Sitemaps for AI Crawlers

XML sitemaps help AI crawlers discover your content efficiently. While AI crawlers follow links like traditional bots, a well-structured sitemap ensures nothing important is missed.

In this guide

How AI crawlers use sitemaps
Sitemap best practices for AI visibility
Priority and frequency signals
Sitemap index strategies for large sites

8 min read Prerequisite: Robots.txt

Do AI Crawlers Use Sitemaps?

Yes, most AI crawlers reference sitemaps to discover content, though their behavior varies:

Crawler	Sitemap Usage
GPTBot (OpenAI)	Uses sitemaps for discovery
ClaudeBot (Anthropic)	References sitemaps
Google-Extended	Uses Google's sitemap infrastructure
PerplexityBot	Real-time crawling, uses sitemaps

Sitemap Best Practices

Include High-Value Pages

Prioritize pages that define your brand and answer common questions:

• Homepage and main landing pages
• Product and service pages
• About and company information
• FAQ and help content
• Key blog posts and guides

Use Lastmod Accurately

The <lastmod> tag tells crawlers when content changed. Only update it when content meaningfully changes, not for minor edits. Accurate lastmod helps crawlers prioritize fresh content.

Keep It Clean

Don't include pages you've blocked in robots.txt, redirects, or error pages. A clean sitemap signals quality to crawlers.

Example Sitemap Structure

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
  <url>
    <loc>https://example.com/</loc>
    <lastmod>2025-01-15</lastmod>
    <priority>1.0</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://example.com/about</loc>
    <lastmod>2025-01-10</lastmod>
    <priority>0.8</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://example.com/products</loc>
    <lastmod>2025-01-14</lastmod>
    <priority>0.9</priority>
  </url>
</urlset>

Sitemap Index for Large Sites

For sites with many pages, use a sitemap index to organize multiple sitemaps:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<sitemapindex xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
  <sitemap>
    <loc>https://example.com/sitemap-pages.xml</loc>
  </sitemap>
  <sitemap>
    <loc>https://example.com/sitemap-products.xml</loc>
  </sitemap>
  <sitemap>
    <loc>https://example.com/sitemap-blog.xml</loc>
  </sitemap>
</sitemapindex>

Business Context

A sitemap helps crawlers find your content, but the content itself needs to be well-structured for AI to understand it properly.

Content Structure Guide

Key Takeaway

Sitemaps guide discovery, not ranking.

A good sitemap ensures AI crawlers find your important content. Focus on including high-value pages with accurate metadata rather than every page on your site.

Sources

Sitemaps Protocol | sitemaps.org: Official sitemap protocol specification
Sitemaps Overview | Google Search Central: Google's sitemap best practices
GPTBot Documentation | OpenAI: OpenAI crawler specifications