How to get XML sitemaps right
Teams tend to reach for this after something has already gone wrong. The short answer to XML sitemaps is that it is mostly a sequence of small decisions, not one big one.
Search work compounds slowly, which is why it gets abandoned about two months before it would have paid off. The failure mode is not doing it wrong, it is doing it once and assuming it stays done.
Why it matters
A sitemap helps crawlers find pages links do not reach well. This is the sort of thing that compounds, quietly, in both directions. Anything you cannot measure here, you are deciding by taste, which is fine as long as everyone knows it.
The steps
- Establish what you have today before changing anything
- Only list pages you actually want indexed
- Keep it current or it works against you
- Write down the decision so the next person does not re-litigate it
Keep it current or it works against you. The cost of getting this wrong is rarely visible on the day it happens. Check it against what you would want a competitor's site to get wrong.
Where to go from here
What this looks like day to day
Technical fixes remove obstacles; content earns the position. Both are needed and they are not interchangeable. Three things worth confirming about XML sitemaps before you move on:
- Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
- Keep it current or it works against you — and you know whether that is true here
- There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped
None of this needs a rewrite. Most of it is a morning's work once someone decides to do it.