An XML sitemap identifies URLs the site wants search engines to discover and consider for indexing. It is especially helpful for new pages with few internal links and large product catalogs. Accurate lastmod values help identify genuinely changed content for revisits. Include valid, indexable pages returning 200 responses; noindex, redirected and missing URLs undermine the quality of the submitted list and should be excluded.
Some websites are seeing sharp increases in site: operator queries in Search Console performance reports. Explore possible causes, measurement effects and diagnostic responses.
