Sitemap Generator

  • Release version: Xanadu
  • Updated August 1, 2024
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Sitemap Generator

    The ServiceNow® Sitemap Generator application enables you to define and automatically generate XML sitemaps to enhance search engine optimization (SEO) for your public portal pages. This tool is designed to help search engines effectively index your portal content, improving discoverability.

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    Activation

    You can activate the Sitemap Generator application (snuxseositemap) directly from your ServiceNow instance if you have the admin role. It is also available on the ServiceNow Store, where you can find other apps and submit requests.

    Sitemap Requirements

    When creating sitemaps, it is essential to ensure they meet specific criteria since automatic validation is not provided:

    • Include only pages accessible to unauthenticated users (public pages). The generator automatically excludes non-public portal URLs, except those with custom domains, which require manual verification.
    • Exclude pages that respond with HTTP 301 redirects.
    • Exclude pages containing the NOINDEX meta tag (such as retired or expired pages). If using scripts to generate sitemaps, implement logic similar to the SEO script include that manages NOINDEX tags.
    • For pages with canonical URLs or hreflang tags, ensure the sitemap includes those URLs as returned by the SEO script include.
    • For URLs with human-readable keywords, use the getHumanReadableUrl methods from the SPSEOUtilsSNC class to include those keywords in the sitemap URLs.

    These requirements are supported by code templates available in the application to guide your sitemap content definitions.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    • Improves SEO by providing well-structured XML sitemaps tailored for search engine crawlers.
    • Ensures only relevant, publicly accessible content is indexed, avoiding search penalties from redirects or NOINDEX pages.
    • Supports advanced SEO features like canonical URLs, hreflang tags, and human-readable keywords, enhancing content relevance and localization in search results.

    Additional Resources

    For detailed guidance on sitemap generation and SEO best practices, customers should consult:

    • Google’s documentation on building and submitting sitemaps.
    • The XML schema for sitemap protocol available at sitemaps.org.

    Use the ServiceNow® Sitemap Generator application to define and automatically generate XML sitemaps to improve search engine optimization of public portal pages.

    Activation information

    You can activate the Sitemap Generator application (sn_ux_seo_sitemap) from your instance. For more information, see Activate Sitemap Generator.

    You can also activate Sitemap Generator from the ServiceNow Store. Visit the ServiceNow Store website to view all the available apps and for information about submitting requests to the store. For cumulative release notes information for all released apps, see the ServiceNow Store version history release notes.

    Sitemap requirements

    The sitemap is generated from a script or static XML. When creating a sitemap, you must ensure that its contents meet the following requirements because validating them isn’t handled automatically:

    • Includes only pages with unauthenticated user access.

      Sitemap Generator automatically excludes portal URLs that aren’t publicly accessible from sitemaps. However, this doesn’t apply for URLs with custom domains instead of the ServiceNow domain. URLs that are excluded from the sitemap are listed in the Application Log [syslog_app_scope] table.

    • Excludes pages that respond with a 301 redirect.
    • Excludes pages with the NOINDEX meta tag, such as retired or expired pages. If you use a script to create the sitemap, include logic similar to that of the SEO script include you used to add NOINDEX meta tags to pages to exclude those pages from the sitemap. For more information, see Configure custom SEO tags for canonical URLs and localized knowledge articles.
    • For any pages with canonical URLs or hreflang tags, the sitemap includes those canonical URLs or URLs with hreflang tags returned by the SEO script include for that page. If you use a script to create the sitemap, include logic similar to that of the SEO script include you used to return canonical URLs or URLs with hreflang tags. For more information, see SEO for canonical URLs and localized versions of knowledge articles.
    • For any pages with human readable keywords in URLS, the sitemap includes those URLs with human readable keywords. If you use a script to create the sitemap, use one of the getHumanReadableUrl methods in the SPSEOUtilsSNC class to return the human readable keywords and include them in the sitemap URLs. For more information, see Add human readable keywords to page URLs.
    Note:
    Guidance on how to meet these requirements is included in the code templates in the Script and Static XML fields where the sitemap contents are defined. For more information, see Generate XML sitemaps for SEO indexing.
    For more information about sitemap requirements for SEO, refer to the following resources: