A Site Map is a file that provides information about a website’s pages and content to search engines. It uses organization, navigation, and labeling systems to help them “crawl” the site more intelligently and index its pages, thereby boosting SEO. There are two types of site maps:
- HTML maps, which guide shoppers.
- XML maps, which are used by search engines.
XML site maps must be submitted to search engines (e.g., through Google Search Console). While submission does not guarantee indexing, it is still beneficial because it passes data to the search engine. Crawlers understand the content better, prioritize pages correctly, find and index new URLs – this is especially useful in large eCommerce sites. XML site maps are automatically generated using tools such as Google Webmaster Tools Sitemap Generator, XML-Sitemaps.com, Sitemaps-Builder.com, etc.
