XML Sitemap: What to Include, What to Exclude, and How to Structure

Sitemaps help search engines discover URLs. They don’t guarantee indexing — Google still decides what to crawl and index — but for large sites, new pages, or sites with weak internal linking, they matter. Here’s how to structure them correctly.

What Sitemaps Do (and Don’t Do)

• Discovery — Tell Google which URLs exist. Especially useful when pages aren’t well linked.
• Priority signal — lastmod (last modified) helps Google prioritize fresh content.
• No guarantee — Inclusion in a sitemap does not mean indexing. Quality and crawl budget still apply.

What to Include

All Important Pages

• Services — Every service page.
• Products — Every product (or category if products are infinite).
• Blog — Every post you want indexed.
• Industry/landing pages — Key commercial pages.
• Contact, about — Core site pages.

Canonical URLs Only

One URL per page. No duplicates. No parameter variants. No www and non-www. Pick one canonical and use it consistently.

lastmod (Optional but Helpful)

<lastmod>2025-03-10</lastmod>

When the page was last updated. Google may use this to prioritize recrawling. Keep it accurate — stale lastmod can hurt.

What to Exclude

Noindex Pages

Don’t include pages you’ve told Google not to index. Sitemap + noindex sends mixed signals.

Duplicate Content

Only the canonical URL. No:

• Parameter variants (?sort=, ?filter=)
• Session IDs
• Print or PDF versions (unless they’re the canonical)

Thank-You Pages

No value for search. Exclude.

Pagination (Usually)

• Page 2, 3, 4 — Often exclude. Or include only if each has unique value.
• Infinite scroll — Don’t create URLs for every “load more.” Sitemap isn’t for that.

Staging or Dev

Never. Only production URLs.

Sitemap Structure

Small Sites (Under 50 URLs)

Single sitemap: sitemap.xml. Include all important pages.

Large Sites (50+ URLs)

Split by section:

• sitemap-pages.xml — Services, about, contact.
• sitemap-blog.xml — Blog posts.
• sitemap-products.xml — Products (if applicable).

Create sitemap-index.xml that references each:

<sitemapindex>
  <sitemap>
    <loc>https://yoursite.com/sitemap-pages.xml</loc>
    <lastmod>2025-03-10</lastmod>
  </sitemap>
  <sitemap>
    <loc>https://yoursite.com/sitemap-blog.xml</loc>
    <lastmod>2025-03-10</lastmod>
  </sitemap>
</sitemapindex>

50,000 URL Limit

Per sitemap. If you exceed, split further (e.g., sitemap-blog-1.xml, sitemap-blog-2.xml).

Submitting Your Sitemap

Google Search Console

1. Sitemaps section.
2. Enter sitemap URL: https://yoursite.com/sitemap-index.xml (or sitemap.xml for small sites).
3. Submit.

Google will crawl and process. Check back for errors (invalid URLs, redirects, etc.).

robots.txt

Add a line at the end:

Sitemap: https://yoursite.com/sitemap-index.xml

Backup discovery. Some crawlers use this. Google uses Search Console primarily, but robots.txt doesn’t hurt.

Common Mistakes

• Including noindex pages — Mixed signals. Exclude.
• Including redirects — URLs that 301 elsewhere. Remove or fix.
• Wrong canonical — Sitemap has www, site uses non-www (or vice versa). Match your canonical.
• Stale lastmod — Every page shows today’s date. Inaccurate. Update when content changes.
• Missing important pages — Key commercial pages not in sitemap. Add them.

B2B Considerations

• Service + industry combos — If you have /services/web-design/manufacturing, include them.
• Case studies — Include. They’re linkable, rankable assets.
• Resources/blog — Include all posts you want indexed. lastmod helps for fresh content.

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We configure sitemaps for every project. Start a project and we’ll set up your sitemap structure.