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**sitemap.xml** is an XML file on a site that contains a structured list of its pages available for indexing.

### What a sitemap gives you

This file helps search engines:

- find pages faster, even if there are few internal links to them;
- understand the site's structure;
- take into account updates and new URLs.

### What a sitemap contains

A sitemap typically contains:

- page addresses;
- the date of the last update (`<lastmod>`);
- priority (`<priority>`);
- change frequency (`<changefreq>`, which is barely used today).

### Example fragment

```xml
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
  <url>
    <loc>https://site.com/</loc>
    <lastmod>2025-01-01</lastmod>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://site.com/blog/</loc>
  </url>
</urlset>
```

### File location

The file is placed at the standard path:

```javascript
https://site.com/sitemap.xml
```

A sitemap does not guarantee indexing, but it significantly increases the chances, especially for large and complex sites.

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