What is an XML Sitemap?
An XML Sitemap is a file in Extensible Markup Language (XML) format that lists all the URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) for a website along with additional metadata about each URL. It serves as a roadmap for search engine crawlers to better understand the structure of a website and index its content more efficiently. Here's a detailed explanation of various aspects of an XML Sitemap: Structure : XML Sitemaps are structured documents conforming to the XML standard. They consist of a root <urlset> element that contains individual <url> elements, each representing a URL on the website. URLs : Each <url> element represents a specific webpage on the website and must contain at least one <loc> (location) element that specifies the URL of that webpage. Metadata : Along with the URL, <url> elements can contain additional metadata to provide more information about each webpage. Common metadata elements include <lastmod> (last modification date), ...