There are two main types of sitemaps, each with their own benefits: XML sitemaps, and HTML sitemaps. Let’s explore each in more detail.
XML Sitemaps
XML stands for Extensible Markup Language and is a file format that provides structured information that is easy for both humans and machines to understand.
XML sitemaps contain the following information:
A list of URLs that should be indexed
A “lastmod” attribute that highlights when URLs were last updated
An "hreflang" attribute that informs of alternative language versions
There can be several types of XML sitemaps:
Normal Web Pages: This type of XML sitemap contains a list of the standard web pages on a website, including information about their last modification dates, change frequency, and page priority, helping search engines efficiently crawl and index these pages for search results.
Video Sitemaps: These contain information about video content on a website, such as video titles, descriptions, durations, and thumbnail URLs. They help search engines understand and index video content, making it more discoverable in search results. An important note is that Video Schema has largely replaced the need for video sitemaps, so they are less often used.
News Sitemaps: These provide data about news articles and publications on a website, including publication dates, titles, and article keywords. They are used to inform search engines about the latest news content, ensuring timely and accurate inclusion in news search results.
Image Sitemaps: Image sitemaps contain details about images on a website, such as image URLs, captions, and licensing information. These sitemaps help search engines index and display images in image search results, improving a site's visibility for image-based queries.
Sitemap Index File: A Sitemap Index File is a special XML file that contains a list of multiple individual XML sitemaps. It's used when a website has a large number of pages or multiple content types, allowing search engines to efficiently manage and access various sitemaps for comprehensive indexing, making it easier for them to navigate and index the entire website's content effectively.
HTML Sitemaps
An HTML sitemap is a standard website page with links to various pages organized in a hierarchical way. You’ll often see links to HTML sitemaps in the footer of a website if they have one.
The purpose of an HTML sitemap is to provide a supplementary resource to help users explore the website, however, it should not replace a good site navigation. Although it’s considered optional, it’s helpful to users if the website is quite large and has a complex structure.