What is a sitemap in SEO?

Website sitemap diagram with main, gallery, contact pages.

A sitemap in SEO is a roadmap of your website that guides search engines to all your important pages.

Think of it as a table of contents for your website, but for search engines like Google. It’s a file where you can list the web pages of your site to tell search engines about the organization of your site content.

By doing so, search engines can crawl your site more efficiently and improve its visibility in search results.

There are two main types of sitemaps:

  • XML Sitemaps: These are designed for search engines, allowing them to find and index pages on your site.
  • HTML Sitemaps: Meant for humans, helping visitors navigate your website.

Having a well-organized sitemap can significantly impact your SEO efforts by ensuring all your pages are found and indexed by search engines.