Sitemap
A file that lists the pages and files on your site you think are important, so search engines can find and crawl them more efficiently.
Besides listing your pages, a sitemap can say when each page was last updated and list its versions in other languages. It can also describe images, videos and news articles (Google Search Central).
It helps Google find your pages, but it doesn’t guarantee that everything in it will be crawled and indexed.
Do you need one?
If your site runs on a platform such as WordPress, Wix or Blogger, Google says the platform has likely already made a sitemap available to search engines, and you don’t have to do anything.
Google says you might not need one if:
- Your site is small, which Google puts at about 500 pages or fewer that you want in search results.
- Every important page can be reached by following links from your home page.
- You don’t have many videos, images or news pages you want to show in search results.
Google suggests one for large sites, new sites with few links from other sites, and sites with a lot of video or images.
Related terms
Tools for it
Sources
Updated Oct 7, 2026.