What we measured ·
What Google shows for "sitemap templates" right now
Method: Live Google results (United States, desktop, English) for "sitemap templates" retrieved through DataForSEO's SERP API on 2026-10-22. Page types are our own classification of each ranking URL.
The top 9 organic results for "sitemap templates" were 6 product or service pages, 2 guides or explainers, 1 official search-engine documentation. The first three were venngage.com, dribbble.com, www.axongarside.com.
Google showed an AI Overview for this query, citing 5 source domains including www.canva.com, www.figma.com, miro.com, moqups.com. Pages that state the answer directly and early are the ones an Overview can quote.
People Also Ask listed: "How to make an XML sitemap?"; "What is a sitemap in SEO?"; "How to make a map for your website?"; "How do I look for a sitemap?". The sections below answer the ones within this page's scope.
| Position | Domain | Page type |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | venngage.com | Guide or explainer |
| 2 | dribbble.com | Product or service page |
| 3 | www.axongarside.com | Guide or explainer |
| 4 | www.slideshare.net | Product or service page |
| 5 | www.mural.co | Product or service page |
| 6 | www.figma.com | Product or service page |
Visual sitemap template for planning
A planning sitemap shows every page and where it sits. A typical B2B SaaS structure looks like this.
| Level 1 | Level 2 | Level 3 examples |
|---|---|---|
| Home | ||
| Product | Features | One page per major feature |
| Solutions | By role, by industry | One page per real use case |
| Integrations | Integration hub | One page per native integration |
| Pricing | ||
| Resources | Guides, glossary, free tools | Individual guides, terms, and tools |
| Compare | Alternatives, vs pages | One page per competitor |
| Company | About, careers, contact, trust | Legal pages |
How to use the planning template
Copy the table into a spreadsheet and add columns for URL, page owner, primary query, status, and parent page. Keep important pages within three clicks of the homepage. Make URL paths mirror the hierarchy, for example /integrations/google-search-console. Mark pages that exist and pages planned, so the sitemap doubles as a build backlog. Visual tools such as Figma, Miro, or dedicated sitemap builders turn the same structure into a diagram for stakeholders.
HTML sitemap template
An HTML sitemap is a normal page, often at /sitemap, listing links grouped by section with headings matching level 1 of the planning template. It helps visitors and gives crawlers another path to deep pages. It is most useful on large sites with deep content; on small sites with good navigation, it adds little. If you build one, generate it from the same source as your navigation so it stays current.
XML sitemap template
An XML sitemap starts with an XML declaration, then a urlset element using the sitemaps.org namespace, containing one url element per page, each with a loc element holding the full canonical URL and optionally a lastmod date in W3C format. A single file can hold up to 50,000 URLs or 50 MB uncompressed; larger sites use a sitemap index that lists several sitemap files. Google ignores priority and changefreq, so you can omit them. Include only canonical, indexable URLs that return 200.
Keeping sitemaps accurate
Generate the XML sitemap automatically from your CMS or build process rather than editing by hand, and reference it in robots.txt. On serionflow.com the sitemap is generated at build time from the same registry that defines the public pages, and pages held back for a later release are excluded automatically. Our free sitemap checker validates a live sitemap and flags non-canonical, redirected, or noindex URLs. SerionFlow is the wrong tool for planning your whole site's structure; it maintains a sitemap of the pages it publishes, while your CMS owns the rest.
Clear answers
Frequently asked questions
What is a sitemap in SEO?
+
Usually an XML sitemap: a file listing the URLs you want search engines to crawl and index, with optional last-modified dates.
Do I need an HTML sitemap?
+
Not on most small and medium sites with clear navigation. It helps on large sites where some pages are many clicks deep.
About the author
Shadrack Kumi · Founder, SerionFlow
Shadrack builds SerionFlow's site research, page generation, and Search Console tooling, and runs the free tools these guides pair with. Search Console figures cited on these pages come from serionflow.com's own property.
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