Sitemap

The one that matters is the XML sitemap — a behind-the-scenes file visitors never see, written for search engines. Google reads it when crawling your site: which pages exist, which matter most, and when they last changed. That helps your content get indexed faster and more accurately.

(There’s also the HTML kind — a visible page listing links to everything. Most modern sites skip it; decent navigation does the job.)

The good news: you almost never make one by hand. Website builders and most platforms generate and update the XML sitemap automatically. Your only job is telling Google where it is — submit it once in Google Search Console, under Sitemaps.

Quick check: type yourdomain.com.au/sitemap.xml into a browser. If a wall of code appears, you have one. If it’s a 404, that’s worth fixing — you’re making Google guess.