Are you also looking to find the Website’s sitemap?
It is necessary to find the sitemap of your own or competitor’s Website if the Website uses the right methods. In this blog, we’ve mentioned seven effective ways that can help you find the Website’s sitemap. Let’s begin!
7 Effective Ways to Find the Sitemap of the Website
Here, we’ve mentioned several simple yet effective ways of defining how to find sitemap URLs.
1. Check Robots.txt
Robots.txt is typically a special file that provides useful directives to search engine crawlers and bots. It also has a link to the Website’s sitemap.
Use this link “https://www.websitedomain.com/robots.txt” to find your robots.txt file.
This way, you can easily locate your sitemap file.
2. Check Google Search Console
Google Search Console, formerly known as Webmaster Tools, can also help you find sitemaps of a website online.
However, you can use this method only if you’re the owner of the Website or have been officially granted access to the Website.
Log in to your GSC account and tap on “Sitemaps” to access the list of all your Website’s sitemaps.
Here’s the list of all sitemaps that are submitted to the Google Search Console. It even consists of a lot of other information, including sitemap types, submission time, when it was last read, and how many URLs there are.
3. Use Advanced Search Operators
Google search operators, popularly known as Commands, are aimed to improve SEO (Search Engine Optimization) practices. It can help find links, build opportunities and content ideas, identify technical issues, and more.
This can be one of the best moves to find the website’s sitemap that are not present in the standard location or declared in the robots.txt file.
To use this method, you have to combine the “filetype:” command with the “site:” command.
It will look something like – site:websitedomain.com filetype:xml.
You have to search it on Google, which may look like the image below.
(Representing all the indexed sitemaps of the Website shownWebsitegle)
If Google shows some irrelevant results, you may add the “inurl” operator to the arsenal.
It may look something like – site:websitedomain.com filetype:xml inurl: sitemap.
The sitemaps may also be present in text files. So, you may be required to use another extension to search for them on Google.
It would be – site: website domain inurl: sitemap filetype: txt.
NOTE: You must remember that this method can only help you identify a sitemap if Google indexes it.
4. Find Sitemap From URL
One of the simplest and straightforward ways to find a sitemap is to manually check certain standard locations.
Simply enter the website URL with a common extension, as explained below.
- https://www.websitedomain.com/sitemap.xml
- https://www.websitedomain.com/sitemap_index.xml
- https://www.websitedomain.com/sitemap/
You will find the sitemap mostly using one of these URLs. Most of the websites are created on WordPress using common plugins, including RankMath and Yoast SEO. Plusgins automatically generates the XML sitemaps on the URL.
Listed below are some other possible URLs for searching sitemaps.
- https://www.websitedomain.com/sitemap1.xml
- https://www.websitedomain.com/post-sitemap
- https://www.websitedomain.com/page-sitemap
- https://www.websitedomain.com/sitemapindex.xml
- https://www.websitedomain.com/sitemap-index.xml
5. Check Bing Webmaster Tool
Google is not your last hope for finding the sitemap. You can also use the Bing Webmaster Tool if you’ve submitted your Website to BiWebsite.
Log in to your Bing Webmaster Tools account and click “Sitemaps” on the left sidebar. This will directly take you to the list of all the sitemaps submitted.
6. Check the CMS of the Website
You can access your Content Management System (CMS) to find the sitemap of your Website.
The Website has several CMSes, and each one stores the sitemap differently. This means that you primarily need to identify the CMS of the targeted Website.
To build a website, you can leverage tools like “Built With” or “WhatCMS.”
If your Website is made on WordPress, the sitemaps could be located at https://websitedomain.com/wp-sitemap.xml.
However, if your sitemap has been created using plugins, you must check for the URLs mentioned below.
- https://websitedomain.com/sitemap.xml
- https://websitedomain.com/sitemap_index.xml
- https://websitedomain.com/post-sitemap.xml
Conversely, if the CMS for your site is another one, including Squarespace, Shopify, Joomla, and more, then you just have to search for the below-mentioned URL to search for a sitemap.
URL: https://websitedomain.com/sitemap.xml
7. Use an Online Sitemap Checker Tool
There are various tools available that can help you find a sitemap of a website online. You just need to paste the website URL, and the Website will automatically find the sitemap.
However, these tools check the standard sitemap locations and may not be effective in locating your sitemap in certain specific cases. They are generally called sitemap checkers.
Conclusion
In summary, these are the seven effective ways to help you check websites’ XML sitemaps. You try all the methods, and one may work for you and allow you to locate the Website’s sitemap. We hope this blog helps you find the sitemap of your website.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. How do I find the sitemap of my website?
Usually, the XML sitemap can be navigated at /sitemap.xml, .sitemap.xml or sitemap_index.xml on your website. Alternatively, you can also check the robots.txt file of your website, as it can help you find your sitemap URL.
Q. How to extract a sitemap from a website?
Here we’ve mentioned certain ways to find a sitemap from the website.
1. First, you need to look for the sitemap link. It may be present in the website footer or main menu.
2. You can also use the website’s robots.txt file to find the sitemap.
3. There are various online sitemap checker tools available that can help you automatically locate the sitemap.
4. You may also use certain browser extensions, including SEOquake, Ahrefs, Mozbar, etc., to find the sitemap of your website.
Q. How can I download an XML sitemap?
Follow the steps mentioned below to download the XML sitemap.
1. Open the sitemap builder page.
2. Click on the “Export” located at the top right hand corner of the page.
3. Now, select “sitemap.xml” from the list.
4. The URL in your sitemap will be downloaded as a sitemap.xml file.
Q. What is my HTML sitemap?
An HTML sitemap is typically a webpage that has a list of links to the main pages on the website. This sitemap’s main objective is to help users to locate the desired pages or sections of your website. Moreover, it allows for additional interlinking.
Q. What is a sitemap in SEO (Search Engine Optimization)?
A Sitemap is typically a file providing information regarding the pages, videos, and other files present on your website. It even tells the relation between them. Search engine bots mainly crawl this file of every website while indexing.