Best Practices for Creating a Sitemap for the Web Crawler

In this article, we’ll provide tips on how to create an optimized sitemap for the Web Crawler, and some best practices to follow.

A well-structured .xml sitemap is an essential component when using the Web Crawler in Pulse. It ensures that all the important pages of your website are included in the crawl, helping your chatbot access the most relevant content

Why is a Sitemap Important for the Web Crawler?

A sitemap is like a roadmap for the Web Crawler. It lists all the URLs on your website that you want the Web Crawler to access. By uploading a well-organized sitemap, you ensure that the Web Crawler knows exactly which pages to crawl and integrate into your chatbot’s knowledge base.

With a properly set up sitemap, the Web Crawler can:

• Access all key pages: Ensure important pages (like product pages, FAQs, or blogs) are included.
• Save time: Instead of manually adding individual URLs, the Web Crawler can use your sitemap to automatically fetch a list of all your key URLs.
• Ensure content accuracy: A sitemap ensures that your chatbot stays up to date with the most current version of your website’s content.

Best Practices for an Effective Sitemap

Ensure your sitemap contains the most relevant and important pages you want the Web Crawler to access. Avoid including URLs for irrelevant or duplicate content (such as filtered versions of the same page or admin pages).

Examples of important pages to include:

• Home page
• Product or service pages
• Blog and FAQ sections
• Contact and pricing pages

Create a clean and simple URL structure in your .xml sitemap
Sitemaps should follow a clear and organized URL structure. Make sure your URLs are clean, concise, and easy to understand. We recommend a structure similar to the one shown below.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.example.com/foo.html</loc>
    <lastmod>2022-06-04</lastmod>
  </url>
</urlset>

Use descriptive URLs

Make sure your URLs are clear and describe the content of the page. For example, use /blog/best-practices-for-chatbots rather than /page?id=12345. This helps both the Web Crawler and search engines understand what each page is about.

Limit the size of your sitemap

While a sitemap can include many URLs, it’s recommended to limit each sitemap to 50,000 URLs or 50MB in size to avoid performance issues. If your website is large, consider splitting it into multiple sitemaps to make it easier for the Web Crawler to handle.

Keep your sitemap updated

Whenever you add, remove, or change important content on your website, make sure to update your sitemap. This ensures that the Web Crawler is always accessing the latest version of your site.

Avoid adding blocked URLs

Ensure that your sitemap doesn’t include any URLs that are blocked by robots.txt or have a “noindex” tag. These pages won’t be crawled, which could lead to incomplete knowledge for your chatbot.

How to Set Up a Sitemap

Setting up a sitemap is relatively easy, and there are various tools available to help you create one. Here are a few options:

• CMS Plugins: Many content management systems (CMS) like WordPress have plugins (e.g., Yoast SEO, All in One SEO) that automatically generate an XML sitemap for your site.
• Online Tools: You can also use free online sitemap generators like XML-sitemaps.com to create a sitemap quickly.
• Manual Creation: If you’re comfortable with code, you can create a custom XML sitemap manually. For detailed instructions, see Google’s official guide on sitemaps.

Once your sitemap is ready, you can upload it to the Web Crawler in Pulse for quick and accurate crawling of your website’s content.