An XML sitemap helps Google crawl a web site, perceive its construction, and uncover extra pages.

For years Google has asserted XML sitemaps in Search Console don’t immediately assist rankings, however in my expertise a sitemap typically offers a lift in natural site visitors, particularly for brand spanking new websites and people with 1000’s of pages or extra.

The screenshot beneath from Search Console is for site visitors to a brand new pastime web site that submitted a sitemap in late Could 2023. Natural search site visitors improved in early June after which declined a few months later, however to not the earlier stage.

Natural search site visitors to a brand new pastime web site rapidly improved after submitting a sitemap after which declined, however to not the earlier stage. Click on picture to enlarge.

Presumably Google values sitemaps, or it wouldn’t embrace them in Seach Console. However they’re useful solely when correctly formatted and error-free. I’ve seen many sitemaps containing damaged URLs or pages with noindex tags or blocked from crawling.

A sitemap must be a transparent path for Google to navigate the positioning and embrace solely URLs supposed to drive site visitors.

To confirm, submit the sitemap to Search Console and permit a number of weeks for Google to crawl your web site. Then return to Search Console and navigate to Indexing > Sitemaps. Click on “See web page indexing” beneath the three dots beside the sitemap URL.

To confirm a sitemap, navigate in Search Console to Indexing > Sitemaps. Click on “See web page indexing” beneath the three dots beside the sitemap URL. Click on picture to enlarge.

Within the report, search for causes for not indexing, similar to:

• Nonexistent (404) pages.
• Pages with redirects.
• Pages with noindex tags.
• Pages with conflicting canonical tags.
• Duplicate pages, whereby listed the model will not be within the sitemap.

Take away all these URLs from the sitemap or repair the errors.

Google ignores precedence and changefreq sitemap attributes. There’s no solution to instruct Google which pages are necessary, though together with solely indexable pages in a sitemap is an effective first step.

Search Console’s “See web page indexing” report lists causes “Why pages aren’t listed.” Click on picture to enlarge.

Video Pages

Utilizing sitemaps, Search Console can establish pages with movies, though in my testing the first sitemap web page confirmed, incorrectly, solely zeros within the “Found movies” column, presumably as a result of a bug.

Search Console’s main sitemap web page lists zeros underneath the “Found movies,” probably as a result of a bug. Click on picture to enlarge.

Ignore the zeroes and verify the “See video web page indexation” report itemizing the URLs from that sitemap with listed movies or errors.

The “See video web page indexation” report lists the URLs with listed movies or errors. Click on picture to enlarge.

Higher Crawls

Cleansing up sitemaps ensures clean crawls from Googlebot and thus elevated indexing. Error-free sitemaps are particularly necessary for websites with 1000’s (or thousands and thousands) of URLs or many underneath the “Found however not crawled” and “Crawled however not but listed” classes.