Most XML sitemap advice overstates what the file does. It helps Google find pages but won't index or rank them, so here's what to check and what to skip.
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An XML sitemap is one of the most misunderstood files on a business website. It’s a list of the URLs you’d like Google to know about, nothing more, yet we still see WA firms paying for sitemap work that changes nothing. Here are the common myths, the facts behind them, and where a sitemap does earn its keep.
The short answer for most Perth businesses: your platform almost certainly makes one already. Your job is to check it is clean and submitted, then spend the budget elsewhere.
A sitemap gets you indexed
Myth: once a page is in the sitemap, Google has to index it.
Fact: a sitemap is a hint, not an instruction. It helps Google discover URLs, and it tells Google which version of a page you consider the main one. Whether a page is then crawled and indexed depends on things the sitemap can’t change, such as whether the content is useful, whether it duplicates another page, and whether anything on the page blocks indexing.
You can see this for yourself in Search Console. Open the Pages report and filter it to the sitemap you submitted. It’s normal to see some listed URLs sitting under “Crawled, currently not indexed” or “Discovered, currently not indexed”. Those pages are known to Google. Listing them again, or resubmitting the file every week, won’t move them. Improving the pages, or merging thin ones, is what changes the outcome.
A sitemap boosts rankings
Myth: adding an XML sitemap lifts your positions.
Fact: there’s no ranking benefit from having one. A page ranks on its relevance and quality and on the signals around it, such as links and how well it answers the search. The sitemap only affects how easily Google finds the page in the first place.
That matters most for sites where discovery is genuinely hard. Think of an Osborne Park industrial supplier with thousands of product and part number pages, or a new Joondalup clinic site that nobody links to yet. In those cases a sitemap shortens the time it takes for new pages to be found. On a ten page site for a Fremantle accountant with a clear menu, Google will find every page through the links anyway.
Every page belongs in it
Myth: the more URLs in the sitemap, the better.
Fact: a sitemap should only list pages you want to appear in search. Every URL in it should return a normal page (not a redirect or an error), be the canonical version, and not carry a noindex tag. Plugins and platforms often get this wrong out of the box. Common clutter includes:
- Tag and author archives that duplicate your blog listing
- Thank you pages and form confirmation pages
- Old pages that now redirect elsewhere
- Staging or test URLs left over from a build
- Image attachment pages created by WordPress
Mixed signals like these don’t usually cause a penalty, but they waste crawling on pages that will never rank and make the sitemap a less reliable hint. If you run a site for a resources or engineering business with a large catalogue, cleaning this up is worth an hour of your developer’s time. That’s the kind of check we include in technical SEO for Perth websites, because it’s a small fix with a clear purpose.
Priority tags matter
Myth: setting priority to 1.0 on your key pages tells Google they’re more important.
Fact: Google has said it ignores the priority and changefreq values in sitemaps. If your plugin lets you fiddle with them, leave them alone. The one field Google does use is lastmod, the date a page was last changed, and only when it’s consistently accurate. A sitemap that stamps every page with today’s date on every visit teaches Google to ignore that field too.
So the practical rule is simple. Let lastmod update only when the content of a page genuinely changes. Don’t spend time on priority settings, and be wary of anyone quoting to “optimise” them.
Small sites need no XML sitemap
Myth: if you only have a handful of pages, the XML sitemap is pointless, so you may as well switch it off.
Fact: Google’s own sitemap documentation says a small, well linked site may not need one. That’s true, but it doesn’t mean you should remove it. It costs nothing to keep, it’s created automatically, and it gives you a useful view in Search Console of which listed pages are indexed.
Here’s where to find yours. WordPress creates one at /wp-sitemap.xml, and SEO plugins such as Yoast or Rank Math usually replace it with /sitemap_index.xml. Shopify and Wix both generate /sitemap.xml without any setup. Open it in a browser, scan the URLs for anything that shouldn’t be there, then submit it once in the Sitemaps report in Search Console. After that, check the report every month or two for errors rather than resubmitting.
If your developer quotes for a custom sitemap on a small brochure site, ask what problem it solves that the built-in one doesn’t. Usually the answer is none. If you’d like a second opinion on what is worth fixing first, our SEO agency Perth team can look at your Search Console data with you and keep the list short.
The bottom line
- Find the sitemap your platform already makes and open it in a browser.
- Remove redirects, noindexed pages and archive clutter from it.
- Submit it once in Search Console and check the Pages report every month or two.
- Put the money you save into better pages, not sitemap settings.
