{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "DefinedTerm",
  "schema_version": "1.1",
  "content_item_id": "dictionary-sitemap.en",
  "translation_group_id": "dictionary-sitemap",
  "locale": "en",
  "type": "glossary",
  "section": "dictionary",
  "slug": "sitemap",
  "title": "Sitemap",
  "description": "How a sitemap helps discover canonical URLs and what it cannot control.",
  "direct_answer": "A sitemap is a machine-readable list of a site's canonical URLs, commonly XML, that helps a search engine discover and schedule crawling. It may provide a material modification date but guarantees neither crawling, indexing, ranking, nor inclusion in an AI answer.",
  "sections": [
    {
      "heading": "Working meaning",
      "paragraphs": [
        "Each urlset entry connects a loc address with optional metadata such as lastmod. A large site can split URLs across files and connect them through a sitemap index. The file supplements internal links rather than replacing site structure."
      ],
      "source_ids": [
        "google-sitemap",
        "google-crawl"
      ]
    },
    {
      "heading": "How to distinguish",
      "paragraphs": [
        "A sitemap announces URLs, robots.txt governs crawling, canonical identifies a preferred representation, and indexing remains the search engine's decision. RSS can announce recent publications but is generally not a complete registry of canonical pages."
      ],
      "source_ids": [
        "google-sitemap",
        "google-crawl"
      ]
    },
    {
      "heading": "Example",
      "paragraphs": [
        "For a bilingual site, a shared sitemap index can point to RU and EN sitemaps. Each lists actual HTML pages, while canonical and hreflang on the pages should agree with those addresses."
      ]
    },
    {
      "heading": "Testing",
      "paragraphs": [
        "Check XML syntax, successful responses for every loc, absence of redirects and 404s, self-canonicals, accurate lastmod, and sitemap-index consistency. After submission, inspect the search engine's report separately: accepting the file is not the same as indexing every URL."
      ]
    },
    {
      "heading": "Interpretation limit",
      "paragraphs": [
        "A sitemap does not improve a weak page or prove that a crawler read its contents. Adding many thin URLs makes them discoverable but not useful and can make indexing diagnosis harder."
      ]
    }
  ],
  "published_at": "2026-09-11",
  "modified_at": "2026-09-11",
  "data_through": "2026-09-11",
  "next_review_at": "2026-10-11",
  "author": "GeoAeoAle Editorial",
  "origin": "editorial",
  "publisher": "GeoAeoAle Editorial",
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "canonical_url": "https://geoaeoale.com/en/dictionary/sitemap/",
  "claims": [
    {
      "claim_id": "sitemap-scope",
      "text": "A sitemap should list only accessible canonical URLs, and lastmod should change only after a material content update.",
      "status": "inference",
      "confidence": "medium",
      "source_ids": [
        "google-sitemap",
        "google-crawl"
      ],
      "publication_status": "public",
      "confidentiality": "public"
    }
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "source_id": "google-sitemap",
      "canonical_url": "https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/sitemaps/build-sitemap",
      "title": "Build and submit a sitemap",
      "publisher": "Google Search Central",
      "source_type": "official",
      "locale": "en",
      "published_at": null,
      "checked_at": "2026-09-11",
      "sha256": "afdfdcbe03e599926c59df17e2e5dfd48cdc40f84bac24e0f1e8b7f8308c543f",
      "license": "Source terms apply",
      "visibility": "public"
    },
    {
      "source_id": "google-crawl",
      "canonical_url": "https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials/technical",
      "title": "Google Search technical requirements",
      "publisher": "Google Search Central",
      "source_type": "official",
      "locale": "en",
      "published_at": null,
      "checked_at": "2026-09-11",
      "sha256": "5fff9bd0dd8ef5fe14fdbc1b7debbf79ef3b8b6b507b21b87ac5e62b2ba25b30",
      "license": "Source terms apply",
      "visibility": "public"
    }
  ],
  "related_slugs": [
    "ai-visibility",
    "retrieval",
    "source-attribution"
  ],
  "limitations": [
    "Supported extensions and limits depend on the search engine. For this site, the sitemap is considered correct only alongside working URLs, honest dates, canonicals, and bidirectional hreflang."
  ],
  "corrections": []
}