Why does your company's website need a sitemap?

A well-constructed sitemap can boost your search engine optimization efforts and help you stand out in search results.

A woman looking at a map. What is a sitemap?

A sitemap acts as a blueprint of your website. Properly connected web pages don't necessarily need a sitemap, but having one enhances your site’s online visibility. Search engines use them to find, crawl, and index all the website's content. Sitemaps can be of four types: XML sitemaps, video sitemaps, image sitemaps, and news sitemaps.

Why do sitemaps matter?

Sitemaps tell search engines which pages on the site are more important. It comes in handy when your site is new and lacks external backlinks. A sitemap accelerates search engine crawling by giving it a tour of its pages.

A sitemap isn't always necessary, though, especially if your site is small or if you’re using a simple hosting service such as Blogger.

A sitemap helps when there is an excess of pages and links on the website, and Google has trouble going through them. A multimedia-rich website can always use a sitemap.

How can a sitemap affect your ranking on search engines?

Although there is no guarantee Google will index all your pages, having a sitemap is as good as it gets. Hence, you can only benefit from having a sitemap, and you will never be penalized for having one.

The search engine optimization (SEO) of your site and ranking on search engine results pages (SERP) are directly connected. If you want your site to rank high on SERP, you must first take care of on-site and off-site SEO. On-site SEO includes content, keywords, meta tags, multimedia content, and so on. Off-site SEO consists of backlinks from other web sources that increase your site's ranking.

At Axia Public Relations, every website we design involves a strategic process that begins with having a structural sitemap. Do you want your website to rank higher? Begin with a sitemap specially designed for your website. Contact our experts today for a no-obligation website consultation.