Do you need to know how to set priority in sitemap & how it can affect your crawl efficiency? Setting priority in your sitemap helps search engines to better understand your site structure and understand which pages have more importance. Such as the main home page can be set to the priority of 1.0, and for the categories pages as 0.8.
You can add priority to your sitemap either manually or automatically using the dedicated utility. Today in this digital column we are going to discuss both the manual and automated ways. However, before starting the detailed step-by-step guide, initially let us discuss what is priority in sitemap and its values.
What is Priority in Sitemap & Its Value?
A sitemap priority is a value b/w 0.0 and 1.0 added in the sitemap using the <priority></priority> tag commonly inserted in the <url></url> block. It tells search engines the importance of the page concerning other webpages in the site. However, adding priority in sitemap does not directly enhance rankings. It helps search bots to enhance crawl efficiency, resulting in effective crawling.
Example Sitemap Priority Values for Normal Site
Homepage: <priority>1.0 </priority>
Category Page: <priority>0.8</priority>
Important Content Page: <priority>0.7</priority>
Regular Blog Posts Pages: <priority>0.5-0.7</priority>
Less Important Pages: <priority>0.3-0.5</priority>
Low Value Pages: <priority>0.1-0.3</priority>
How to Manually Set Priority in Sitemap? Working Steps
- Initially, open the sitemap.xml file on a text editor like Notepad++.
- Next, locate the URLs you want to prioritize using the priority tag.
- Then, add the <priority> tag with the <url> block as described in the example below.
<url>
<loc>https://example.com/</loc>
<priority>1.0</priority>
</url>
<url>
<loc>https://example.com/category/</loc>
<priority>0.8</priority>
</url> - After that, save the edited sitemap.xml and upload it to the root directory of your website.
- Finally, submit the updated sitemap.xml to the Google Search Console.
Pitfalls of Using the Manual Approach
- Understanding the structure of the website manually and assigning priority value can be an overwhelming and time-consuming process. Additionally, assigning priority value can lead to human errors which may negatively affect crawl-efficiency to the wrong pages.
- Using the DIY approach to assign priority is not scalable. You may face the problem when you alter the structure of your website. Therefore, it is not recommended by experts to use the DIY way for large websites.
- Manually editing sitemap.xml for adding priority value can lead to human syntax error. It may result that sitemap.xml will not be properly fetched by search engines for identifying and indexing new content.
Pro Approach to Add Priority in Sitemap with Expert Solution
If you are a content-rich website owner like a news portal, e-commerce, software portal, etc, and looking for an automated solution that can set priority in the sitemap based on site structure. Then you may use the Sitemap Buddy Sitemap Generator Tool. This automated solution can add priority to sitemap.xml using your site structure. You just need to enable the settings option. Now, let us discover the working of the utility in a detailed working process.
How to Set Priority in Sitemap? Quick Step-by-Step Guide
- At the start, install and run the utility on your local desktop.
- Next, enter the URL of your site in the URL section of the utility.
- Now, check priority option and remaining settings accordingly.
- After that, click on the crawl button and wait for the tool to gather pages.
- Thereafter, click on sitemap pages option and review sitemap pages.
- Finally, click on the export as option and choose XML as the format.
Does Setting Sitemap Priority Values Affect SEO Rankings
While setting priority in a sitemap does not directly enhance SEO rankings. However, it enhances crawl efficiency resulting in effective crawling. It can be beneficial for large websites with thousands of pages. Where search engines need guidance on content importance.
Final Thoughts
In conclusion of the above blog, on the topic of what and how to set priority in sitemap utilizing manual and automated techniques. We have started our discussion by understanding what is priority in the sitemap and its value. Thereafter, we have seen the detailed step-by-step guide to assigning priority to sitemap.xml. However, the manual approach has some of its limitations related to errors, scalability, and many more. Secondly, to overcome the drawbacks of the DIY approach, we have seen the automated techniques along with their working steps. Finally, we have discussed the effect of sitemap priority in SEO rankings.
