Sitemap, or sitemap - what is it?
For business
23 July 2025
Often when we hear about SEO on the Internet, we may come across a mysterious-sounding name: sitemap.xml. There is no doubt whatsoever that this is a foundation - an element of the website that must not be underestimated or neglected. SEO specialists know very well that creating a sitemap for Google may even be decisive for the success of the entire undertaking, i.e. increasing the portal's visibility in the search engine. What does generating a sitemap look like? What is worth bearing in mind? Let us check!
Sitemap - what is it and what do you need it for?
In some simplification, such an XML sitemap is a list of URLs that are publicly available. In the XML sitemap settings, we can also set many important parameters for search engine robots. Thanks to the data contained therein, Google (and other search engines, such as Bing), "understands" how our site is structured. It is a list of all the subpages of our website that are necessary in the search engine's index.
A Sitemap is not just about links that will be accessible to Google's search engine. It is also important metadata, among which you can find:
- the date the page or subpage was modified,
- data on image files within the site,
- information on the language in which the texts are available on the site.
What should the sitemap file look like?
According to the guidelines provided by Google, a good sitemap.xml file should not take up more than 50 MB. However, this creates a bit of a problem, for example for large online shops that have an extensive range of products and therefore have to put a lot of information in there.
Fortunately, it is possible to create several separate files, establishing virtually any division key. These can be categories, or a separate file created just for the graphics running within the site.
Any self-respecting administrator who knows the importance of link indexing also knows that such a document should have UTF-8 encoding. Even if our file does not exceed the 50 MB 'limit', we need to be careful about one more thing. The number of links for one sitemap should not exceed 50,000.
If we did not stick to these restrictions, Google's robots would have a much harder time and might not index the entire collection. In practice, this would mean fewer visible pages in the search engine - which is not what we want.
If you are running a blog with, for example, only articles on smart-house solutions and your website is not very structured, then a simple sitemap, which you can easily generate using freely available plug-ins, is sufficient.
Here, you can point to the Sitemap Generator, which is available for WordPress, for example. The file structure will then contain TAGs such as:
- <urlset>
- <URL>
- <loc>
In addition, <lastmod>, i.e. information about the last change to a particular URL, <priority>, i.e. section priority data (a value between 0.0 and 1.0 can be set) or <changefreq>, i.e. information about the frequency of changes within the site, can still be found inside <URL>.
If you're using WordPress on your server, it's worth visiting the plugins section when you log into your admin panel. If you type google sitemap or sitemap wordpress into the search box, dozens of interesting services will be displayed to help us create the perfect site map.
However, before you place the selected file in your repository, make sure that the plug-in is updated. This way you will be sure that it is robot-friendly, i.e. compliant with the protocol that Google recommends, for example. Why is this so important? Because this search engine is used by approximately 97% of Internet users in Poland. If we want our website to be displayed in the service, we should put a lot of effort into making a site map and thus choose the best solution. 
Why is a site map important?
Primarily because it helps our site to be indexed faster in a search engine. It's also a great way to introduce a hierarchy of URLs, for example based on the categories that are most important to us from a business perspective.
Since Google's robots will find important sub-pages within our domain more quickly, the chances of them appearing higher in the search results increases - especially if we have taken care to saturate them with keywords and phrases beforehand.
Virtually every CMS system and every search engine supports sitemaps. So we don't have to worry about how to make a sitemap for a website. The vast majority of the work will be done for us by plugins. If your site uses Joomla, it is almost certain that when you type a query such as Joomla sitemap into a search engine, you will immediately see free tools that will generate such a file.
To further speed up the whole process, the sitemap can be uploaded manually to Google Search Console. After a while, the file will be checked and accepted and will already be visible to Google's robots. The clues contained therein will certainly have an impact on SEO. 
Types of sitemap
You already know what a basic sitemap for Google should look like. However, this is not the only solution we can implement on the site. Not only that. Sometimes limiting ourselves to such a simplified version is even a mistake.
One can point to news sites, i.e. sites that rely on news. It is also a fact that a sitemap that works for Google News needs to be approached in the following way:
1 In the sitemap, include only URLs for articles and news items published in the last two days. From older URLs, remove the <news: news> metadata;
2. try to keep the site map for Google News up to date. Do not create a new map for subsequent updates. This will significantly speed up the time required to index the site assets;
3 Remember that the URL limit for Google News is smaller than for a traditional sitemap and is only 1,000 URLs.
A good SEO sitemap for news sites should also include references to graphics. TAGs worth using include:
- <image:title> (image title),
- <image: licence> (the URL path to the licence of the graphic used in the entry, for example in an economic news entry where we have referenced an image under a Creative Commons licence),
- <image:geo_location> - information about the location of the image file,
- <image:caption> (caption of the image, e.g. if it is a news item reporting a new film, the caption could be its title).
How to properly create a good sitemap - what should you pay attention to?
First and foremost, any good site map generator must offer the UTF-8 format. This is one of the basics you need to pay particular attention to. Among other tips to bear in mind, it is worth mentioning the address structure. This one must be exactly the same as within the website.
Do you already know what a site map is and what elements it should and should not contain? Here, you can point to sub-pages that you have removed from your site and that are currently pointing to a 404 error. Redirected URLs (redirect 301, redirect 302), as well as login pages, should also not be included in the sitemap. In the case of WordPress, the XML file should therefore not include the /wp-admin/ path, or any other path if we have changed the default one. 
Sitemap - can a site map be automatically generated?
Yes, what's more, it's very simple. Site map generators are available both in the form of web services, i.e. those that can be accessed by anyone logging into a domain of their choice, and in the form of plug-ins for virtually all leading CMSs: from WordPress to Drupal to Joomla. For WordPress, which is the most popular platform in the world, you can use Yoast SEO Sitemap, for example.
The G Sitemap Generator service is also worth appreciating. It is a simple web application that virtually anyone can handle. The user's role is limited to entering the site address and clicking the "Generate" button. Once the tool has completed its work, we can download our sitemap in .xml format. Now, all we need to do is upload it to the server and manually add it to Google Search Console using the Index tab.
What should be kept in mind when creating a site map?
In addition to the maximum file size (50 MB) and the number of URLs, it is also worth paying attention to the different language versions of the website. If, for example, our platform is available in Polish and German versions, we can either generate two completely different sitemaps for them, or we can define a range of language versions using the hreflang TAG.
It is also a good idea to create a separate sitemap for the mobile version of the site, and to include information about its address in the Robots.txt file. We can quickly check the generated sitemap using tools such as Screaming Frog.
Should it turn out that our sitemap is incomplete, e.g. because we used a free solution that imposes certain limits, the above-mentioned application allows us to create such a file from scratch.
The service is also invaluable for SEO audits, as it allows for quick scanning of, for example, potential 4xx and 3xx errors on a site. It can also be used to determine the optimum priority settings, e.g. for the main categories on the site.
There is no doubt that the sitemap is a very important file, which needs to be created with care. Errors and oversights contained therein, for example in the linking structure or the number of URLs, can have a real impact on the drop in visibility of the website in search results.
Fortunately, thanks to dedicated plug-ins and free online services, virtually anyone can quickly generate such a file. It is also worth appreciating the helping hand that Google extends to us. In the Documentation Centre, we will find all the necessary data to help us create a sitemap suitable for our site.
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