What an XML sitemap should contain
Valid XML sitemaps wrap all URLs in a urlset root element and provide loc tags for each page, with optional lastmod, changefreq, and priority tags.[web:782][web:779][web:785]
How sitemaps help SEO
- Help search engines discover deep or newly created pages that internal links might miss.[web:787][web:790]
- Communicate freshness and relative importance of URLs through
lastmodandpriorityhints.[web:784][web:781] - Provide a central list of URLs to monitor in coverage reports and error dashboards.[web:777][web:792]