Even if this is your first time learning about sitemaps, don’t stress yet! Let’s discuss three easy strategies for locating your sitemap or index file.
1. Manually Check the Most Common Sitemap Locations
The simplest way to find your sitemap is to manually check the most common sitemap locations. All you need to do is enter your URL in a browser and then try out a few different sitemap path variations at the end of it.
First, check the most common sitemap paths:
- /sitemap.xml
- /sitemap_index.xml
- /sitemap/
Example: https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml
Most popular CMS providers–including Wix, Squarespace, Shopify, and Blogger–automatically generate sitemaps or sitemap indexes for all websites built on their platforms. If your site is built on Wix, Squarespace, Shopify, or Blogger, your XML Sitemap or Sitemap Index should be located at /sitemap.xml.
Sitemap Index files are used to group more than one sitemap. Our website, for example, uses a /sitemap_index.xml file to organize our 8 different sitemaps. Searching https://accessibleweb.com/sitemap.xml in a browser redirects to our sitemap index at https://accessibleweb.com/sitemap_index.xml.
2. Check Your /robots.txt File
Checking your robots.txt file is the next quick and easy method for locating your sitemap.
Sometimes, the robots.txt file also lists the sitemap URL. This can be especially useful when a website has a less common sitemap location.
To view your website’s robots.txt file, just add /robots.txt to your domain.
3. Locate Wix, Squarespace, Shopify, and Blogger SitemapsMany popular CMS automatically generate sitemaps. Wix, Shopify, Squarespace, and Blogger all generate a default XML Sitemap or XML Sitemap Index for websites built on their respective platforms.
If your website is built on Wix, Shopify, Squarespace, or Blogger, your sitemap path should be /sitemap.xml.
You will find your Sitemap or Sitemap Index located at www.yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml.
Read more about Wix Sitemaps from Wix Help Center…
Read more about Squarespace Sitemaps…
Read more about Blogger Sitemaps…
Learn how to customize your Shopify site’s robots.txt file…
Unable to locate your sitemap?
If you can’t locate a sitemap for your website using these first three methods, you might not have one yet. Read more on how to create a sitemap.