Plan an XML sitemap for the pages you want discovered.

1. Decide what the sitemap is for

Google describes a sitemap as information about a site’s pages and their relationships that can help search engines crawl the site. It does not guarantee that submitted URLs will be crawled or indexed. A sitemap also serves a different purpose from the navigation that helps a person browse your website.

Write down the site’s intended audience before generating anything. For a private prototype, preserving privacy and access controls comes first. Do not expose restricted addresses merely to make a sitemap look complete. ATN recommends treating sitemap work as part of an explicit public-discovery plan, with the site owner’s intended indexing state recorded alongside it.

Sources: [1]

2. Choose the intended page addresses

Google recommends including the canonical URLs you want to appear in search results, using complete absolute addresses. When several addresses show the same content, decide which one is the preferred version instead of listing every variation. Keep that decision consistent with the site’s other signals.

Build a small inventory before exporting. For each candidate, note whether it is a public content page, a duplicate variation, a redirect, a missing page, or a restricted destination. Exclude pages that are not intended for public search discovery. A sitemap is not a permissions system, so withholding a URL from this list should never be the only protection for private information.

Sources: [2]

3. Choose a maintainable generation method

Check whether your existing website software already generates a sitemap and what content it includes. Prefer one understood process over several competing plugins or hand-edited copies. Record the source of the URL list and who is responsible when a page is added, moved, or retired.

ATN suggests tying generation to the same approved content inventory used for publication. That makes accidental inclusion of drafts easier to catch. Review a small sample from every relevant page type before relying on a large export. Keep the generator configuration with the project so a future maintainer can explain why a page appears or is intentionally omitted.

4. Check the file and its update information

Google’s guidance says that a last-modified value should reflect a significant page update and be consistently accurate. Changing every date to today on each build would hide the distinction between an actual content change and an unchanged page being regenerated.

Validate the file format and inspect representative destinations. If reliable update dates are unavailable, resolve that limitation rather than inventing a fresh timestamp for every entry.

Sources: [2]

5. Record submission and investigate results

Google supports submission through Search Console and describes submission as a hint rather than a promise of crawling. Keep the submitted sitemap URL, submission date, and reported processing result together. Distinguish a sitemap being accepted from an individual page being indexed.

When a report shows an unexpected result, investigate the specific URL and the site’s actual configuration instead of repeatedly resubmitting an unchanged file. Recheck the inventory after substantial migrations or category changes. This workflow improves the clarity of a public-discovery setup, but it does not guarantee search placement or justify altering access settings that the owner intended to keep private.

Sources: [2]