The Importance of XML Sitemaps in SEO

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importance of xml sitemaps in seo

The Importance of XML Sitemaps in SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) is defined differently. It is common knowledge, however, that it is the process of getting or increasing traffic based on website content considered most “free”, most organic and most natural. What is important to keep in mind is that due to stiff competition and increased content syndication, one needs to establish that his/her website is the most original.

This is the number one benefit of XML sitemaps in SEO. But what is it exactly and how else is it important for SEO? XML sitemaps are technically referred to as URL inclusion protocols, which help to inform search engines what to crawl and or what to prioritize. To further understand XML sitemaps and SEO, benefit of XML sitemaps, and XML sitemaps generator, consider the following.

Imagine your website was a house and each page of the website was a room. An XML sitemap in this case would be the blue print of your house, showing all the rooms, where they are located and which ones among them are the most important to you. Unlike an ordinary blueprint, an XML sitemap also indicates how many times a page is visited, and when a change has been made to it.

Basically, XML sitemaps are important for SEO because they make it easier for Google and other search engines like Bing and Yahoo to find pages on your website – and this helps because beside websites, Google and the other search engines often rank web pages. XML sitemaps were first introduced by Google in 2005, others adopted the same a year later. You need XML sitemaps when:

  1. You have pages on your website that are dynamically created.
  2. Your website is not well-structured or well-linked. (Internally).
  3. Your website has a number of external links or when it is new.
  4. Your website is too large and or it has a lot of archived content.

xml sitemap for seo

XML sitemaps are a little different from HTML sitemaps. While the former are meant for search engines and web spiders, the latter are meant for website visitors. That XML sitemaps help show how many times a website is visited and when changes are made to it is another key benefit of XML sitemaps to keep in mind. Often the data helps to add more links to your site which helps in ranking.

The other key benefit of XML sitemaps in SEO is the fact that they do not only help at indicating a hierarchy of your website for bots and search engines to follow, but also indicate priority pages. Unfortunately without such information, not only your content but also your priority pages could be missed in search results, making it difficult for Google and other search engines to rank your site.

In order to rank your website higher, get more traffic, and to beat your most ardent rival in business, you do not only need to register an XML sitemap of your website – you also need to use an automated XML sitemaps generator. What you also need to know is that when you use an automated XML sitemaps generator, you must ensure that the output is in the correct format and is error free. For Google, the recommendation is to use Sitemap Protocol 0.9. UTF-8 encoding is recommended under the same.

For more information on how to build and submit a XML Sitemap, click here.

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