HTML Sitemap vs. XML Sitemap for SEO – Which is best?
A sitemap is an XML database that contains a list of sites on your website. These are selected to get indexed by Google and other search engines. Google may decide not to index every page listed on your sitemap. It then uses it as a reference to the sites available on your website.
The sitemap also contains information about each page, such as its creation, importance, last modification dates etc. The indexing of pages is speeds up as a result of this. A sitemap is one of the few SEO elements to which Google has granted a huge thumbs up. In most cases, Google prefers to communicate with website owners via enigmatic riddles.
Although a sitemap may not be necessary for SEO Company yet, it is highly recommended. Needless to say, that it is very easy to implement. You do not need a sitemap if your site is small and the pages are well linked together. For larger sites that post new content frequently, it becomes even more critical.
The HTML sitemap for SEO is for the users to give them a look at the site. On the contrary, the XML sitemap is used by search engine crawlers. XML is important for SEO, and so shall it be forever. So what role does HTML plays? Is it beneficial to the websites?
In this article, you will learn about the two common types of sitemap: HTML and XML. Also, it will give you an idea about the best sitemap for an SEO Company.
What Is An HTML Sitemap?
An HTML sitemap mainly serves the website visitor. The HTML sitemap SEO involves every web page on the internet, from the top level to the bottom level, which provides a general image of websites.
The user experience is greatly enhanced when a website store owner creates an HTML sitemap. It provides easy navigation to experience the online store. Customers can now locate desired details by clicking links listed on the HTML sitemap rather than searching for sites.
Whenever it comes to SEO, the better the user experience, the higher the rankings your website can receive based on Google’s assessment. This is a crucial factor in Google’s decision to rate a website on search engine result pages.
A more efficient HTML sitemap can cover every page on your website, and if the linking is done correctly, it will help create a flat site layout that distributes Page Rank more equally across all sites.
What Is An XML Sitemap?
An XML sitemap is a list of links written in Google’s preferred mark-up language. This language adds metadata and meaning to a collection of objects. This page can be found in the XML sitemap standard.
You can upload your XML sitemap to Google directly through Google Search Console or your robots.txt file. An XML sitemap index page, which lists multiple XML sitemaps, may require very large sites. This can be divided into manageable chunks or organized by content type.
Google provides instructions for building XML sitemaps for Video, Images, and News. You can be included in a more rich Google search experience by building one of these unique sitemaps. Only sitemaps for website pages will be discussed in this article.
XML Sitemap vs. HTML Sitemap
What distinguishes an HTML sitemap from an XML sitemap? And, in terms of SEO, which one should be prioritized? Marketers and store owners are often confused by these questions, as even they cannot determine the right answer.
Both are optional for a website, but they have different purposes. We gathered all of the data and generated the following comparison between the two sitemaps:
- Aims: The purpose of an HTML sitemap is to allow users to navigate to specific pages. For search engine crawlers to crawl the page content, an XML sitemap is created.
- Display: HTML is open to browsers, while the XML sitemap is only visible to search engine crawlers. The XML sitemap is not visible to visitors.
- Automatic Update: The HTML sitemap cannot be automatically changed, while the XML sitemap can.
Even after going through the differences between HTML and XML, still, it becomes difficult to choose the best one. So, let us learn about SEO benefits for each.
Importance of Sitemaps
XML sitemaps can assist search engines such as Google in discovering new sites on your site or pages that are not well connected. It’s typically simple to incorporate and can serve as a useful catch-all. It’s a simple tip for Local SEO Company, but don’t expect it to improve your search engine rankings or traffic.
An HTML sitemap is also a useful tool, especially if the website is large (over 2000 pages). The linking design is based solely on the subject or listing pages with pagination. On a broad site, the HTML sitemap can help with site layout and connection value distribution. The HTML sitemap won’t help much if your website is just a few pages long and you don’t publish many posts or blogs.
An HTML sitemap serves no purpose in terms of SEO. It’s a different type of useful internal linking. However, be wary of giving an HTML sitemap too much weight. To drive organic traffic to your website, get it linked to the site’s primary navigation. Understanding the advantages and disadvantages of each will help your search engine optimization efforts.
In a nutshell, HTML and XML sitemaps fulfil their objectives. Neither, however, will significantly increase your organic search traffic. Optimize your navigation for this so that the visitors and search bots can profit from it.
