# XML sitemap

> A machine-readable list of every URL worth indexing — last-modified dates included — so crawlers find all of it, fast.

Crawlers discover pages by following links, which works — eventually, and only for what is linked well. A sitemap is the explicit inventory: every URL, when it last changed, optionally which alternates exist in other languages. It is a declaration, not a guarantee, but it removes 'we never crawled that page' from the excuse list.

The lastmod date is the field that earns its keep: an honest timestamp tells crawlers to spend their budget on what changed. A sitemap that claims everything was modified today trains crawlers to ignore it — the rare case where lying to a robot actively hurts you.

## Related terms

- https://dfieldsolutions.com/en/glossary/robots-txt.md
- https://dfieldsolutions.com/en/glossary/indexing.md
- https://dfieldsolutions.com/en/glossary/canonical-url.md

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Source: https://dfieldsolutions.com/en/glossary/xml-sitemap
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