Sitemap is a file that regularly informs search engines about the important URLs on a website and clarifies the question “which pages should be crawled/indexed?”. When a site map (sitemap) is configured correctly, Google, Yandex, and Bing can discover your site faster; and your sitemap creation process progresses in a more controlled way in technical SEO.
What is Sitemap?
A site map is a structure that presents a list of the pages on your site (mostly with signals such as URL + last update + priority) to search engines. Thanks to the “site map,” bots understand the site structure more easily; it speeds up the discovery process especially for new sites, large e-commerce sites, and blogs that produce a lot of content.
XML Site Map What Is It?
An XML site map is the most common type of sitemap prepared in a format that search engines can read. In an XML sitemap, fields such as URLs and lastmod (last update date) usually exist; this supports the signal of “which page is up to date, which one is more important?”.
Why Is a Site Map Necessary?
Sitemap helps reduce indexing problems by guiding search engines in the crawling and discovery process. Especially in the following cases, a site map becomes critical:
- New sites: Since there are few external links, it may be harder for bots to find pages.
- Large sites: The risk of missing important pages increases among thousands of URLs.
- E-commerce & filtered structures: Parameterized URLs increase; a site map highlights the correct canonical and indexable pages.
- Frequently updated blogs: It supports faster discovery of new content.
How Is Sitemap Creation Done?
Sitemap creation is done automatically or manually depending on the site’s infrastructure. The most correct method is to include “the URLs you want indexed” in the site map. The most practical scenarios:
- WordPress: SEO plugins (Rank Math / Yoast) usually generate a site map automatically. The critical point here is that the site map should not unintentionally bloat pages such as category/tag/author.
- Custom software / e-commerce infrastructures: Most systems generate a sitemap automatically; if not, a sitemap genarator (sitemap generator) can be used to create a basic file.
- Manual approach: On large and strategic sites, a cleaner site map is prepared with only “index” target URLs.
Note: By using a sitemap checker, you can quickly check whether the site map file is accessible (does it return 200?), the URL format, and broken links.
How to Submit a Site Map to Google?
- Log in to Google Search Console and select the correct property: The choice between Domain Property (all subdomains/protocols) or URL Prefix (single version) depends on your site setup.
- Go to Indexing > Sitemaps from the left menu.
- Enter the site map URL in the “Add a new sitemap” field and click Submit.
Common ones on WordPress: /sitemap_index.xml or /sitemap.xml (depending on your plugin).
- After submitting, track these signals on the same screen:
- Last read / Last downloaded (When did Google fetch it last?)
- Status (Success / Couldn’t fetch / Has errors)
Alternative (additional signal): You can also add the site map into robots.txt. When Google recrawls robots.txt, it can discover the site map from there.
How to Submit a Site Map to Yandex?
Submitting a site map to Yandex is done by adding the sitemap file within Yandex Webmaster; once you add the site map on the Yandex side, the system updates and follows the file—you don’t need to delete and add it again and again (there is also a refresh option to speed up re-indexing).
Steps:
- Log in to Yandex Webmaster and add your site.
- Verify site ownership (most practical methods: meta tag / HTML file / DNS).
- In the menu, go to Sitemap files under Indexing / Site indexing.
- Add the sitemap URL (e.g. https://nerecyilmaz.com/sitemap_index.xml).
- After adding, track Yandex’s reading of the sitemap and URL discovery in the reports; if you want to speed up updates, use the refresh (⟲) option on the sitemap screen.
Critical note for 2026: “main site version (mirror)”
If www / non-www and http / https are mixed, choosing the “main version” becomes important on the Yandex side; the site map must also be consistent with this main version. (Otherwise indexing can become inconsistent.)
How to Submit a Site Map to Bing?
Submitting a site map to Bing is done via “Submit sitemap” in the Sitemaps section after verifying your site in Bing Webmaster Tools. In Bing’s 2025–2026 content, it especially emphasizes that sitemaps are important for AI-powered search discovery.
Steps:
- Log in to Bing Webmaster Tools with your Microsoft account.
- Add the site with Add a site (paste the correct URL version: https + whichever is primary, www/non-www).
- Complete site verification (meta tag is one of the most common methods).
- Go to the Sitemaps area from the left menu → Submit sitemap.
- Paste the site map URL and submit.
- Then you can monitor the “was it read / are there errors” status from the Bing panel.
2026 practical tip: If your Google Search Console property is ready, Bing can speed things up in some setups with the import from GSC option; otherwise manual sitemap submission is still the standard method.
Conclusion
When you manage the sitemap and site map creation process correctly, it helps search engines discover your site faster and index it more healthily. If your site map is bloating, wrong URLs are being included, indexing is fluctuating, or you constantly see errors in site map checker results, on the SEO management side we can run a site-specific technical SEO analysis and bring your site map structure (with index/canonical/robots alignment) into a clean standard.
