This week’s Ask An SEO question comes from Iowa’s Renee, who writes:
“I read somewhere that you should submit a sitemap monthly. Isn’t that what it is when you provide an XML URL? A URL and so updates are always in place?
I am using RankMath to generate my XML files. I don’t seem to be uploading the file to Google Search Console or the Bing Webmaster tool (in fact, I have Bing import from Google Console).
Perhaps confusingly, the HTML files need to be updated monthly. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this, thanks! “
is having a a lot of Unpacking here, Renee’s question struck some nerves in me that I wanted to dive into.
Before I do, though I would say no, you don’t have to submit your sitemap every month.
For now, let’s address some common questions and misconceptions about sitemaps before discussing Renee’s problem in detail.
What is the value of XML sitemaps?
XML sitemap It’s a big worry for me.
75% of the 3rd party SEO audits I’ve seen recently seem to start with “You don’t have an XML sitemap, create one!”
This can be great SEO advice, but most of the time it’s just another task that won’t help clients get more traffic.
XML sitemaps are not a ranking factor.
put aside Haveron and other things, their main use is to discover links.
This means that if you have a really good site architecture and code your site using all the best practices, there is a good chance that search engines will discover all your links without the need for a sitemap.
They can be a lifesaver for many sites that have technical issues that affect crawling.
That context is important, which means that an XML sitemap might be a very important SEO fix, or it might not be needed at all.
If you’re an SEO professional and include it in your audit without context, you’re doing your client a disservice.
OK, I need an XML sitemap, how often do I submit it?
Ideally, you only need to submit a sitemap once (per search engine) in the search console.
After that, they will continue to recrawl it on a schedule they deem reasonable based on what they know about your site.
You should also reference your sitemap in the robots.txt file.
There’s really no reason to keep submitting it after that.
If you’re doing a major redesign and update and want to resubmit for your peace of mind, do it. No harm.
… like a knife
One of my most common phrases in SEO presentations is: “___ is like a knife. You can use it to butter your bread, or stab yourself,” and XML sitemaps are no exception.
While XML sitemaps can be a great way to index URLs, they can also be dangerous if you don’t master them.
Most of the websites I look at have XML sitemaps that contain multiple errors.
Many URLs are not automatically updated or removed when the site changes, so they end up submitting a sitemap with a 301 redirect or a page that no longer exists (404).
At a conference many years ago, a Bing representative told me that if a few URLs in your XML sitemap have a status other than 200, Bing will think your sitemap is out of date and ignore it.
I don’t know if this is still the case, or what that threshold is, but it makes sense.
I’ve seen too many SEO pros make changes to their URLs and then cause themselves all kinds of problems by leaving the old URLs in the XML sitemap.
How about an HTML sitemap?
For starters, you don’t have to worry about submitting an HTML sitemap.
I don’t hate HTML sitemaps, but the same caveats about making sure to update it when you make other changes still apply here.
You don’t want to send conflicting messages to search engines by including your non-canonical version in some old sitemap you forgot.
Remember, HTML sitemaps are essentially just another scraping band-aid.
If your website architecture is perfect and your code is all clean and crawlable, you won’t need one.
For some odd reason, most of the clients I use use HTML sitemaps as a quick fix User experience issues Prevent search engines from accessing pages cleanly.
It works, but it’s not the best way.
I hope this solves a lot of questions about XML sitemaps.
In a perfect world, we wouldn’t need them.
But in the real world, an XML sitemap can be a powerful tool, or a great way to bring a host of problems to your site.
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Featured Image: BestForBest/Shutterstock
