What is a sitemap? Sitemaps are excellent resources for aiding search engines in indexing and comprehending the information offered on a website. In this article, we will give an elaborative explanation of the process of creating a Magento 2 sitemap.
This article will give an overview of what is a sitemap, its significance, and the process through which one can create a sitemap for their Magento store.
It is mandatory for every website to possess a sitemap, especially in eCommerce. It helps search engines become aware of the content on that specific website readily while seeking it and indexing it.
A sitemap also enables a customer to locate the products they need without going through a lot of processes. If a website does not have a sitemap, people or search engines may overlook it. Making a sitemap for a Magento shop seems like an intimidating task, especially to those who are trying to use the system for the first time.
Nonetheless, it can be handled relatively easily when one has the right tools and instructions. This article seeks to give you the step-by-step procedure of how to create a sitemap for Magento. It will also provide how-to tips on how best to use the sitemap to get the best results.
With the help of this guide you can be rest assured that your Magento store will be properly indexed by the search engines. It’ll also ensure customers will be able to find the products they are looking for much faster.
Let’s get started and understand how a sitemap can be generated for store in Magento!
What is a Sitemap?
Sitemaps are the ideal way to ensure that the search crawlers are able to reach all the pages within one site because it is a perfect list of all the pages that exist on a particular website. Whenever user wants to search for the required information, they can do so by just searching and clicking the required link instead of going through the entire content present in a website.
Submitting a sitemap cover the most significant factors of SEO. Since they provide the search engine crawlers with a better understanding of the website structural design, the content relationships and the levels of information included therein.
Three most common types of sitemaps are: HTML sitemaps, XML sitemaps, and images sitemaps.
An HTML sitemap is a page that assists site visitors in locating content throughout the website by providing links to various parts of the website, and this type of page is often attached to the bottom of the pages to allow easy access to it.
An XML sitemaps turn tables in web pages. They are the best way of conducting link building and are the best practice for SEO. An XML sitemap is defined as an XML file that is comprised of the variable pages of a particular site that search engine crawlers are expected to crawl and index in the very first search of that website. It has details of the pages on the website including the last update. For example, how often the page is updated and the importance of that particular web page.
Image sitemaps facilitate the indexing of images on a website by search engines. It is an XML document that includes a list of images which are eligible for indexing by search engines. Additionally it contains any supplementary information concerning the image, such as where the image is located, the dimensions of the image and the form of the image.
Sitemaps are critical for any website. They help search engine understand the structure of the siteassist users to locate the information they require. There are many kinds of sitemaps to fit the need, hence it is crucial to select the kind of sitemap that best matches your site.
To Say XML Sitemaps are essential tools is an understatement. The absence of a sitemap leads to some significant SEO issues. This explains why default Magento has only XML sitemaps functionality and this will be the emphasis of this article.
Why do you need a Sitemap in Magento 2?
Now that you have understood what is a sitemap, lets understand it’s importance. Sitemaps are useful instruments for Magento 2 stores to make certain that your site works. In addition, sitemaps assist search engines in walking through the hierarchy of the website efficiently and dynamically and, therefore provide the sitemap with the opportunity to have your website effectively crawled. Let us start by defining a few key advantages of implementing a sitemap for the Magento 2 store:
- Visibility: An XML file will allow the search engines to crawl your website and aid in improving your SEO rankings. Sitemaps improve the chances of your customers seeing more of your pages by helping the search engines find more of them.
- Navigation: A sitemap improves the user experience by enabling customers to search for pages in a less complex manner thereby enhancing the site usability aspect.
- Crawl Rate: Sitemaps increase the visibility of more pages on your website by enabling crawling of the website by search engines at a much faster rate.
- Indexing: Sitemaps give search engines a greater understanding of your website and provide proper indexing for all pages present on your site.
Basically, a sitemap is a necessity when working with Magento 2 stores. It would be easier for search engines to index your pages which would amplify your website’s exposure and more importantly your search engine optimization rankings.
Also, it will be easier for buyers to work with pages on your website and enable the speedy crawling and indexing of your website pages by search engines.
How to Create XML Sitemap in Magento 2
Creating an XML sitemap in Magento 2 goes as follows:
- On your Magento dashboard go to: Marketing→ Seo & Search→ Site Map:
- Once you are here then click on the “Add Sitemap” button, which is located at the top right.
- In the Filename field, add the name of the sitemap and it’s path column add its path. After this click on Save and Generate button on the top right.
Thats it you are done generating the sitemap of your Magento store.
Configure Magento 2 Sitemap
To view the additional configuration settings related to xml sitemap, go to Stores→ Configuration→ Catalog→ XML Sitemap.
On this screen, there are several options. Among these, categories options, products options, cms pages options and store URLs options, the following 4 options have frequency and priority setting.
Frequency indicates how frequently this particular page is updated while priority indicates how much importance is given to each page type.
In the Sitemap file limits section, you can set limits for the number of URLs and file size. It is important to keep in mind that.
The Google XML sitemap should not include more than 50,000 URLs and the file size should not exceed 50 MB, which is why these rules are default if applied in Magento 2.
Finally the last selection is in configuration is called Search Engine Submission Settings where you will set how an xml sitemap is submitted and which targeted search engine crawlers are.
You can set it to “Yes” to Enable something like Submission to Robots.txt. In such a case, a link to the sitemap will be included in your robots.txt file which crawlers use to read file for site indexing rules.
Benefits of XML Sitemaps
An XML sitemap acts as a roadmap for search engines, guiding them through the structure of your website. It ensures that every essential page, product, and category is indexed efficiently, even if your internal linking isn’t perfect. This is particularly beneficial for large eCommerce websites like Magento stores, where the volume of pages can be overwhelming for search engines to crawl effectively.
Additionally, XML sitemaps provide search engines with metadata, such as the last updated date, change frequency, and priority levels for pages. This helps search engines prioritize crawling, ensuring your most critical content is indexed faster. For instance, during promotional campaigns or new product launches, an updated XML sitemap can help your site rank better and drive traffic to those pages.
How To Create HTML Sitemaps in Magento 2
HTML sitemaps act as a quick reference as to how your site is structured in such a way that customers can easily find their way around. Once more, creating an HTML sitemap in Magento 2 is fairly easy with the right tools and steps:
1. Default Sitemap Settings Activation: By default, Magento 2 has integrated options to include sitemaps on your site. Head to the Admin Panel, navigate to Stores > Configuration > Catalog > XML Sitemap and make changes to this as required.
2. Use an Extension: The Magento marketplace is filled with extensions that automatically generate HTML sitemaps. Install a reliable one you find and place this in-between your website’s design.
3. Manual Development: You can opt to develop an HTML sitemap yourself as ‘static’ page by including links that are deemed necessary based on categories, pages, and products.
Web pages in the form of HTML allow for a simplified form of navigation, which is exactly what customers who wish to have a glimpse of your site and not have an in-depth approach require.
Benefits of HTML Sitemaps
XML sitemaps are executed with the search engine’s perspective, while HTML sitemaps are created for the users. They detail the structure of your website and enable the users to easily locate the information they are looking for. This is of great benefit for Magento 2 webshops with large numbers of product categories as it reduces the hassle of the users wanting to locate a specified page or product.
In addition, HTML sitemaps are enhanced for SEO. They provide short links to different sections of the website which enhances internal linking and lowers the rate of bounces since users are redirected to the content needed. This better navigation translates to more happy users, and eventually better conversion rates.
Conclusion
Sitemaps can be great tools for increasing the SEO capabilities of a Magento 2 store and also ensuring that the website is well-indexed. After reading this guide, you should have a clear idea of what is a sitemap and how to create sitemaps for your store pretty quickly. Now, you need not worry about such tedious tasks and instead shift your focus on improving the chances of your site appearing near the top of search engines as well as being more visible. Now that the proper sitemap is in place, one can be sure that your Magento 2 store is indexed appropriately, and customers are able to search through and find relevant content easily.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What Is A Sitemap And Its Significance?A sitemap outlines all the pages of the website thus assisting search engines in indexing your store. For Magento, it enhances the SEO and ensures that products, categories and CMS pages get found.
2. How Can I Generate An XML Sitemap In Magento?Proceed to Stores > Configuration > Catalog > XML Sitemap.
Visit Marketing > SEO & Search > Site Map.
Set configuration for pages, frequency, and priority.
Add a sitemap with the title sitemap.xml and assign the specific path.
Save and create the sitemap.
3. How Can I Include In A Sitemap Submission To Google?Launch Google Search Console.
Go to Sitemaps.
Insert the sitemap link (for example: http//yourstore.com/sitemap.xml)
Press Submit.
