What is an XML Sitemap?

An XML sitemap is basically your website's roadmap for search engines.
It's a file that lists all the important URLs of your site, so Google and other search engines know which pages to crawl and index.

I see the sitemap as an invitation to Google: “Here you'll find everything that matters.”
Without a sitemap, a search engine can often still discover your site, but with a properly configured XML sitemap, this is faster, more complete and more efficient. This is different from a HTML sitemap.

Why is an XML sitemap important?

Even the best-built website can have hidden pages: a blog post with no internal links, a new landing page, or a category that was added later.
By adding an XML sitemap, you give Google a complete overview of what's on your website.

The result:

• New pages are crawled and indexed faster.
• Old or deleted pages are better recognized.
• You maintain control over what Google sees and doesn't see.

This is especially essential for large websites or web shops. With smaller sites, it's technically less critical, but it's still good practice.

What does an XML sitemap look like?

An XML sitemap is a structured file in XML format.
It lists your website URLs, plus optional additional information such as the last modification date or priority.

A simple example:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.rankrocket.nl/</loc>
    <lastmod>2025-10-22</lastmod>
    <priority>1.0</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.rankrocket.nl/seo-begrippen/xml-sitemap</loc>
    <lastmod>2025-10-22</lastmod>
    <priority>0.8</priority>
  </url>
</urlset>

This file is usually placed on the root directory of your domain:
https://www.jouwdomein.nl/sitemap.xml.

How do I use an XML sitemap in Rank Rocket?

In my SEO projects, the sitemap is always an integral part of the technical setup.
I usually generate it automatically via plugins like Rank Math or Yoast SEO.
They keep the sitemap up to date when new pages or products are added.

For larger or multilingual websites, I often split the sitemap into sections:

• /sitemap-pages.xml for regular pages
• /sitemap-posts.xml for blogs
• /sitemap-products.xml for webshops

Then I log these sitemaps into Google Search Console. This gives Google direct access to the current version, and I can immediately see if there are any errors.

I make sure that only pages that can really be indexed are in the sitemap.
Pages with a noindex tag, test URLs or duplicates don't belong, otherwise you're wasting your crawl budget.

XML sitemap and crawling

The sitemap works hand-in-hand with the crawling process.
Where crawlers normally follow links to discover new pages, the XML sitemap provides a direct list of priority URLs.

I see this working particularly well on websites with seasonal content or a lot of product changes.
Thanks to the sitemap, new products are often picked up by Google within 24 hours.

Best practices for a strong XML sitemap

1. Always use absolute URLs: so including https and the entire domain.
2. Limit size: Up to 50,000 URLs per sitemap or 50 MB per file.
3. Update automatically: via your CMS or a cron job.
4. Avoid 404's and redirects: keep the list clean.
5. Use multiple sitemaps for large sites: and bundle them into a sitemap-index.xml.

This way, your sitemap remains efficient, organized and reliable for crawlers.

A real-life example

For a customer in the logistics sector with more than 30,000 pages, the old sitemap was filled with outdated URLs.
After cleaning and restructuring, the number of active, indexed pages doubled in two months.
Google found new routes faster, and organic traffic increased noticeably.

That's the difference between “being found” and “understanding how Google thinks.”