XML sitemap

The XML list of the addresses the site wants indexed. It does not raise rankings; it makes sure crawlers find out that pages exist.

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An XML sitemap is a list of the addresses you want search engines to know about, optionally with the date each one last changed. It does not raise rankings, and it does not force anything into the index. What it does is make sure crawlers discover every page, including ones that few internal links lead to, and notice new or updated pages sooner.

How SiteScan finds and reads it

The scanner looks at the Sitemap: lines in robots.txt first, then at /sitemap.xml and /sitemap_index.xml, and reads the first one that answers (compressed .xml.gz files included).

• Green shows how many URLs it lists. Very large files are read up to 16 MB, and the count then ends in "+".
• Red, "Invalid XML": the file was found but is not a valid sitemap. Search engines reject it entirely.
• Amber, "Missing": none of the addresses returned a sitemap.

Getting it right

• Let the CMS or framework generate it: WordPress has a built-in one at /wp-sitemap.xml, and SEO plugins add their own.
• List only canonical, indexable URLs that answer 200: no redirects, no noindex pages, no duplicates.
• Declare it in robots.txt with Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap.xml and submit it in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.

More in robots.txt and sitemaps. The rows below cover lastmod dates and whether listed URLs still work.