An XML sitemap lists the addresses of your site so that search engines can find them faster. However, many sites publish this file only once and then do not touch it again. The sitemap then becomes a frozen inventory, disconnected from the editorial reality of the site. For it to truly serve navigation and SEO, it is essential to understand what it communicates to bots, and especially what it does not communicate when it is misconfigured.
The lastmod tag of the XML sitemap: useful signal or misleading date
Each URL listed in a sitemap can carry a lastmod tag. It indicates the date of the last modification of the page. Google uses it to decide whether it should revisit this address.
The trap is common: many sitemap generators record the date the file was generated, not the actual date of content modification. As a result, all pages display the same date, that of the day the sitemap was recreated. Google eventually ignores this information because it does not reflect any concrete editorial change.
For lastmod to have value, the date must correspond to a modification of the main content of the page: rewritten text, updated structured data, added internal links. A change in the footer or sidebar does not count. If your tool updates lastmod with each automatic regeneration of the file, you are sending a false signal, and Google learns to ignore it for your domain.
You can observe this behavior directly: on Sankore’s sitemap page, the dates reflect actual editorial updates, providing a good example of a coherent file.
Priority and changefreq tags in a sitemap: should they still be filled out?
Two other tags exist in the XML sitemap specification: priority and changefreq. The first assigns a relative importance score to each URL. The second indicates the theoretical frequency of modification (daily, weekly, monthly).
Google clearly states to ignore them. Filling out these fields does not change either the crawl frequency or the ranking of your pages. Bing does not give them any more decisive weight either.
Why do these tags persist in so many files? Because plugins and generators add them by default. Removing them poses no technical problem. Focus your effort on reliable lastmod dates and a rigorous selection of URLs rather than on indicators that no one reads.
What deserves your time instead
- Check that each URL in the sitemap returns an HTTP 200 code (no redirection, no 404 error)
- Exclude non-indexable pages: pages with a noindex tag, duplicate pages, deep paginations without unique content
- Ensure that lastmod changes only when the editorial content of the page has actually been modified
Sitemap and internal linking: two complementary mechanisms for navigation
A sitemap does not replace internal links. Submitting a sitemap remains a discovery signal for search engines: it helps them find addresses but does not guarantee either crawling or indexing. If a page is not linked to any other page on your site, the sitemap may signal it, but Google will assign it little value.
Imagine a building whose floor plan mentions a room, but no hallway leads to it. The plan exists, the room does too, but no one enters it. The sitemap is the plan, internal linking builds the hallways.
In practice, the pages that benefit the most from the sitemap are those that the internal linking covers poorly: recent content not yet linked from other articles, deep pages in the hierarchy, or sections of the site that are rarely updated but still relevant.
When the sitemap becomes truly useful
- Your site has several hundred pages and a deep hierarchy
- You regularly publish new content (blog, product sheets, news)
- Some orphan pages do not yet have internal links pointing to them
- You have just migrated or revamped the site structure
Submitting an XML sitemap to Google and Bing: the minimum to check
Creating the file is not enough. You need to declare it to search engines. There are two main methods.
The first: add the line Sitemap: https://votresite.com/sitemap.xml in your robots.txt file. Google and Bing read this file on each visit and follow the indicated address.
The second: submit the sitemap directly via Google Search Console or Bing Webmaster Tools. This method also allows you to check if Google detects any errors in the file (inaccessible URLs, invalid format).
IndexNow for sites that also target Bing
Bing offers a complementary mechanism called IndexNow. It allows real-time reporting of added, modified, or deleted URLs. It is not a replacement for the sitemap, but an accelerator for discovery. IndexNow is particularly useful for frequently published sites where the delay between going live and indexing matters.
The XML sitemap remains a seemingly simple tool. Its true value depends on the rigor with which you select the URLs it contains and the reliability of the dates you associate with it. An up-to-date file that lists only indexable pages and whose lastmod dates reflect real editorial changes does more for your SEO than a comprehensive sitemap filled with signals that search engines have learned to ignore.
