Question 1

What should I include in my XML sitemap?

Accepted Answer

Include all important, indexable pages in your XML sitemap — pages with canonical tags pointing to themselves, returning 200 HTTP status, and with unique, valuable content. Do not include: noindex pages, paginated pages (usually), URL parameter duplicates, thin or near-duplicate content pages, or pages blocked in robots.txt. The ideal sitemap includes your homepage, core product/service pages, blog/article content, category pages, and any other pages you want Google to prioritise for crawling and indexing.

Question 2

How do I submit my sitemap to Google?

Accepted Answer

Submit your sitemap to Google via two methods: (1) Google Search Console — go to Sitemaps in the left menu, enter your sitemap URL (e.g. https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml), and click Submit. (2) robots.txt — add a Sitemap: directive to your robots.txt file: "Sitemap: https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml". Google will find and process it automatically during its next crawl. You should also submit to Bing via Bing Webmaster Tools. After submission, monitor the "Discovered URLs" vs "Indexed URLs" count in Search Console to track indexing progress.

XML Sitemap Generator

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