Perfecting Sitemaps for SEO

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This chapter delves into the intricacies of creating optimal sitemaps for SEO purposes, covering indexing URLs, handling search filters, avoiding duplicates and redirects, and planning for future content. The hosts share insights on canonical URLs, site mapping strategies, and the benefits of using generators to ensure comprehensive sitemaps, with a focus on structuring pages as objects and validating them for search engine submission.

Scott and Wes break down the importance of sitemaps for SEO. They dive into the different file formats, essential fields, and common pitfalls to avoid when creating and submitting your sitemap to search engines.

Show Notes

00:00 Welcome to Syntax!
- New Swag Coming Soon.
- Tolin.ski.
02:09 Brought to you by Sentry.io.
02:39 Sitemaps.
04:36 Why do you need a sitemap?
06:34 Sitemap file formats.
- 08:31 Choosing a file format.
- 09:17 Site map file size limits.
- 10:32 Fully-qualified URLs.
10:50 Fields and metadata.
- 10:58 What fields matter for SEO?
14:20 What to avoid in your sitemap?
- 14:23 Dynamic user pages and account pages.
- 14:43 Parameter-based URLs.
- 16:01 Redirects, duplicates or disallowed pages.
- 16:11 Unlisted pages.
17:07 How do you make a sitemap?
20:06 What to do once you have a sitemap.
- 20:08 Validation.
- 20:20 Submit to search engine.
  - Bing Webmaster Tools.
  - Google Search Console.
- 22:11 Cache them!