{"id":2294,"date":"2026-08-31T14:02:28","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T14:02:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/internal-links-manager.com\/en\/?page_id=2294"},"modified":"2026-08-31T14:39:31","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T14:39:31","slug":"xml-sitemap","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/internal-links-manager.com\/en\/glossary\/xml-sitemap\/","title":{"rendered":"XML sitemap"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-page\" data-elementor-id=\"2294\" class=\"elementor elementor-2294\" data-elementor-post-type=\"page\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-t1800001 ilm-article elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"t1800001\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-e-type=\"section\" data-settings=\"{&quot;background_background&quot;:&quot;classic&quot;}\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-no\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-t1800002\" data-id=\"t1800002\" data-element_type=\"column\" data-e-type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-t1800003 elementor-widget elementor-widget-html\" data-id=\"t1800003\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"html.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a class=\"ilm-back\" href=\"https:\/\/internal-links-manager.com\/en\/glossary\/\">\u2190 Back to the glossary<\/a>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-t1800004 elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"t1800004\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\"><span data-no-translation>XML sitemap<\/span><\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-t1800005 elementor-widget elementor-widget-html\" data-id=\"t1800005\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"html.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"ilm-termmeta\">3 minute read \u00b7 Updated 28 August 2026<\/p>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-t1800006 elementor-widget elementor-widget-html\" data-id=\"t1800006\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"html.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"ilm-def\"><span class=\"k\">Definition<\/span><p>An XML sitemap is a machine-readable file listing the URLs a site wants indexed, usually at <code>\/sitemap.xml<\/code> or <code>\/sitemap_index.xml<\/code> and referenced from <code>robots.txt<\/code>.<\/p><p>It tells a crawler a page <em>exists<\/em>. <a href=\"https:\/\/internal-links-manager.com\/en\/glossary\/internal-link\/\">Internal links<\/a> tell it the page <em>matters<\/em>, and roughly how much. Being in the sitemap is not a substitute for being linked.<\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-t1800010 ilm-article elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"t1800010\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-e-type=\"section\" data-settings=\"{&quot;background_background&quot;:&quot;classic&quot;}\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-no\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-t1800011\" data-id=\"t1800011\" data-element_type=\"column\" data-e-type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-t1800012 elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"t1800012\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">What it does and does not do<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-t1800013 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"t1800013\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>It helps with <strong>discovery<\/strong>. A crawler that has the file does not have to find every URL by following links, which matters most for large sites, new sites with few backlinks, and pages that changed recently.<\/p><p>It does not guarantee <strong>indexing<\/strong>. Listing a URL is a request, not an instruction \u2014 Google indexes what it judges worth indexing. And it does not confer importance: a page that appears in the sitemap and nowhere else is still an <a href=\"https:\/\/internal-links-manager.com\/en\/glossary\/orphan-page\/\">orphan page<\/a>. This is the single most common misunderstanding about sitemaps, and it is why \u201cbut it is in the sitemap\u201d is never an answer to \u201cwhy does this page not rank\u201d.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-t1800014 elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"t1800014\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">What belongs in it<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-t1800015 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"t1800015\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>Only URLs that should be indexed, and only in their <a href=\"https:\/\/internal-links-manager.com\/en\/glossary\/canonical-tag\/\">canonical<\/a> form. That rules out more than people expect:<\/p><ul><li>No <code>noindex<\/code> pages \u2014 listing them sends two contradictory signals.<\/li><li>No URLs that redirect. Point at the destination.<\/li><li>No non-canonical variants, no parameter URLs.<\/li><li>No 404s. A sitemap full of dead URLs erodes trust in the whole file.<\/li><\/ul><p>Technical limits: 50,000 URLs and 50 MB uncompressed per file. Larger sites split into several files behind a sitemap index. The <code>&lt;lastmod&gt;<\/code> date is used if it is accurate; <code>&lt;priority&gt;<\/code> and <code>&lt;changefreq&gt;<\/code> are ignored by Google and not worth configuring.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-t1800016 elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"t1800016\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">Its most useful job is diagnostic<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-t1800017 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"t1800017\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>The sitemap is one half of the subtraction that finds orphan pages: everything that exists, minus everything a crawler reaches by following links. Feed the sitemap into a crawl as a second source and the difference is your list of unreachable pages.<\/p><p>That only works if the sitemap is complete. A sitemap that omits a page will also hide the orphan \u2014 so if you suspect it, export the URL list from the CMS instead.<\/p><p>Search Console&#8217;s Pages report is the other diagnostic: submitted versus indexed, with reasons for every exclusion. A large gap between the two is usually a content or linking problem, not a sitemap problem.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-15a654b ilm-article elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"15a654b\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-e-type=\"section\" data-settings=\"{&quot;background_background&quot;:&quot;classic&quot;}\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-no\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-0746ed8\" data-id=\"0746ed8\" data-element_type=\"column\" data-e-type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-8177cc2 elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"8177cc2\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">Other sitemap types<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-9021fc6 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"9021fc6\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p><strong>Image and video sitemaps<\/strong> list media with extra metadata \u2014 captions, licences, durations. Worth having on a site where media is the product; unnecessary elsewhere, since images embedded in indexed pages are found anyway.<\/p><p><strong>News sitemaps<\/strong> cover articles from the last two days and are required for Google News. Everything older is dropped, which surprises people who treat them as a general archive.<\/p><p><strong>HTML sitemaps<\/strong> \u2014 a page of links for humans \u2014 are a different thing entirely and often confused with the XML kind. As an <a href=\"https:\/\/internal-links-manager.com\/en\/glossary\/internal-link\/\">internal linking<\/a> device they can be genuinely useful on a large site, because unlike the XML file they actually pass value.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-ffb5eff elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"ffb5eff\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">Where WordPress makes it complicated<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-7bfeeda elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"7bfeeda\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>WordPress has generated its own sitemap at <code>\/wp-sitemap.xml<\/code> since version 5.5, and every SEO plugin generates another. Running both means two files describing the same site, usually with different rules about what to include. The plugin normally disables the core one; if it does not, one of them should be turned off.<\/p><p>The other recurring problem is custom post types. A plugin registering a new type does not automatically add it to the sitemap, and the toggle for it sits in the SEO plugin&#8217;s settings rather than anywhere near the content. A post type absent from the sitemap while every other type is present is nearly always this \u2014 a setting that was never saved.<\/p><p>Attachment pages are the reverse case: usually included by default, almost never worth indexing.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-77e884a elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"77e884a\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">Submitting it, and what that does not achieve<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-5cd9465 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"5cd9465\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>Reference it from <code>robots.txt<\/code> with a <code>Sitemap:<\/code> line and submit it once in Search Console. That is the whole procedure. Resubmitting after every publication achieves nothing \u2014 the file is re-fetched on its own schedule.<\/p><p>What submission cannot do is make a page rank, or rescue one nothing links to. If a URL appears in the sitemap and in no internal <a href=\"https:\/\/internal-links-manager.com\/en\/what-about-linkbuilding\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"146\" title=\"Internal links vs. backlinks\">link<\/a>, it remains an <a href=\"https:\/\/internal-links-manager.com\/en\/glossary\/orphan-page\/\">orphan page<\/a> whatever the file says. The sitemap is a courtesy to the crawler; the link graph is the argument.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-a24e370 ilm-article elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"a24e370\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-e-type=\"section\" data-settings=\"{&quot;background_background&quot;:&quot;classic&quot;}\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-no\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-0f3c72f\" data-id=\"0f3c72f\" data-element_type=\"column\" data-e-type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-d2e72e2 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"d2e72e2\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p><strong>Going deeper:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/internal-links-manager.com\/en\/learn\/orphan-pages\/\">finding and fixing orphan pages<\/a> uses the sitemap as one half of the subtraction and walks through the crawl step by step.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-95ef96a elementor-widget elementor-widget-html\" data-id=\"95ef96a\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"html.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"ilm-rel\"><span class=\"k\">Related terms<\/span><ul><li><a href=\"https:\/\/internal-links-manager.com\/en\/glossary\/orphan-page\/\">Orphan page<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/internal-links-manager.com\/en\/glossary\/canonical-tag\/\">Canonical tag<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/internal-links-manager.com\/en\/glossary\/crawl-budget\/\">Crawl budget<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/internal-links-manager.com\/en\/glossary\/nofollow\/\">Nofollow<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u2190 Back to the glossary XML sitemap 3 minute read \u00b7 Updated 28 August 2026 Definition An XML sitemap is a machine-readable file listing the URLs a site wants indexed, usually at \/sitemap.xml or \/sitemap_index.xml and referenced from robots.txt. It tells a crawler a page exists. Internal links tell it the page matters, and roughly [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":2133,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2294","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/internal-links-manager.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/internal-links-manager.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/internal-links-manager.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/internal-links-manager.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/internal-links-manager.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2294"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/internal-links-manager.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2294\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2344,"href":"https:\/\/internal-links-manager.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2294\/revisions\/2344"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/internal-links-manager.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/internal-links-manager.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}