Sitemap (XML)
A file that lists your pages for search engines to discover and index.
An XML sitemap is a structured file submitted to search engines that lists all the important pages on a website, along with optional metadata such as when each page was last modified and how frequently it changes. The sitemap serves as a direct communication from the website to Google's crawler about which pages exist and should be indexed, supplementing the crawler's own discovery through internal links.
For a care home website, an accurate and complete XML sitemap is particularly important when the site has pages that are poorly connected by internal links, such as glossary term pages or directory guide pages that may sit outside the main navigation. Without a sitemap entry, these pages depend on Google's crawler following internal links to discover them, which can delay indexation by weeks or months on a site with low crawl budget.
The sitemap should include every page that should appear in search results and exclude pages that should not, such as admin interfaces, privacy policy and terms pages, duplicate URL variants, and any placeholder or development pages. Submitting a sitemap with noindexed or redirected URLs dilutes its value and can slow Google's processing of the legitimate entries.
XML sitemaps are submitted through Google Search Console under the Sitemaps section. Once submitted, Google periodically checks the sitemap for updates and uses it to schedule crawls of new or modified pages. After significant content additions, such as publishing a large batch of new pages at once, resubmitting the sitemap accelerates Google's discovery of the new content.