Ask an SEO: Is an XML or HTML Sitemap Better for SEO?
XML sitemaps list important URLs and file details, helping search engines crawl and understand your site structure efficiently.
Ask an SEO: Is an XML or HTML Sitemap Better for SEO?
Whether it’s better to use an XML sitemap or an HTML one for your site.
What is an XML sitemap?
An XML sitemap refers to a list of URLs for pages and files on your website that you want the search bots to be able to find and crawl. An XML sitemap can be used to detail information about the files, like the length of run-time for the video file specified, or the publication date of an article.
The Yoast.com XML sitemap shows several ‘index’ sitemaps: post-sitemap.xml, page-sitemap.xml, video-sitemap.xml, etc. This categorization makes a site’s structure as straightforward as possible.
What is the XML Sitemap Used For?
Search bots understand which pages on your website should be crawled, as well as giving them extra information about those pages.
An XML sitemap helps bots identify pages on the site that would otherwise be difficult to find.
XML sitemaps can be good for SEO, enabling Google to find your essential pages quickly, even if your internal linking isn’t perfect.
Google’s documentation says sitemaps are beneficial for “really large websites,” “websites with large archives,” “new websites with just a few external links to them,” and “websites which use rich media content.”
Best Practices for XML Sitemap
- Keep your sitemap up-to-date
- include only indexable pages in your XML sitemap
- Prioritize URLs with Priority Tags
- Include last modification data
- Maintain a consistent URL structure
- Stick to the limits for XML sitemaps
Most search bots understand XML sitemaps following the sitemaps.org protocol that defines the necessary location of the XML sitemap on a site.
Things to be Aware of With XML Sitemaps
Good reasons to go against “best practices” for XML sitemaps.
If you are instigating a lot of redirects, you may wish to include the old URLs in an XML sitemap even though they would return a 301 server response code.
Adding a new XML sitemap with altered URLs enables bots to recrawl and pick up redirects sooner.
This is especially the case if you have gone to the trouble of removing links to the 301 redirects on the site itself.
What is an HTML Sitemap?
An HTML sitemap is a simple webpage that lists links to all pages of a website in a structured manner, enabling users to navigate through the site more easily.
Unlike XML sitemaps, HTML sitemaps are primarily designed for human visitors.
An HTML sitemap similarly displays your website’s main pages and subpages, making it super easy for users to find what they’re looking for.
Benefits of HTML sitemap:
- Organizes large websites
- Makes it easier for search engines to find your pages
- Creates internal links
- Improve site navigation
What is an HTML Sitemap Used For?
serving as a catch-all for navigation.
If a user is struggling to find a page on your site through your main navigation elements or search, they can go to the HTML sitemap and find links to the most important pages on your site.
If your website isn’t that large, then you may include links to all of the pages on your site.
An HTML sitemap not only works as a mega-navigation for humans, but it can also help bots find pages.
Best Practices for HTML Sitemaps
As the name suggests, it tends to be a simple HTML page containing hyperlinks that you want users to find through it.
To make it usable for bots too, it is important that the links are followable, i.e., they do not have a nofollow attribute on them.
A list of the sitemap best practices to prioritize
- Prioritize your pages
- Create dynamic sitemaps
- Use a sitemap tool
- Categorize your content
- Avoid Noindex URLs
- Place Sitemap Correctly
- Restrict URLs
- Link to Your Sitemap
Things to be Aware of with HTML Sitemaps
The majority of consumers won’t visit a website’s HTML sitemap initially. It’s crucial to understand that if a person is using your HTML sitemap to locate a page, it indicates that the site’s main navigation has failed them. It truly ought to be viewed as a last-ditch effort to facilitate navigation.
Which is Better to Use for SEO?
It depends on your website and its needs
XML and HTML sitemap, both serve different purposes and audiences.
When to use the XML Sitemap?
Having an XML sitemap, or several, can help combat crawl issues, giving a clear list of all the pages that you want a search bot to crawl and index.
Really, if you might as well have an XML sitemap if you can. However, if your site is relatively tiny and the search engines already do a decent job of crawling and indexing it, it is not crucial whether it would be too expensive or resource-intensive for developers.
When to use the HTML Sitemap?
An HTML sitemap is more useful when a website’s navigation isn’t very intuitive or the search functionality isn’t comprehensive.
For larger sites that have a more complicated internal linking structure
