Including categories and tags in your XML sitemap is optional, and it largely depends on how you want search engines to crawl and index your content. Let’s break down the pros and cons of including categories and tags in your sitemap.

Pros of Including Categories and Tags in Your XML Sitemap

  1. Better Indexing of Related Content:
    • Categories and tags are often used to group related content together on your website. Including them in the sitemap can help search engines discover more related content, improving your site’s internal linking and discoverability. This can be especially beneficial for content-heavy sites, like blogs or eCommerce stores.
    • For example, if you have an article tagged with “SEO” and a category called “Digital Marketing,” submitting these tags and categories will help search engines know these pages are part of a larger, relevant theme, making it easier to surface them in search results.
  2. Improved Site Navigation for Search Engines:
    • If your categories and tags represent major topics or hubs of content on your site, including them in your sitemap can help search engines better understand the structure of your site. This can make crawling more efficient, as search engines will know where to find all the related posts.
  3. Increased Visibility for Tag and Category Pages:
    • Some websites have dedicated tag pages or category archive pages that may contain valuable content. By including them in the sitemap, you can increase the chances that these pages get indexed and rank well for their associated keywords. This is especially useful for niche topics where users may be searching for specific tags or categories.

Cons of Including Categories and Tags in Your XML Sitemap

  1. Potential for Duplicate Content:
    • One risk of including category and tag pages in your sitemap is the potential for duplicate content. If your posts are already indexed under their original URLs, adding category and tag pages with the same content could result in duplicate content issues, which may hurt your SEO.
    • For example, if an article is indexed under its individual URL but also appears in a category and tag page, Google might consider the pages as duplicates, which could negatively impact rankings.
  2. Low-Quality or Thin Pages:
    • Some websites have category or tag pages that are thin on content, meaning they don’t have much besides a list of links. These types of pages are generally not as valuable from an SEO perspective and might not need to be indexed. Including such pages in the sitemap can waste crawl budget and contribute to SEO issues.
  3. Index Bloat:
    • If your website has a large number of categories and tags, submitting all of them can result in over-bloating your XML sitemap, which could negatively affect crawl efficiency. A search engine might waste time crawling category and tag pages that don’t have enough valuable content.

How to Handle Categories and Tags in Your XML Sitemap

  1. For WordPress Sites:
    • By default, WordPress does not include category and tag pages in its XML sitemap generated by plugins like Yoast SEO and Rank Math. If you want to include them, you can configure your SEO plugin settings to do so. However, you need to ensure that your category and tag pages have valuable content and aren’t just a list of posts.
    • Yoast SEO: If you want to exclude category and tag pages from Yoast SEO’s sitemap, go to the SEO settings, click on Search Appearance, and disable category/tag archives in the Taxonomies tab.
    • Rank Math: Similar to Yoast, Rank Math allows you to exclude taxonomies (categories, tags) from the sitemap by going to Rank Math → Sitemap Settings → Post Types and then disabling the inclusion of categories or tags.
  2. For Wix Sites:
    • Wix automatically generates an XML sitemap for your website, which includes URLs for category pages and tags. However, you can manage this under Settings → SEO if you want to exclude these pages. Make sure to double-check if you need those pages indexed or not.

Best Practices for Including Categories and Tags in Your XML Sitemap

  1. Include Only High-Value Taxonomy Pages:
    • Include categories and tags that have meaningful, content-rich pages. Avoid indexing pages that are thin or don’t provide much SEO value.
    • For example, a category page like “SEO Tips” with a detailed introduction and multiple posts is worth indexing. On the other hand, a tag page with only one or two posts might not be valuable for indexing.
  2. Use Noindex Tags for Low-Value Pages:
    • If you have categories or tag pages that are not helpful for SEO or are thin in content, consider adding the noindex meta tag to prevent search engines from indexing those pages, even if they appear in the sitemap.
    • Many SEO plugins (like Yoast and Rank Math) give you the option to set noindex for specific taxonomy pages.
  3. Monitor Your Crawl Budget:
    • If you have a large site, especially an eCommerce site with lots of categories or a blog with many tag pages, you may want to limit the number of taxonomies included in the sitemap. This ensures search engines focus on your most important pages.

Conclusion: Should You Include Categories and Tags?

In most cases, it’s best to include categories and tags in your XML sitemap only if they have meaningful content that benefits your SEO. If your site has high-quality, content-rich category or tag pages, submitting them to search engines can help with indexing and visibility.

However, be mindful of the potential issues related to duplicate content and index bloat, and always prioritize high-value pages over thin, low-content pages.

By being selective and strategic about which taxonomy pages to include in your sitemap, you can ensure that search engines crawl and index the most valuable parts of your site, improving your SEO performance overall.