We should all know the importance of Google search by now. You want your customers to be able to find you when they search and to find you before they find the competition. WordPress XML sitemaps are one way to help with this.
What is SEO
Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is how we refer to the things we do on our website to help Google and our customers find it. There are many actions you can take to improve your search ranking. This article about WordPress XML sitemaps is the first in a series of articles on actions you can take to rank higher in Google search results.
What are WordPress XML sitemaps
The first thing is to provide Google with a list of pages on your site. This is called a sitemap. It is important because Google looks for the sitemap every time they visit, it tells Google when your site has been updated, and it leaves out pages that are unimportant or pages that Google doesn’t need to see.
Pro Tip: Two examples of page types to exclude from your sitemap include Thank You pages (Google shouldn’t send people to a thank you page), checkout pages (Google should send folks to a shop not a checkout).
XML is just the format and you do not need to learn anything about that, it matters to Google but it doesn’t affect you.
Most websites should have one, it should be kept up to date, and it should be created immediately. To learn more directly from Google you can check out Learn About Sitemaps from Google Developers.
Creating WordPress XML sitemaps
For WordPress sites, since version 5.5, a basic XML sitemap is available on your site automatically. You can see it by adding wp-sitemap.xml after a slash at the end of your domain name. E.g. https://scrunchitup.ca/wp-sitemap.xml
The easiest way to add a sitemap to your WordPress site is by using a plugin like Rank Math. That’s what we used to create the sitemap for this website. Previously we used Yoast SEO which also includes an easy-to-use sitemap tool.
We do SEO for Halifax Small Businesses
The easiest way for you to get a WordPress XML Sitemap for your website is to give us a call. We offer SEO services custom-built for Atlantic Canadian small businesses. You can contact us or book a free, no obligation SEO discovery call.
