A sitemap is a file that lists all the important pages on your website. It helps search engines understand your website structure and find all your content more efficiently. XML sitemaps are specifically designed for search engines and include additional information like last modification date and update frequency.
Sitemaps help search engines discover and index your website's pages more effectively. They are especially important for large websites, new sites, sites with dynamic content, or sites that aren't well linked internally. A sitemap can improve your website's visibility in search results.
Your sitemap should be placed in your website's root directory (e.g., https://example.com/sitemap.xml). You should also add its location to your robots.txt file and submit it to search engines through their webmaster tools platforms.
You should update your sitemap whenever significant changes are made to your website, such as adding new pages or modifying existing ones. For frequently updated websites, consider automating sitemap generation. At minimum, update your sitemap monthly to ensure search engines have the latest information.