A `sitemap.xml` file is an XML file that helps search engines understand the structure of your website and find all the relevant pages. Here’s a basic outline of what it typically includes:
- URL Set: A collection of URLs that you want search engines to index.
- Last Modified: The date when the page was last updated.
- Change Frequency: How often the page is likely to change (e.g., daily, weekly).
- Priority: The importance of the page relative to other pages on your site (scale from 0.0 to 1.0).
Here’s a simple example of a `sitemap.xml` structure:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap-image">
<url>
<loc>http://www.example.com/</loc>
<lastmod>2023-10-01</lastmod>
<changefreq>daily</changefreq>
<priority>1.0</priority>
</url>
<url>
<loc>http://www.example.com/about</loc>
<lastmod>2023-09-25</lastmod>
<changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
<priority>0.8</priority>
</url>
</urlset>
This structure helps search engines efficiently crawl your website, ensuring that all important pages are indexed properly.