“Your XML Sitemap would be a blueprint – making it easy for Google to find your site,” XML sitemap for SEO by Bluecoron blog.
It’s a beautiful day and you are launching your new shop as well as a website for summer wear! It’s a hot day and humans are searching the internet for summer kits! Then there is the question: How to make these people see your site and browse it?
It’s time for XML sitemaps (a map of the website) to play an important role for SEO because they make it easier for Google to find your site’s pages—this is important because Google ranks web PAGES not just websites.
We highly recommend that any website should have a clear sitemap as there is no downside but improving your SEO. Let’s dig in and you will see how it works.
Table of Contents
1. What is XML Sitemap?
XML and HTML sitemaps are two most popular and critical tools for Magento 2 site. An XML sitemap typically helps search engines understand the site’s structure and index the pages better. While an HTML sitemap supports users to explore the site and find their desired items more effectively.
In general, XML Sitemap is the additional information that helps search engines to crawl your website more efficiently. Thanks to it, changes can be fed to search engines directly, including when a page is added or removed.
When enabled your site, Magento creates a file called sitemap.xml to save your installation in the location that you specify. You can configure to set the frequency of the updates as well as the priority for each type of content. You had better update the sitemap frequently as you change the content on your site. This update might be daily, weekly, or monthly.
2. Why does Magento 2 store need XML Sitemap?
XML sitemap has especially great value if:
- Your site has few external links or is new: search engines might not be able to discover your site. Submitting a sitemap will be an excellent way to let search engine bots know about your website then index it accordingly.
- Your site is large and/or has lots of archived content that may not be well-linked: adding a sitemap can ensure that search engines do not miss valuable content.
- Your site is for international business, and they support multi-languages for the same content page: an XML sitemap will alert the crawlers with this information to redirect users with the correct version of your website.
A well-built and updated XML sitemap substantially increases the chances that your web-pages are crawled and indexed by search engines.
3. How to generate XML Sitemap in Magento 2 default?
Fortunately, Magento 2 provides a built-in feature so you can generate and configure a sitemap in the backend.
To generate a new XML sitemap in Magento 2, follow these steps:
Step 1: Admin panel
On the Admin menu, go to Marketing > SEO & Search > Site Map.
Step 2: Filename
Click Add Site Map and create a Filename such as sitemap.xml and Path (/).
Then click to Save
Step 3: Generate
Once you have finished, you can see the list of sitemaps in the grid. Now it’s time for you to Generate the new sitemap.
Step 4: Submit sitemap
It’s time to submit your sitemap to Search Engines.
You can submit your sitemap to different search engines by providing them the link to the sitemap.xml file in your Magento installation. Here is the way to copy the link:
In the Site Map grid, right-click the URL in the Link for Google column. On the menu, choose Copy Link Address.
Magento 2 also allows you to have XML Sitemap generated automatically by Cron.
From the Admin Panel, please go to Stores > Configuration > Catalog > XML Sitemap.
Here you can see all the options and settings. If you do not want to use the default settings, you can setup manually as your demands.
4. Best Magento 2 XML Sitemap Extensions
The default Magento 2 does support XML sitemap built automatically; however, store admins can’t include or exclude own objects such as products, categories or pages within their site, which hinder the good understanding of Google.
That’s why if you want to optimize SEO for your site, you should consider improving XML sitemap as well.
Fortunately, there are the number of Magento development agencies provide XML sitemap extensions with a ton of improved features such as: removing the link of the CMS page using for homepage; enabling additional links; specifying the frequency of updates for each type of pages and setting the priority of importance for a group of links.
Let’s dig in The Best XML Sitemap Extensions for Magento 2:
Brands | Products | Main features | Price | Detail links |
Landofcoder | Magento 2 XML Sitemap | Magento 2 XML Sitemap automatically generates your website url links. Google bots detect and crawl your website content and index it on the search engine result quickly. It seems one of the best ways to help your website content can be indexed quickly on search that is so useful for your business.
and more | Update | DC10FAE | -10% |
Amasty | XML Google® Sitemap for Magento 2 | Automatically generate Magento XML Sitemaps in an efficient way. Let your web store communicate with the search engines quickly and properly.
and more | $119 | |
Bsscomerce | Magento 2 XML Sitemap | Magento 2 XML Sitemap extension generates and splits XML sitemap for Magento 2 store to boost up crawling by search engines.
and more | $119 | |
cedcommerce | ULTIMATE XML SITEMAP [M2] | Ultimate XML Sitemap for Magento 2 allows you to generate XML sitemap of your store separately. It helps in ranking your sites higher in search results and makes crawling easier.
and more | Update | |
FME | HTML & XML Sitemap Generator | Magento 2 sitemap extension is an all-in-one solution to generate SEO optimize XML sitemap and HTML sitemap. By generating an XML Sitemap you can index your web pages faster and achieve an improved SEO score on Google. Similarly, HTML sitemap strengthens internal linking while improving your website’s the user experience.
and more | $79.99 | |
Mageworx | Sitemap Suite Extension for Magento 2 | Extend the standard Magento 2 XML sitemap toolkit with a bunch of extra features. With Sitemap Suite you can:
and more | $99 | landofcoder10 | -10% |
Ulmod | XML Sitemap Splitter for Magento 2 | Generates and splits your XML Sitemap into multiple sitemaps and helps search engines better understand your website structure while crawling it. Optimize your XML sitemap and makes sure it ranks well in Google and other search engines.
and more | $189 | UMLOC-ALL15 | -15% |
Weltpixel | Magento 2 Google XML Sitemap | By using this user friendly Magento 2 extension you can dynamically exclude products, categories, and pages from the sitemap file. This is helpful for pages required in your store that you don’t want indexed by search engines.
and more | $99 | |
Mageplaza | Magento 2 google xml sitemap | Google XML Sitemap for Magento 2 helps Google search bots find all every corner on your website to index, bring in potential benefits for your SEO strategy.
| Free |
We want to say a big thank you to every vendor that has made this Top 9 XML Sitemap list! This is the most comprehensive list of the best XML Sitemap on the internet and it’s our honor to have you as part of this!
Things to remember
Google states that they do not guarantee to crawl and index all of the pages of a particular site. Submitting a sitemap with additional information helps Google bots understand what content is more important, then prioritize the crawling process. Eventually, the metadata related to each page in an XML sitemap will help Google crawl and index your content better and faster.
Stay tuned! We will get back soon with more amazingly informative reviews!