How to Generate Sitemap in Magento 2

A sitemap for a Magento e-commerce store serves as a guide or summary of all the web pages present on the store’s website. Its purpose is to ensure that visitors can navigate through the site effortlessly and locate desired information promptly. Additionally, it aids search engines in indexing the pages of your site and comprehending its overall structure, thereby enhancing the visibility of your store when customers search online.

Why Do You Need a Sitemap for Magento 2

Having a sitemap is crucial for a Magento 2 store. It serves as a comprehensive directory of all the content present on your website, enabling search engines to efficiently crawl and comprehend the structure of your site. Essentially, it ensures that search engine crawlers can locate, recognize, and index all the pages on your website.

1. Improve Exposure

In the absence of a sitemap, there is no assurance that search engines will promptly identify new or updated content on your site. As a consequence, this can lead to lower rankings and fewer visitors discovering your offerings. However, a well-organized sitemap enhances visibility and secures improved rankings on popular search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, and others.

2. Simpler Navigation

Furthermore, a sitemap facilitates smoother navigation for customers on your website. By presenting an outline of the content on each page, it enables them to locate their desired information more swiftly, eliminating the need to navigate through multiple pages. This streamlined approach enhances user experience by saving time and effort.

3. Improved Website Speed

During the crawling process, search engine robots need to render web pages before indexing them into their databases. However, this rendering process can delay page loading times, negatively impacting both user experience and SEO rankings. By utilizing a sitemap, the need for search engines to render the entire HTML source code is minimized, resulting in a significant acceleration of the indexing process. This ultimately leads to improved page loading times, benefiting both users and search engine optimization efforts.

4. Easy Updating

If your website encompasses a substantial number of pages and content, there is no need to manually update the sitemap whenever there are changes. Instead, you can utilize an automatic sitemap generator that ensures the sitemap remains current with the latest modifications on your site. This automated process eliminates the need for manual updates and ensures the sitemap accurately reflects the most recent changes to your website.

5. Improved Crawlability

An effectively designed sitemap assists search engine robots in efficiently navigating your website by offering a structured pathway to follow during the crawling process of each page. This guarantees comprehensive indexing of all pages on your site, eliminating the risk of overlooking or neglecting important content. By presenting a well-organized overview of your website’s entire content, the sitemap ensures optimal crawlability, enabling search engine robots to locate every aspect of your website with ease.

How to Generate Sitemap for Magento 2

Generating XML sitemaps in Magento 2 is a simple procedure. You can effortlessly create these sitemaps and submit them to search engines such as Google or Bing to enhance the SEO optimization of your website. Below are the steps to accomplish this:

Step 1:

Access the administrative panel of your Magento 2 store.

Step 2:

Go to Stores > Configuration > Catalog > XML Sitemap section.

Step 3:

In this section, you will provide the necessary information for your sitemap, including the desired frequency and the number of products per page to be included in the file.

Step 4:

After entering the required information, click on the “Save Config” button.

Step 5:

To generate the XML sitemap, navigate to the Marketing section, then select SEO & Search, and finally choose Site Map. Click on the “Add Sitemap” button.

Step 6:

A new window will appear where you can provide the necessary details for your sitemap, such as the filename and path. However, it is important to note that you should avoid storing the sitemap in the root directory of your Magento 2 store.

Step 7:

After entering all the required information, click on the “Save” button and then choose the “Generate” option to generate the XML file.

You can now submit this newly created XML sitemap to the webmaster accounts of search engines for enhanced SEO optimization of your website. This process will enable the search engine to crawl and index the contents of your sitemap in its database. Ultimately, this can increase the visibility of your website, resulting in improved sales and return on investment (ROI).

How to Set Up a Magento XML Sitemap?

1. Generating the XML File

To begin, you need to generate a new XML file specifically for your Magento store. This can be accomplished using a text editor like Notepad++ or a dedicated Magento sitemap generator plugin. Ensure that you save the file with a .xml extension so that it is identified as an XML document.

2. Adding the Correct Declaration

To ensure that your sitemap is acknowledged by Magento, it is necessary to include the appropriate declaration at the beginning of the document. The declaration should resemble the following format: <?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?>.

3. Insert URL Set Tag

Right after the declaration, insert a tag that informs search engines about the nature of the document they are accessing. This tag should be in the following format: <urlset xmlns=”http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9″>.

4. Adding Page Links

Next, proceed to insert all the desired links from your Magento store that you want search engines to crawl and index. This encompasses products, categories, static pages, and other relevant content. It is important to note that each link should be placed within its own element and follow this structure: <url><loc>http://www.example.com/product-x</loc></url>. Ensure that you include the complete URL for each listed page, including any parameters that may appear after a question mark (e.g., http://www.example.com/category-x?sort=price).

5. Ensure Correct Closure of the XML File

After including all the desired links within the <urlset> tag, ensure proper closure by including the closing tag </urlset>. Failing to do so may result in search engines failing to recognize your sitemap.

6. Upload Your XML Sitemap to Magento

The final step involves uploading your XML sitemap file to the root directory of your Magento installation. After completing this step, access the Magento admin dashboard and go to System > Configuration > Catalog > Google Sitemap. Within this section, locate the field where you can specify the location of your XML sitemap. Save the changes, and your Magento store will be ready to go with a correctly configured XML sitemap.

Resolving Common Sitemap Issues in Magento 2

1. Indexing issues

If you encounter difficulties with getting your Magento 2 sitemaps indexed, the probable cause is incorrect configuration in your account settings. It is crucial to thoroughly review the configuration of each sitemap and ensure that all necessary information is accurately provided. Additionally, check the accuracy of any robots.txt files that may be blocking specific sections of your site, as an erroneous robots file can restrict search engine crawlers from accessing and indexing certain pages.

2. Sitemap Errors

Another problem that can arise with Magento 2 sitemaps is encountering errors during their generation or when attempting to access them in the admin panel. To resolve these issues, begin by verifying that the appropriate permissions are set correctly in your Magento account settings. Furthermore, examine any potentially conflicting plugins or extensions that could be impeding the proper generation of the sitemap.

3. Robots.txt Issues

In the event that certain pages are blocked from being indexed by your robots.txt file, it can lead to issues with both your Magento 2 sitemaps and the overall indexing of your site. To resolve this problem, carefully review the configuration of each page and confirm that all essential information is present in the robots file. Furthermore, if you are utilizing additional plugins or extensions that generate their own robot files (such as an SEO Magento plugin), ensure that these are appropriately configured to prevent any conflicts.

4. Broken Links

If broken links are appearing in your Magento 2 sitemaps, it is likely because some of the URLs have changed since they were initially added. To address this problem, ensure that any incorrect or outdated URLs are updated in your Magento 2 sitemap settings. Generate a new version of the sitemap with the correct links included. Additionally, check for any conflicting plugins or extensions that may be causing problems with the links and resolve any conflicts accordingly.

5. Missing Pages

If certain pages are absent from your Magento 2 sitemaps, it may be due to incorrect permissions or robot files that restrict the indexing of specific sections of your site. Verify the accuracy of your account settings and robot files, as well as any potential conflicts arising from other plugins or extensions. Additionally, regenerate the sitemap after making any modifications to ensure the inclusion of all pages.

By implementing the suggestions mentioned above, you can effectively address any problems that arise with Magento 2 sitemaps. Additionally, it is crucial to regularly maintain your Magento 2 account to achieve successful sitemap generation and sustain optimal indexing outcomes. If you require any assistance with Magento development services, It Evrig Solutions is available to provide support and guidance.