How to Manipulate SEO With Sitemaps of Online Stores

Search engine optimization (SEO) techniques are developing more quickly than ever. What was seen as best practice in past years may not apply in today’s market. This is also true for sitemaps, which are almost as old as SEO. Sitemaps have become a long-term foundational component for all e-commerce websites over time.

As a result, you need to realize how crucial it is to submit your sitemap to Google Search Console. However, you might not know how to use them to generate SEO key performance indicators (KPIs). This guide will describe how you can use sitemaps for proper SEO manipulation to your online store’s advantage.

These are the various ways you can use SEO with sitemaps for your dropshipping store.

Follow Google’s Guideline

Many websites use content management systems that can automatically generate a sitemap. Similarly, many small businesses like dropshipping use auto-generated sitemaps. All sitemaps must follow a certain protocol, as specified by Google. Your sitemap needs to start with the right tag and be encoded in UTF-8.

If you want Google and other search engines to swiftly identify your e-commerce website among the sea of others, send a sitemap index to Bing Webmaster Tools and Google Search Console. Make sure the robots.txt file has the URLs for your sitemap index. Consider it a friendly greeting for crawlers on the front porch of your website.

Implement the Appropriate XML Sitemap Format and Structure

For example, if you have opted to remove the World Wide Web (www) from your site's URL, make sure your sitemap notes these modifications following protocol (HTTP or https). Additionally, you may include your hreflang handling if you run a global e-commerce website with multilingual capabilities.

Hreflang

Using the xhtml:link attributes, the location and language variations for different URLs can be tracked.

Unfortunately, other link implementations, like HTTP headers, don't provide as much freedom. It detects URLs that are intended for various languages. Although it is typically visible on a landing page, it is an optional feature frequently added to XML sitemaps.

Don't Forget About the Markups

XML sitemaps are made to follow precise markup standards. After the markups are prepared, an XML sitemap is generated easily and without error. It does not imply that you should cease searching for mistakes. Instead, check regularly to prevent erroneous results, out-of-date links, and duplicate URLs.

Find the Best Method to Create an XML Sitemap

A common mistake people make is thinking that a sitemap automatically refreshes. However, you must make certain changes to add the informative parameters of new pages from the present pages of your website.

On several platforms, you have the option to produce a sitemap automatically. However, compatibility is critical when it comes to the platform. It should ideally be able to incorporate many plugins.

More optimization Is Always Possible

Most plugins, by default, contain your website's pages, tags, archives, video-image material, and articles. However, they don't optimize for SEO. Your e-commerce website’s optimization should include articles and posts essential to your site. High-quality content on these pages would certainly draw organic visitors to your website.

You should remove pages with duplicate content. For instance, look for any duplication on the author, tag, and archive pages. Cut pages with little substance as well; the last thing you want is to submit a sitemap with poor-quality indexed pages.

Instead of dwelling on the number of pages in the index, concentrate on helpful, high-quality pages. Sub-sitemaps should be included in your sitemap organization. It's a fantastic approach to creating a sitemap that is easy to read and scan.

Final Thoughts

Your sitemap needs to be able to track all activities for SEO efficiently. To increase your e-commerce store’s presence, you need a dynamic sitemap that search engines can easily process.

(Contributed by Ayotomiwa Omotosho & Hermes Fang)