Local search. Reviewed October 29, 2026
XML sitemap
Also called: Sitemap
An XML sitemap is a file, usually at /sitemap.xml, that lists every page a site wants search engines to crawl along with the date each one last changed.
In practice
Submit it once in Search Console and keep it current. A page missing from the sitemap can still be indexed if it is linked, and a page in the sitemap is not guaranteed to be.
Redirects, noindexed pages and 404s do not belong in it; each one shows up as an error in the Pages report.
Related terms
- IndexingIndexing is Google adding a page to its database so it can appear in search results, and a page that has been crawled but not indexed cannot rank for anything.
- Google Search ConsoleGoogle Search Console is Google's free report of how a site performs in search: which queries show it, how many clicks and impressions it earns, which pages are indexed and what errors Google found.
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