Fill in the blank: Sitemaps are _______ files that provide search engines information about the structure of your site.
- HTML
- JSON-LD
- JavaScript
- XML
Explanation: The correct answer is XML. Sitemaps are XML files that provide search engines like Google with information about the structure and organization of a website’s content. They serve as a roadmap for search engine crawlers, helping them discover and index pages more efficiently. By listing all the URLs on a site along with additional metadata such as the last modified date and the frequency of updates, sitemaps enable search engines to prioritize crawling efforts and ensure that important pages are indexed promptly. This XML format is specifically designed for machine readability, making it easy for search engine bots to parse and interpret the content. As a result, XML sitemaps play a crucial role in optimizing a website’s visibility and accessibility in search engine results, ultimately enhancing its online presence and attracting more organic traffic.