Search Technology· Topic 06 · Definition

sitemap.xml

An XML file listing the pages you want crawlers to find, with the date each one last changed.

A sitemap does not make a page rank or get cited; it makes a page discoverable. Crawlers use it as a starting list and as a hint about what changed since their last visit, which matters most on large sites and on pages that nothing links to prominently. It lives at your site root by convention and is announced from robots.txt.

Related terms
Technical ConstraintsAI Crawl Budget (ACB)How much an AI engine is willing to fetch from your site within a window.GEO StrategyAI IndexabilityWhether AI engines can actually parse and store your content.Search TechnologyCanonical URLThe one address you declare as the real home of a page, for when the same content can be reached at several.
More in Search TechnologyAll 8 terms →
AI Overviews AI-First Indexing Canonical URL Passage-Level Ranking Search Generative Experience (SGE) Semantic Search Zero-Click Search

Knowing the term is step one.

Geordy operationalizes every term in this glossary - generating the structured files AI engines actually read.

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sitemap.xml | Geordy Glossary