Difference between HTML and XML Sitemap?

[Connor]

Hello,

Can anyone please tell me the actual difference between HTML sitemap and XML sitemap? I have uploaded XML sitemap of my website but not getting the concept of HTML sitemap.

[Jake_J]

Hello,

As an SEO and Google point of view, both sitemaps are important and preferred.

• HTML Sitemap: It is easily available for the user and crawler. All visitors can see an HTML sitemap of the website. Usually, eCommerce sites like Amazon, or Flipkart has HTML sitemap on their websites. It does not tell the last modification to the user as well as a crawler.
• XML Sitemap: It is an XML file which is prepared for the web crawler only not for the user. This XML file is uploaded into the root directory of the website. It tells the crawler how many pages are present on your website. It also tells the last modification of webpages and frequency of modification and timing to the crawler.

[Rodney]

Hello,

As an SEO and Google point of view, both sitemaps are important and preferred.

• HTML Sitemap: It is easily available for the user and crawler. All visitors can see an HTML sitemap of the website. Usually, eCommerce sites like Amazon, or Flipkart has HTML sitemap on their websites. It does not tell the last modification to the user as well as a crawler.
• XML Sitemap: It is an XML file which is prepared for the web crawler only not for the user. This XML file is uploaded into the root directory of the website. It tells the crawler how many pages are present on your website. It also tells the last modification of webpages and frequency of modification and timing to the crawler.

Hey, Jake I am totally agree with that explanation.

An XML sitemap is useful to index your website URL in the Google SERP and HTML sitemap helps to navigate the visitor properly. It also helps to reduce the bounce of the website.

[Elliott]

Hello,

Can anyone please tell me the actual difference between HTML sitemap and XML sitemap? I have uploaded XML sitemap of my website but not getting the concept of HTML sitemap.

An XML sitemap is for the crawler to tell them to prefer these webpages to crawl and index as per their preferences. After robots.txt it's the second file that crawlers look for.
HTML sitemap is for user-friendliness it helps visitors to navigate to your website from any page to anywhere just by reaching your HTML or viewable sitemap.

[Aiden]

Hello,

In simple language, XML is primarily used for the search engines while HTML is written for the visitors. An XML sitemap protocol is specifically designed for search engine crawlers/spiders.