Have you ever wondered whether your website’s XML sitemap acts as a ranking factor? XML sitemaps assist Google in understanding how your website is structured, but site owners may think they will benefit their search rankings too. Today’s blog looks at whether this is true or not?
XML Sitemaps are not to be confused with HTML sitemaps. HMTL sitemaps are designed so that humans can view them; XML sitemaps are solely for search engines. So HTML is viewable, XML is code.
So as XML sitemaps assist Google, site owners or SEO professionals may then put two and two together and make five by thinking that sitemaps affect search rankings. Some experts suggest that XML sitemaps are so crucial to search, as crawlers use them, that not having one can negatively impact your rankings. On the other hand, some say that Google has progressed past the need for XML sitemaps, so you don’t necessarily need one.
An XML sitemap lists a website’s pages that assist Google with discovering new URLs and recognising when existing ones have changed.
SEO best practice often recommends having an XML sitemap, suggesting that these are required for a website to rank to its “full potential”. Sometimes not having one is classed as a red flag, stopping a website from performing well in search results.
It has even been suggested that XML sitemaps are now unimportant to search rankings. Unless a CMS automatically generates an XML sitemap, site owners may choose not to add one.
Evidence points that XML sitemaps are not a factor for search rankings.
A sitemap file does help Google to know where to find all website pages and speed up new or updated pages indexing. However, Google can crawl and index pages independently, so there is no advantage to having an XML sitemap.
It would be best to build a website with an easy structure for Google to navigate, meaning internal links are discovered naturally (which is what Google loves). If you have lots of external links pointing to a website, then Google’s crawlers will come back to your site more regularly without needing to be pinged by an XML sitemap.
In Summary, XML sitemaps are not a Google ranking factor. Yes, they affect indexing but not rankings. Then again, XML sitemaps are unnecessary for indexing, nor do they guarantee to index if you have one. However, Google does recommend that large sites with frequently changing URLs have them.
Click here for more information about our services or view more of our blog.
