sitemap.xml

An XML file at the root of a domain that lists every URL you want crawlers to index, with optional metadata like last modification date and change frequency.

A clean sitemap accelerates discovery for both search engines and AI crawlers. Best practice: dynamically generate it from your CMS, include only canonical URLs, set <lastmod> on every entry, and reference it from robots.txt.

Real-world example

A brand launches 50 new blog posts. Without sitemap updates, Googlebot discovers them passively over 8 weeks. With a dynamic sitemap that updates on publish and an IndexNow ping, all 50 pages are crawled within 48 hours — and Perplexity starts citing the new content within days.

Frequently asked questions

What URLs should I include in my sitemap?+
Include only canonical, indexable URLs — no paginated variants, no UTM-tagged URLs, no noindexed pages, no thin content pages. For programmatic content, only include pages that have earned organic traffic (viewCount > 5 is a reasonable threshold) to avoid submitting a sitemap full of thin, unearned pages.

Related terms

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