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XML Sitemaps

https://www.mysitemapgenerator.com/sitemaps/index.html

  • changefreq

images​

https://www.treefrog.ca/creating-image-sitemap-file/

priority​

Google does not currently consume the <priority> attribute in sitemaps. That's an excellent question that gets to the heart of how Google's crawling and indexing works. It's a common misconception in the SEO world.

The short answer is: Google's search algorithm does not use the <priority> tag in XML sitemaps to rank your pages.

Here's a more detailed breakdown, which is particularly relevant to your work as a freelance software engineer and marketing agency owner:

  • Google Ignores It for Ranking: Google has stated that it ignores the <priority> and <changefreq> tags. They are seen as too easy for a webmaster to abuse, as a site owner could simply set all their pages to a priority of 1.0. The goal of the <priority> tag was to show the relative importance of a URL within your own site, but Google's own algorithms determine a page's importance based on many other factors, such as internal links, external links, and user engagement.

  • It Can Influence Crawling (Slightly): While it doesn't affect ranking, the <priority> tag can have a minor influence on Google's crawling behavior. For a brand new site or a very large site with millions of pages (where crawl budget is a significant factor), it might serve as a hint to help Google's bots prioritize which pages to crawl first. However, even for this purpose, Google's main way of discovering and prioritizing content is through internal linking and other signals.

  • Focus on What Matters: As a software engineer applying Agile principles to your marketing agency, you understand the importance of focusing on high-impact activities. When it comes to sitemaps, a more effective use of your time would be to focus on these best practices:

    • Keep it clean: Only include canonical, indexable URLs that you want Google to find. Do not include pages that are "noindexed" or have a 404 status.
    • Use the <lastmod> tag: Google has said it does use the <lastmod> tag if it is accurate and verifiable. This can help Google prioritize a re-crawl of a page that has been updated, ensuring fresh content is indexed more quickly.
    • Internal linking is key: A strong internal linking structure is the most powerful signal you can give Google about which pages on your site are the most important. Pages that are well-linked internally are seen as more important. This is a much more direct way to influence both crawling and ranking than relying on the <priority> tag.

In summary, while the <priority> tag exists within the sitemap protocol, it's largely a legacy element that Google has moved past. For your web and app development projects, a robust internal linking strategy and a clean, up-to-date sitemap with accurate <lastmod> tags will be far more effective for your digital marketing efforts.