What is the use of sitemaps in a website? Is it mandatory to have a sitemap?
I would like to know the usage of sitemap for the website and its importance for it.

Akshay V
A sitemap is a file where it provides information about your site's pages, videos, and other files and the relationships between them. A sitemap tells Google which pages and files should be given importance on the site, and that provides valuable information about those files. The main purpose of a sitemap is to provide search engines with information about the structure of a website's content and its organization. With the sitemap, website owners can ensure that search engines can crawl all the pages on their site, which can help improve their website's visibility and search engine rankings. These provide information about the specific types of pages that include videos, images, and news content on it.
The importance of sitemaps for the websites:-
There should be a need for sitemaps that needs to have a website for the user's information for it. This is important for building a functional and useful website for the sitemaps.
When there is a large site, it will be difficult to ensure that each page of a link is attached to the other pages of the site. This googlebot cannot discover new pages for it.
There should be a need for new sites that contain a few external links for the web crawlers to crawl the web for the following links on it.
A sitemap is an important feature of your website's search engine optimization (SEO) strategy that helps the search engines to navigate your website, a sitemap is a great way to let search engines know that your website is available and crawlable.
These sitemaps are needed for the purpose of finding and indexing the pages in websites that are not detected on the regular crawlers that provide the information in the sitemap for the purpose of it.
Therefore sitemaps can provide valuable information about the relationship between pages on a site, which can help search engines to understand the context and relevance of each page. This sitemap can improve the visibility and search engine rankings of the website, which makes it easier for users to find the content they are looking for.

Basil Saji
A sitemap is a file that includes a list of all the pages on a website. A sitemap's objective is to tell search engines about the organisation and content of a website. Sitemaps let search engine bots more efficiently browse and index a website's pages. Sitemaps aid search engines in comprehending a website's content, structure, and relationships between pages by offering a concise and well-organized list of all the pages on the website. Moreover, sitemaps make it simpler for search engines to find updated or newly added pages on a website, which can enhance the website's exposure and search engine rating.
Although having a sitemap is not necessary, it is strongly advised for all websites, especially those that are bigger or have more intricate architecture. Sitemaps are simple to establish and maintain, and they give search engines useful information that might increase the website's exposure and SEO (SEO). It's important to remember that having a sitemap by itself does not ensure good search engine positioning. The relevancy of the website's pages to users' search queries and the quality of the website's content are two other elements that have a big impact on search engine results.

Drupad
A sitemap is a basic but detailed overview that represents all the elements present in a website. Sitemaps make it easier for search engines to crawl, index, and rank a particular website. There are 2 types of sitemaps
- HTML
sitemap – is the type of sitemap made for the users of the website, to let them
have an overlook of the website in a clear and crisp manner.
- XML
sitemap – is the type of sitemap made for the search engines, for its crawlers
to navigate, index and rank the website more efficiently and easily.XML
sitemaps have further classifications down the line.
It is not mandatory to have a sitemap, but a sitemap helps in the
visibility of the website as it makes it easier for any search engine crawlers
easy to work with.

Swetha Sajeev
A sitemap is an XML file with links to every important webpage on your site. You might have realized already that this extremely useful for websites with loads of content, and you would be correct. it's a list that maps all the corners of your website that you want search engines to know, which means you have complete control over what they can display in search results.
Search engines like google can use a sitemap to crawl your website more thoroughly and ensure no significant webpage gets left out of their index. that means all of them will get ranked in search engine results. A sitemap includes HTML tags and URLs. The XML file containing those tags and URLs goes into your website's root directory so that search engine crawlers can easily find it.
There are four type of sitemaps:
Normal XML Sitemap: This by far the most common type of sitemap. that links to different pages on your website.
Video Sitemap: Used specifically to help Google understand video content on your page.
News Sitemap: Helps Google find content on sites that are approved for Google news.
Image Sitemap: Helps Google find all of the images hosted on your site.

Ismail
A sitemap is an XML file that lists all the pages on our website, making it easier for search engines to crawl and index the site. It helps search engines understand the structure of a website and find all its pages, including those that might not be easily discoverable through normal crawling.
It's not mandatory to have a sitemap, but it's highly recommended for larger websites, as it can improve the visibility and search engine ranking of a website. Sitemaps can also provide valuable information about the website, such as the frequency of updates, the relative importance of pages, and information about any alternate language versions of a page. A sitemap is important for SEO. By providing a complete list of all the pages on a website, a sitemap makes it easier for search engines to crawl and index the site. This can lead to improved visibility, higher search engine rankings, and increased traffic from search engines.

Athulia Gahanan
Sitemaps are a blueprint of your website that allows search engines to easily find and crawl all of the content on your site. They make it easier for visitors, clients, and colleagues to find what they are looking for when visiting your site. They are mainly two types Xml site map & Html sitemap.
There are divided into five categories:
Standard XML sitemap: Typically, it takes the shape of an XML Sitemap with connections to various pages on your website.
Html sitemap; It is used to intended for users of your site.
Video sitemap; to explain the video content on your page to Google.
News Sitemap; Google is associated with finding the content on websites that have been authorized for Google News.
The sitemap for photos: Aids Google in locating all of the images stored on your website.

Raveena Madhubalan
A sitemap is a file to store the information about pages of a website for search engines to crawl and index the site. Sitemaps contain 2 types HTML and XML sitemaps, HTML is mostly to guide visitors, and XML is for search engine bots.
Sitemap improves SEO and visibility that ensuring by crawling and indexing all pages of your website. Also, provide the exact information of pages.
Having a sitemap mandatory or not depends on the website because if our site is too large sitemap is needed!

Samuel Unni
An XML sitemap is a file that contains an organized list of all the URLs on a website that search engines can interpret. An XML sitemap's objective is to assist search engines in discovering and indexing all of a website's pages, hence boosting the website's visibility and search engine optimization (SEO). The sitemap can also notify search engines about the relative relevance of each page, how frequently it is updated, and when it was last changed, which might affect how it is crawled and indexed.
No, submitting an XML sitemap to Google Search Console is not required. To appear in Google search results, your website pages should be discovered either by referring page URL or by keyword search.

Abichandh
A sitemap is a file that lists the pages, videos, and other assets on your website along with their relationship. To crawl your website more efficiently, when search engines like Google read this file.
Sitemap might need when your site is really large or your site has a large archive of content pages that are isolated or not linked properly. And a sitemap is not important for a small site or you don't have much media or news on it.

Jinshad
A sitemap is a document that lists the pages, videos, and other assets on your website along with their connections. In order to crawl your website, search engines like Google read this file.
A sitemap will typically be beneficial for the website.

Dizooza
A sitemap is simply a file that contains a list of all the web pages on your website that you want search engines to be aware of and take into account when ranking your website. However, there are two different kinds of sitemaps: a visual sitemap for humans and a sitemap for crawlers/bots. Each has a different intended use as well as a different application
Although sitemaps are strongly recommended for all websites, they are not necessary for search engines to find your website. A sitemap makes it easier for site spiders to efficiently access all of your website's pages, regardless of their size. By making it simpler for search engines to locate all the content you want to be found and rated on your website, this aids with search engine optimization. Sitemaps are particularly crucial for newly launched websites, extremely large (many pages), or sites with sizable archives.
Crawlers may struggle to find all of the pages on new websites because there aren't many external links leading to them.
Crawlers for huge sites might miss some