# sitemap.xml

> An XML sitemap is a file that lists the important URLs of a website, so search engines can find them without relying on links alone.

- **Check ID:** S20
- **Area:** [SEO](https://be1st.ai/glossary/seo)
- **Tool:** [SEO + Security + Performance](https://be1st.ai/tools/ssp-audit)
- **Page:** https://be1st.ai/glossary/seo/sitemap-xml

## Why it matters

A sitemap is like a map of the website for search engines. It is especially important for large sites, new sites with few external links, and sites with rich multimedia content.

## In practice

CNN.com has a sitemap index with links to sitemaps for news, video, and images. WordPress generates a sitemap automatically. New websites without a sitemap may wait weeks for Google to discover all their pages.

## How be1st checks it

Checks for the existence of an XML sitemap, which provides search engines with a list of all important URLs on the website. The check looks for a sitemap listed in robots.txt as well as at /sitemap.xml. A sitemap speeds up the discovery of new and updated content.

[SEO + Security + Performance](https://be1st.ai/tools/ssp-audit), SEO tab.

Every check ends as: Pass, Warning, Fail.

## Sources

- [Sitemaps Overview](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/sitemaps/overview) (Google Search Central)
- [Robots.txt Introduction](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/robots/intro) (Google Search Central)

## Related terms

- [External links](https://be1st.ai/glossary/seo/external-links): External links point from your page to other websites. Links to trustworthy sources back up the claims in your text and let readers check them.
- [robots.txt](https://be1st.ai/glossary/seo/robots-txt): robots.txt is a plain text file at the root of a website that tells crawlers which parts of the site they may and may not visit.
- [HTTPS (SEO)](https://be1st.ai/glossary/seo/https): HTTPS is the encrypted version of HTTP. It protects data between the browser and the server, and browsers mark sites without it as not secure.
- [WWW consistency](https://be1st.ai/glossary/seo/www-consistency): WWW consistency means a website answers on one host name only, either with www or without it, and redirects the other version there.
- [Trailing slash consistency](https://be1st.ai/glossary/seo/trailing-slash-consistency): Trailing slash consistency means every URL is used in one form only, either /page or /page/, and the other form redirects to it.
- [HTML size (SEO)](https://be1st.ai/glossary/seo/html-size): HTML size is the weight of a page's HTML document in kilobytes, without images, styles and scripts. Search engines and browsers have to download and parse all of it.