There are two types of sitemaps recommended for a website. The first is for humans, as it is useful to find a clear layout and directory of pages. You might see this kind of sitemap as part of a 404‐error page to help people find the content they need; 404 is a server code for “page not found.”
The second type is an XML file that is used by the search engines. Many content management systems, such as WordPress, offer this through SEO plugins. This file updates as you update your website, as it provides the search engine with an index of the available pages and files of your website, their URL addresses, and the timestamp of when the document was last updated. Using Webmaster tools in Bing or Google’s Site Manager, you can verify that your XML sitemap is published and indexed by the search engines.
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