Situation-Based Question
Let’s say you run an online news website that’s constantly publishing new stories. Over time, your website grows with hundreds of articles being added daily. While search engines are crawling and indexing your pages, there’s a concern: how can you make sure Google knows about every new article quickly? You’ve already submitted your sitemap, but should you update it frequently to include all the new content?
Exact Answer
You should update your sitemap whenever you add new content, remove old content, or make significant changes to your website. For most websites, updating the sitemap regularly—at least once a month—is a good practice.
Explanation
An XML sitemap is a living document that reflects the structure and content of your website. It helps search engines understand your site better and ensures that all your important pages are indexed. If you’re frequently adding new pages or updating existing ones, keeping your sitemap up-to-date ensures that Googlebot can find and crawl these changes quickly. Here’s when you should update your sitemap:
- When New Content Is Added:
Whenever you publish a new blog post, product page, or any fresh content, it should be added to your sitemap immediately. This ensures that search engines know about the new page and can index it faster. - When Old Content Is Removed or Changed:
If you delete pages or update URLs, your sitemap should reflect these changes. For example, if a product page is removed or redirected, make sure the sitemap is updated to avoid search engines wasting time crawling outdated pages. - When Site Structure Changes:
Major updates to your website’s structure—like adding new categories, changing your navigation, or reorganizing content—should prompt a sitemap update. This helps search engines adjust their understanding of how your content is structured. - Monthly Updates for Static Sites:
If you run a site that doesn’t update often, such as a portfolio or corporate site, a monthly update to your sitemap should be enough. This ensures that Googlebot still crawls your site regularly and picks up any minor changes.
Example
Let’s imagine a local event directory website that updates weekly with new events. Initially, they submitted a sitemap with their homepage and a handful of event listings. As the website grew, they started adding new events almost daily. However, they forgot to update their sitemap regularly. Because of this, some new events weren’t indexed as quickly, causing them to miss out on traffic from search engines.
Once they started updating their sitemap each time a new event was added, the situation changed. The search engines started crawling the new event pages faster, leading to improved rankings and more visitors. This process also helped their old events, which were updated, remain visible in search results.