Glossary · Search and local visibility
XML sitemap
A machine-readable list of canonical URLs a site wants eligible crawlers to discover.
Also called: sitemap, sitemaps, XML sitemaps
Definition
An XML sitemap lists selected URLs and optional metadata for discovery. It can help search systems find important pages, especially on a new, large, or poorly linked site. It does not replace internal navigation, guarantee indexing, or establish that every listed page is high quality.
Why it matters
A launch should include only canonical, public, indexable pages and exclude private, test, thin, and duplicate routes.
Common misunderstanding
Submitting a sitemap is not a ranking command. Search systems still decide whether and how to crawl and index each URL.
Related terms
Related system family: Measurement & Search Signals
Sources
- Search Console API (opens in a new tab) · Google for Developers
- RFC 9309: Robots Exclusion Protocol (opens in a new tab) · RFC Editor / IETF
Last reviewed July 16, 2026