What is Sitemap | Different Types of Sitemaps
When you heard the world sitemap, Most probably you have started your SEO Journey in Digital Marketing. In simple words, We can define sitemap as a file used only for search engines like Google to crawl your website using the list of URLs on the sitemap file. It is a text file basically used to provide information about the Pages, Images and Videos on your website. A sitemap file is used to communicate with bot who will crawl your website to get indexed on the SERP Pages using Google Search Console. A sitemap file informs bots about the pages and other files which are important to get indexed and also you can tell which page is most important.
There are four types of sitemaps
1. Normal Sitemap
2. Image Sitemap
3. Video Sitemap
4. News Sitemap
Normal Sitemap
This is the most common sitemap used by SEO to tell bots which pages should be crawled, In normal sitemap, the URL includes webpages, images, video etc.
Image Sitemap
This is like a catalogue that helps search engines find and index images on your site. If you run an e-commerce site selling sarees, an image sitemap will help search engines index images of the different saree designs.
Video Sitemap
This one is for videos. If your site has tutorials on preparing Indian dishes, a video sitemap would help search engines index these videos, making them more likely to appear in search results.
Mobile Sitemap
This is specifically for mobile-friendly pages. If your site has a version optimised for mobiles, this sitemap helps search engines find and prioritize these pages for users on mobile devices.
News Sitemap
If you’re running a news portal that publishes daily news about India, a news sitemap will help search engines quickly find and display your articles in news search results.
Is Sitemap Really Important
In general, If you have proper structure of website and each pages are properly interconnected using internal links there is not need to create a sitemap file, but if your site is large and having 1000’s of pages it is always a good practice to create a sitemap file for an error free indexing of your pages.
Generally huge sites with 1000’s of pages, it is more difficult to analyse and track the internal linking of each page. It is more likely that google or other search engine bot might miss your page while indexing.
If your website is new and there is no link coming to your site google bot might not crawl your URL
Advantages of Sitemap
Sitemaps offer several benefits, such as:
Improved Crawling: They help search engines crawl your website more effectively, especially if it’s large or has a complex structure.
Better Visibility: They can lead to better visibility in search engines, as your content is more likely to be found and indexed.
Faster Indexing: New or updated pages are discovered faster compared to normal indexing, which is crucial for time-sensitive content like news or events.
Content Categorization: Helps in classifying your content type, which can be beneficial for specific queries in search engines
Conclusion
Sitemap is the best mechanism to get indexed easily. If you are not using any kind of sitemap listed above there is a high chance of missing your URL for indexing. Bot can easily identify the URL’s listed on the sitemap file, So it is better to use whether your site is small in size or having 1000+ pages