Sitemap XML

An XML sitemap is a file that lists all your website's pages, ensuring that Google and other search engines can find them all.

In the Govstack Content Management System, you can rank the priority of your web pages relative to each other to ensure that users can find your most important or most popular pages. You can also tell search engines how frequently each page on your website is likely to change.

Rank page priority

You can rank the priority for each page in your website on a scale from 0.0 (lowest priority) to 1.0 (highest priority). A page ranked with a higher priority may appear above lower ranked pages on your website in search results. You can use priority ranking to help ensure that users can find the most important, actionable or popular pages on your website.

For example, you may rank a popular task-oriented page like "Pay Your Property Taxes" with a higher priority than a page on the history of the municipality.

To rank the priority for a page on your website, you need to:

1. Select the 'Content' tab from the Govstack main menu
2. In the left navigation tree, find the page you want to rank priority for
3. Select the 'SEO & Share' tab, and scroll down to 'Sitemap XML priority'
4. Drag the slider from 0.0 to 1.0 to indicate the priority level for that page
5. Select 'Save and publish' to save your changes

Choose ranks wisely

Priority ranks don't impact the ranking of your web pages in search results overall - only relative to other pages on your website. Ranking all your pages as "1" won't rank them higher in search engine results. Be sure to rank the importance of your pages relative to each other and be honest about which pages are the most important for users.

Set the expected change frequency for a page

The sitemap XML change frequency tells search engines approximately how often each page on your website is updated, helping them better understand how often to expect changes.

To set the expected change frequency for a page on your website, you need to:

1. Select the 'Content' tab from the Govstack main menu
2. In the left navigation tree, find the page you want to create a friendly URL for
3. Select the 'SEO & Share' tab, and scroll down to 'Sitemap XML change frequency'
4. Select how often you expect the page to be updated
5. Select 'Save and publish' to save your changes