Publish an XML sitemap and list it in robots.txt

Why it matters

A sitemap lists the pages you want found, so search engines can discover new or poorly linked pages. Google says it helps crawling but doesn't guarantee pages get crawled or indexed. We found no study showing it changes whether AI answers cite you, so the free check doesn't grade it. It's cheap, standard hygiene.

How to fix

1. Turn on your platform's sitemap. Many build one for you: WordPress has published one at /wp-sitemap.xml since version 5.5, and Next.js builds one from app/sitemap.ts. Check your CMS or framework docs for its sitemap setting or plugin.

2. List your key pages with full, canonical URLs (the main address of each page), and leave out pages set to noindex or that redirect:

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
   <urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
     <url>
       <loc>https://www.example.com/</loc>
       <lastmod>2026-10-20</lastmod>
     </url>
     <url>
       <loc>https://www.example.com/pricing</loc>
     </url>
   </urlset>
   

3. Keep each file under 50,000 URLs and 50MB. For bigger sites, split it and use a sitemap index (<sitemapindex>).

4. List it in robots.txt with a full URL:

   Sitemap: https://www.example.com/sitemap.xml
   

5. Open the sitemap URL in a browser. It should load as XML, not your 404 page or a login screen.

6. Optional: submit it in Google Search Console (Sitemaps report) and Bing Webmaster Tools to see any errors.

How to check it worked: run the free check again. The "Your sitemap" row should read "Your sitemap loads and lists {n} pages."