Blog Post

I get asked a lot:
“Do I still need a sitemap for SEO in 2025?”

Short answer—yes. Long answer—it’s one of the simplest things you can set up that still pays off.

There’s this myth going around that if your site is small or well-structured, a sitemap doesn’t add much value. I disagree.

Search engines are smart—but they’re not psychic. A sitemap helps them find, prioritize, and index your content more efficiently.
Especially if you publish often, use custom post types, or have pages tucked deep in your architecture.

Let me walk you through exactly why sitemaps still matter—and how I use them as part of every technical SEO setup.

Here’s what I’ll walk you through:

• What a sitemap actually does (in real terms)
  
• Why it still helps SEO—no matter your site size
  
• How I build and maintain sitemaps for performance
  
• What goes wrong with sitemaps (and how to fix it)
  
• How to check if your sitemap is doing its job

Let’s break it down.

A sitemap is an XML file that lists the URLs on your website. It tells search engines:

• What pages exist
  
• When they were last updated
  
• How often they’re updated
  
• Which pages you want prioritized
  

It’s not a magic ranking button. It doesn’t override robots.txt or fix broken pages.
But it does give search engines a clearer roadmap of what matters on your site.

If you want Google to discover your latest blog post or that hidden category page? A sitemap gets that done faster.

Here’s how I explain it to clients:

Imagine launching a new product page and just hoping Google stumbles on it.
Or waiting days (sometimes weeks) for a blog post to show up in search results.

A sitemap speeds that up.

It’s especially useful for:

• New websites
  
• Sites with lots of pages
  
• Pages not well linked internally
  
• Seasonal content or frequent updates
  
• Websites using faceted navigation or filters
  

Plus, submitting a sitemap in Google Search Console gives you access to indexing data, error reports, and discovery trends.
Which means more control, less guessing.

Every CMS handles this a little differently. But here’s how I usually approach it:

For WordPress, I rely on:

• Rank Math SEO
  
• Yoast SEO
  
• All in One SEO Pack
  

These plugins automatically generate and update sitemaps when you publish or remove content.

I don’t include:

• Thank-you pages
  
• Login or admin URLs
  
• Duplicate archives
  
• Filtered or faceted pages
  
• Test URLs and staging leftovers
  

Why? Because not every URL needs to be crawled.
And bloated sitemaps waste crawl budget.

I make sure the sitemap includes:

• Core service pages
  
• Category and tag hubs
  
• High-performing blog posts
  
• Products (for eCommerce)
  
• Important landing pages
  

These are the pages I want indexed and ranked.

Even if your sitemap exists, it might not be helping you. Here’s what I often run into:

• Sitemap returns a 404 or 500 error
  
• URLs inside it return 404s or redirects
  
• Too many non-canonical URLs
  
• Sitemaps not submitted to Google
  
• Pages marked “noindex” included in the sitemap
  
• Sitemap too large (break into sub-sitemaps if over 50,000 URLs)
  

If your sitemap has errors, Google may ignore parts of it—or all of it.
That’s why I check sitemap health regularly in Google Search Console.

Here’s my quick process:

• Go to Google Search Console
  
• Select your property
  
• Navigate to Indexing > Sitemaps
  
• Add your sitemap URL (usually /sitemap.xml)
  
• Click Submit and check for errors
  

This triggers Google to crawl the sitemap more proactively—and logs any issues you can address.

Bonus tip: You can test sitemap coverage by checking which submitted pages are indexed vs. excluded.

After submission, I review:

• How many submitted pages are indexed
  
• Whether Google is crawling them regularly
  
• Any “Discovered – currently not indexed” errors
  
• Changes in crawl behavior after publishing new content
  

If I see a major gap between submitted and indexed, I dig deeper.
Sometimes it’s a quality issue. Sometimes it’s a technical block. Either way, the sitemap gives me the signal.

Let me be blunt:

If you’re not using a sitemap—or not checking on it—you’re leaving SEO performance up to chance.

It’s not about “getting ranked faster” by magic. It’s about giving Google better visibility into what’s new, what’s important, and what’s ready to be indexed.

If you care about crawl efficiency, indexing accuracy, or just faster SEO wins?
Use this sitemap guide and make sure your site is covered.

Because even the smartest bots need directions.