A sitemap is a file that lists the URLs of a site to facilitate exploration by search engines or consultation by visitors. On a blog, this page serves a dual purpose: it directs indexing bots to recent content and provides readers with a structured entry point to all publications.
XML Sitemap and HTML Sitemap: Two Mechanisms, Two Audiences
The term “sitemap” encompasses two distinct technical realities. The XML sitemap is a file intended for search engine bots. It contains a list of URLs accompanied by metadata (last modified date, estimated update frequency, relative priority). This file is not designed to be read by humans.
The HTML sitemap, on the other hand, takes the form of a standard web page. It presents the site’s structure in the form of clickable links, organized by categories or dates. This is the version that visitors consult to navigate a dense blog.
On a blog that publishes regularly, both formats complement each other. The XML helps Googlebot spot an article published just minutes ago, while the HTML allows a reader to find a post buried under months of publications. To see what this dual approach looks like in practice, the sitemap page of La Caverne du Geek illustrates well the structuring by sections on an active blog.
Lastmod Tag in an XML Sitemap: Why Precision Matters
Most guides explain how to generate a sitemap. Few detail a technical point that affects the file’s effectiveness: the reliability of the lastmod tag.
Google considers this date only when it corresponds to a real change in the page’s content. Updating the footer or regenerating the sitemap without touching the body of the article does not justify changing the lastmod value. If the engine finds that the dates do not reflect real changes, it eventually ignores this tag across the entire site.
For a blog, the best practice is to modify lastmod only when an article has been substantially rewritten, enriched, or corrected. A simple typo correction does not warrant this update.
What Lastmod Does Not Do
Modifying lastmod does not automatically trigger a new crawl of the page. The engine decides its own crawl schedule based on multiple signals (publication frequency, site popularity, crawl budget). The tag is an indication among others, not an instruction.
Filtering URLs: An Effective Sitemap Excludes as Much as It Includes
Listing all URLs of a blog in the sitemap is a common mistake. A useful file contains only the pages that deserve to appear in search results. Here are the types of pages to systematically exclude:
- Duplicate tag and archive pages that repeat the same content under different URLs, as they dilute the signal sent to engines
- Pages with a noindex tag, since including a URL in the sitemap that is requested not to be indexed sends a contradictory signal
- Redirected URLs (301 or 302) that point to other pages, as the engine must resolve the redirection before reaching the final content
- Internal search result pages of the blog, which generate parameterized URLs without original content
A sitemap should only contain indexable and useful URLs. On a WordPress blog, most SEO plugins allow for automatic filtering of these pages. Manually checking the file at least once a quarter remains a good habit.
Size Limits and Sitemap Splitting for Large Blogs
Google imposes a maximum of 50,000 URLs or 50 MB uncompressed per sitemap file. For a small personal or professional blog, this limit poses no problem. However, a blog publishing several articles a day for years may reach it.
The solution is the sitemap index: a main file that references several sub-sitemaps. Each sub-file groups a batch of URLs, for example by year of publication or by thematic category. This organization also facilitates diagnostics in Google Search Console, as errors are localized in a specific file.
Submission and Tracking in Search Console
Submitting the sitemap via Google Search Console speeds up its initial consideration. The dedicated report indicates whether the file has been read correctly and how many URLs have been discovered. But reading the file does not guarantee the indexing of the listed pages. The Sitemaps report provides information on the retrieval of the file, not on the indexing status of each URL.
To verify actual indexing, one must cross-reference the data from the Sitemaps report with the “Pages” report (formerly “Coverage”). This is where excluded, erroneous, or simply ignored URLs by the engine are revealed.
Blog Navigation and Internal Linking: The Sitemap Is Not Enough
A sitemap, even perfectly configured, does not replace clear navigation or coherent internal linking. Both bots and readers discover content primarily through links present in articles, menus, and sidebar widgets.
- Each new article should contain at least two or three links to previous publications related to the same topic, to create thematic navigation paths
- The blog categories should be limited in number and clearly named, as they structure both the main menu and the HTML sitemap
- The most strategic articles benefit from being linked from the homepage or from a permanent section, which sends a priority signal to engines
The sitemap signals the existence of a page, while internal linking demonstrates its importance. On a blog with several hundred articles, orphaned content (with no internal links pointing to them) risks being ignored even if they appear in the XML sitemap.
The sitemap file acts as a safety net, not as a substitute for the site’s architecture. A blog whose navigation relies solely on the sitemap to make its pages accessible has a structural problem that the XML file will not resolve.
