A `sitemap.xml` file is an XML file that lists the pages of a website to inform search engines about the organization of its content. Here are the key components of a `sitemap.xml` file:
- URL Set: The file starts with a urlset tag, which contains one or more url entries.
- URL Entry: Each url entry includes:
- loc: The URL of the page.
- lastmod: The date the page was last modified (optional).
- changefreq: How frequently the page is expected to change (optional).
- priority: The priority of the page relative to other pages (optional).
Here is a simple example of a `sitemap.xml` file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap-image/1.1">
<url>
<loc>https://www.example.com/</loc>
<lastmod>2023-10-01</lastmod>
<changefreq>daily</changefreq>
<priority>1.0</priority>
</url>
<url>
<loc>https://www.example.com/about</loc>
<lastmod>2023-09-15</lastmod>
<changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
<priority>0.8</priority>
</url>
</urlset>
This file helps search engines crawl and index the site more effectively.