Sitemap.xml File

Sitemap.xml files are used by search engines to learn about URLs that they can crawl on your website. You can learn more at sitemaps.org.

BranchCMS automatically creates the necessary sitemap.xml file for your website.  It's dynamically created each time it's requested so it's always up to date. 

You would typically access the sitemap file at YOURDOMAIN.COM/sitemap.xml (replace "YOURDOMAIN.COM with your actual domain name). 

Below is an example of a single page in the sitemap.xml file. 

<url>
  <loc>
    https://www.branchcms.com/learn/docs/developer/branch-code/variables-and-tags/variable-modifiers
  </loc>
  <lastmod>2016-02-01T21:59:39+00:00</lastmod>
  <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
  <priority>0.5</priority>
</url>

You can customize the Change Frequency (<changefreq>) and Priority (<priority>) for individual pages.  The Last Modified Date (<lastmod>) value comes from the last time the page was edited or the date that it was added if it's never been edited. 

Secure and Non-Secure URLs

Google considers "http" and "https" URLs to be different pages and sitemap rules say that you shouldn't mix https and http URLs in the same sitemap.xml file. To accommodate this BranchCMS only includes non-secure URLs (http) when the sitemap.xml file is loaded using a non-secure URL. Likewise, only pages that are supposed to be secure (https) are included if the sitemap.xml file is loaded using a secure URL. 

For example, if you load up http://www.YOURDOMAIN.COM/sitemap.xml then only URLs for non-secure pages are included. 

If you load up https://www.YOURDOMAIN.COM/sitemap.xml then only URLs for secure pages are included. 

If you turn on the setting for the entire public website to be secure then all URLs are included in the secure sitemap.xml file. 

Submitting the Sitemap.xml File to Search Engines

If your website does not have any secure pages then you can simply use http://www.YOURDOMAIN.COM/sitemap.xml as the URL for your sitemap.xml file. (Replace "YOURDOMAIN.COM" with your actual domain name, of course).

If your website does have secure pages then you should also submit https://www.YOURDOMAIN.COM/sitemap.xml as the second sitemap.xml file. 

If your website only has secure pages then you don't need to submit both URLs to Google. You can simply submit the https version. 

Note, if you are changing from http to https (all pages are secure) then you may need to change your site in Google Webmaster tools.  Other search engines may have similar tools.