, as it ensures that the search engine crawlers are presented with the most up-to-date information. If any changes or improvements are made to your site, such as new pages, updates to existing pages, or a change in the website structure, your sitemap should be updated accordingly.
Finally, it’s important to include an overview of the sitemap in the HTML version of the website, as this will allow users to better understand the structure of the site. It will also make it easier for humans to find any of the pages they are looking for.
Ultimately, sitemap best practices are essential for improved SEO performance and success. Following the above recommendations can make sure your website is properly indexed and help improve your organic search engine rankings.