{"id":1762,"date":"2020-06-24T12:24:00","date_gmt":"2020-06-24T16:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sharpinnovations.com\/blog\/?p=1762"},"modified":"2020-06-24T12:43:14","modified_gmt":"2020-06-24T16:43:14","slug":"sitemaps-pointing-search-in-the-right-direction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sharpinnovations.com\/blog\/2020\/06\/sitemaps-pointing-search-in-the-right-direction\/","title":{"rendered":"Sitemaps: Pointing Search in the Right Direction"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The web is always changing in one way or another; Languages evolve and mature, design trends come and go, SEO \u201cbest practices\u201d become \u201cbad practices\u201d. It\u2019s easy to get caught up in what\u2019s new and exciting, but one tried-and-true tool to improve your online presence that\u2019s been around for over 15 years is the Sitemap. Sitemaps are XML files \u2013 usually automatically generated by a third-party website or built-in tool with your CMS \u2013 that simply list all page URLs and allows you to include information specifically to aid search engines like Google and Bing crawl, or scan, your website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A Little Sitemap History<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Back in 2005 when sitemaps were created by Google, they were\nan essential part of ensuring all pages you wanted to show up on a search did\nshow up. You could specify information like how often a page gets updated as\nwell as a page\u2019s \u201cpriority\u201d. This type of information let search engines know\nhow often they should be re-scanning a specific page for content changes, or\nhow important a specific page was compared to the rest of your website. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example, perhaps you owned a tree removal business that\noffered a multitude of services including gutter cleaning, but your\nbread-and-butter was tree removal. You\u2019d likely want to promote the page on\nyour site that details everything about your tree removal services above gutter\ncleaning. Including this type of information for Google and other search\nengines helped them out by removing elements of guesswork and ensuring more\nrelevant search results. Search engines would usually incentivize people to\nadopt these \u201cbest practices\u201d by boosting your online presence above those who didn\u2019t.\nYahoo and MSN quickly adopted support for Sitemaps by 2007, making them a\nuniversal tool to enhance search engines\u2019 effectiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why You Should Still Have a Sitemap<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Search engines have changed drastically since then, but the\nsitemap is still an important part of your SEO strategy. While search engines have\nbecome far more intelligent and new ways of prioritizing pages have been\ncreated, all major search engines still support XML sitemaps as a way to\nquickly identify what pages are worth the time and energy to crawl and which\npages contain important content to index. It\u2019s easy to forget about simple\ndetails like XML sitemaps when you\u2019re keeping up with all of the new,\nsophisticated methods search engines develop to improve search results and the\nuser experience, but sitemaps are still relevant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Get Started on Creating Your Sitemap<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Fortunately, it is easier than ever to produce properly\nformatted XML sitemaps to improve your search ranking. Of course, a simple\nGoogle search will return a swath of valid options. Here at Sharp Innovations,\nwe\u2019ll often utilize <a href=\"https:\/\/www.xml-sitemaps.com\/\">https:\/\/www.xml-sitemaps.com\/<\/a>.\nSimply plug in your website address and start the scan. It will go through your\nentire website and gather a list of all pages, including optional information,\nsuch as when the page was last modified and page priorities. If your website is\nbuilt on a CMS like WordPress, there are plugins like Yoast SEO that will do\nthis for you automatically on a recurring basis to ensure an always healthy and\nup-to-date sitemap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is just one of the many boxes Sharp Innovations checks\nas part of any of our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sharpinnovations.com\/services\/internet-marketing\/\">Digital\nMarketing<\/a> programs. Is your sitemap up to date? Let us make sure!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The web is always changing in one way or another; Languages evolve and mature, design trends come and go, SEO \u201cbest practices\u201d become \u201cbad practices\u201d. It\u2019s easy to get caught up in what\u2019s new and exciting, but one tried-and-true tool to improve your online presence that\u2019s been around for over 15 years is the Sitemap&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":1764,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,14],"tags":[200,26,124,365,118,55],"class_list":["post-1762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-internet-marketing","category-seo","tag-search-engine-marketing","tag-search-engine-optimization","tag-search-rankings","tag-sitemaps","tag-website-content","tag-website-design-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Sitemaps: Pointing Search in the Right Direction - Sharp Innovations Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Search engines have changed drastically since then, but the sitemap is still an important part of your SEO strategy. Sitemaps are easy to create, too!\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sharpinnovations.com\/blog\/2020\/06\/sitemaps-pointing-search-in-the-right-direction\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sitemaps: Pointing Search in the Right Direction - Sharp Innovations Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Search engines have changed drastically since then, but the sitemap is still an important part of your SEO strategy. Sitemaps are easy to create, too!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.sharpinnovations.com\/blog\/2020\/06\/sitemaps-pointing-search-in-the-right-direction\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sharp Innovations Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-06-24T16:24:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-06-24T16:43:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.sharpinnovations.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Sitemaps-Pointing-Search-in-the-Right-Direction-FB.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Greg Lauver\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Greg Lauver\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sharpinnovations.com\/blog\/2020\/06\/sitemaps-pointing-search-in-the-right-direction\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sharpinnovations.com\/blog\/2020\/06\/sitemaps-pointing-search-in-the-right-direction\/\",\"name\":\"Sitemaps: Pointing Search in the Right Direction - Sharp Innovations Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sharpinnovations.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-06-24T16:24:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-06-24T16:43:14+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sharpinnovations.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/7e285939a1a02b1249b1867935d1fc9e\"},\"description\":\"Search engines have changed drastically since then, but the sitemap is still an important part of your SEO strategy. Sitemaps are easy to create, too!\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sharpinnovations.com\/blog\/2020\/06\/sitemaps-pointing-search-in-the-right-direction\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.sharpinnovations.com\/blog\/2020\/06\/sitemaps-pointing-search-in-the-right-direction\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sharpinnovations.com\/blog\/2020\/06\/sitemaps-pointing-search-in-the-right-direction\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.sharpinnovations.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Sitemaps: Pointing Search in the Right Direction\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sharpinnovations.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sharpinnovations.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Sharp Innovations Blog\",\"description\":\"Web Design, Development, and Internet Marketing Blog\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.sharpinnovations.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sharpinnovations.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/7e285939a1a02b1249b1867935d1fc9e\",\"name\":\"Greg Lauver\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sharpinnovations.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a11a924abc1b8ead72da38dc75551eccc0f3dc5e5f6a060cc28bd84e671afab2?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a11a924abc1b8ead72da38dc75551eccc0f3dc5e5f6a060cc28bd84e671afab2?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Greg Lauver\"},\"description\":\"Greg started his career with Sharp Innovations in the Client Support Specialist role, evolving over the years into Account Management, Design, Project Management, Sales, and other duties, eventually becoming a partner in 2023. He is currently VP of Account Management &amp; Sales, focusing his energy on ensuring our top 20 clients are served with excellence. His dedication towards exceptional customer service and care for the clients he works with has been recognized time and time again. Greg appreciates the diverse nature of his role and continues to explore new ways he can serve Sharp Innovations and our clients.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/plus.google.com\/112086464633132586125\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sharpinnovations.com\/blog\/author\/glauver\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Sitemaps: Pointing Search in the Right Direction - Sharp Innovations Blog","description":"Search engines have changed drastically since then, but the sitemap is still an important part of your SEO strategy. Sitemaps are easy to create, too!","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.sharpinnovations.com\/blog\/2020\/06\/sitemaps-pointing-search-in-the-right-direction\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Sitemaps: Pointing Search in the Right Direction - Sharp Innovations Blog","og_description":"Search engines have changed drastically since then, but the sitemap is still an important part of your SEO strategy. Sitemaps are easy to create, too!","og_url":"https:\/\/www.sharpinnovations.com\/blog\/2020\/06\/sitemaps-pointing-search-in-the-right-direction\/","og_site_name":"Sharp Innovations Blog","article_published_time":"2020-06-24T16:24:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-06-24T16:43:14+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":630,"url":"https:\/\/www.sharpinnovations.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Sitemaps-Pointing-Search-in-the-Right-Direction-FB.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Greg Lauver","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Greg Lauver","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.sharpinnovations.com\/blog\/2020\/06\/sitemaps-pointing-search-in-the-right-direction\/","url":"https:\/\/www.sharpinnovations.com\/blog\/2020\/06\/sitemaps-pointing-search-in-the-right-direction\/","name":"Sitemaps: Pointing Search in the Right Direction - Sharp Innovations Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sharpinnovations.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2020-06-24T16:24:00+00:00","dateModified":"2020-06-24T16:43:14+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sharpinnovations.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/7e285939a1a02b1249b1867935d1fc9e"},"description":"Search engines have changed drastically since then, but the sitemap is still an important part of your SEO strategy. Sitemaps are easy to create, too!","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sharpinnovations.com\/blog\/2020\/06\/sitemaps-pointing-search-in-the-right-direction\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.sharpinnovations.com\/blog\/2020\/06\/sitemaps-pointing-search-in-the-right-direction\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.sharpinnovations.com\/blog\/2020\/06\/sitemaps-pointing-search-in-the-right-direction\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.sharpinnovations.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Sitemaps: Pointing Search in the Right Direction"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.sharpinnovations.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.sharpinnovations.com\/blog\/","name":"Sharp Innovations Blog","description":"Web Design, Development, and Internet Marketing Blog","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.sharpinnovations.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.sharpinnovations.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/7e285939a1a02b1249b1867935d1fc9e","name":"Greg Lauver","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.sharpinnovations.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a11a924abc1b8ead72da38dc75551eccc0f3dc5e5f6a060cc28bd84e671afab2?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a11a924abc1b8ead72da38dc75551eccc0f3dc5e5f6a060cc28bd84e671afab2?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Greg Lauver"},"description":"Greg started his career with Sharp Innovations in the Client Support Specialist role, evolving over the years into Account Management, Design, Project Management, Sales, and other duties, eventually becoming a partner in 2023. He is currently VP of Account Management &amp; Sales, focusing his energy on ensuring our top 20 clients are served with excellence. His dedication towards exceptional customer service and care for the clients he works with has been recognized time and time again. Greg appreciates the diverse nature of his role and continues to explore new ways he can serve Sharp Innovations and our clients.","sameAs":["https:\/\/plus.google.com\/112086464633132586125"],"url":"https:\/\/www.sharpinnovations.com\/blog\/author\/glauver\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sharpinnovations.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sharpinnovations.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sharpinnovations.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sharpinnovations.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sharpinnovations.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1762"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.sharpinnovations.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1770,"href":"https:\/\/www.sharpinnovations.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1762\/revisions\/1770"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sharpinnovations.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sharpinnovations.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sharpinnovations.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sharpinnovations.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}