Hubspot Guide to Building an SEO-Friendly Sitemap

Following Hubspot style best practices for sitemaps helps search engines crawl and index your website efficiently, which can directly improve your visibility and organic traffic.

This guide walks you through what a sitemap is, how it works, and how to create and optimize one step-by-step, using a process inspired by the official Hubspot marketing blog.

What Is a Sitemap?

A sitemap is a structured file, usually in XML format, that lists important pages on your site and tells search engines how they relate to each other.

Think of it as a roadmap for crawlers such as Googlebot or Bingbot. When they access this roadmap, they can:

Discover new pages you publish
Understand your site hierarchy
Prioritize which pages to crawl
Detect updates and changes more quickly

According to the original article on the Hubspot marketing blog, sitemaps complement good site architecture but never replace it. You still need clean navigation and internal links.

Types of Sitemaps You Should Know

Before you follow any Hubspot inspired process, you need to know the main sitemap formats.

XML Sitemap

An XML sitemap is designed for search engines. It usually contains:

Canonical URLs
Last modified dates
Update frequency hints
Relative priority information

This is the file you submit in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.

HTML Sitemap

An HTML sitemap is created primarily for human visitors. It is a simple web page that lists links to key areas of your site, often grouped by category or topic.

While not mandatory, many Hubspot style content sites use HTML sitemaps as a usability boost for large resource libraries.

When You Need a Sitemap

Most modern websites benefit from having at least one XML sitemap, but it becomes crucial when:

Your site has hundreds of pages or more
You publish new content frequently
You have complex navigation or deep page levels
You host rich media like video or images that need extra signals
You have multilingual or multi-regional content

Hubspot-like inbound marketing sites, which grow quickly with blogs, landing pages, and resources, should always maintain a fresh sitemap.

Step 1: Audit and Organize Your Content

Before generating the file, review your website structure. A clean hierarchy makes your sitemap easier to manage and more useful.

List all core sections
Examples: Home, About, Services, Blog, Resources, Contact.
Group pages by topic or funnel stage
For a Hubspot style inbound site, that might be awareness, consideration, and decision content groups.
Identify index-worthy URLs
Exclude thin, duplicate, or test pages. Only include URLs that should appear in search results.
Fix broken links and redirects
Resolve 404s and permanent redirects before generating your sitemap to avoid submitting outdated URLs.

Step 2: Choose a Sitemap Generation Method

You can create a sitemap manually or with tools. The original Hubspot resource highlights automation for most users, especially marketers who publish often.

Automatic Generation via CMS or Plugins

If you use a content management system, check whether it builds sitemaps for you.

WordPress: SEO plugins such as Rank Math or Yoast create and refresh XML sitemaps automatically.
Other CMS platforms: Many have built-in sitemap modules or extensions.
Marketing platforms: Some tools modeled on Hubspot workflows offer one-click sitemap features.

For most teams, automatic generation is the best option because it stays in sync as content grows.

Manual or Tool-Based XML Creation

If your platform does not create sitemaps, you can:

Use an online generator that crawls your site and exports XML
Export URLs from your database or analytics tool and format them into XML
Hand-code a small sitemap if you have only a few pages

Whatever method you choose, keep the file updated when you add, remove, or change important URLs.

Step 3: Follow Hubspot Style Sitemap Best Practices

To mirror the quality standards you see on Hubspot properties, apply these technical and strategic rules.

Prioritize High-Value Pages

Ensure your sitemap focuses on pages that matter for users and search engines:

Primary service or product pages
Pillar content and cornerstone guides
Key blog posts that drive traffic and leads
Important resource downloads and landing pages

Avoid including:

Admin or login URLs
Filter parameters and internal search results
Duplicate content or printer-friendly versions

Use Canonical URLs Only

Every URL in your sitemap should be a canonical version of a page. If you use canonical tags to consolidate duplicates, list only the canonical URL in the sitemap file.

Split Large Sitemaps When Needed

Search engines have limits on the number of URLs per file. If you manage a very large Hubspot style content library, consider:

Breaking your sitemap into multiple files (for example, /blog-sitemap.xml, /product-sitemap.xml)
Creating a sitemap index file that references each of these parts

Keep the Sitemap Clean and Updated

To maintain trust with search engines, make sure your sitemap:

Contains only live, indexable URLs
Reflects changes quickly when pages are added or removed
Uses correct last modified dates

Regular maintenance is part of the same disciplined content operations you see on platforms influenced by Hubspot methodology.

Step 4: Host and Test Your Sitemap

Once created, place the sitemap file in the root directory of your domain so that it is accessible at a URL like https://example.com/sitemap.xml.

Reference the Sitemap in robots.txt

Add a line to your robots.txt file to help crawlers discover the sitemap automatically:

Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap.xml

This simple step increases consistency across crawlers and tools.

Validate the File

Before submission, validate your XML to ensure there are no syntax errors. Many online validators will parse the file and highlight issues like:

Malformed tags
Invalid dates
Incorrect encoding
Non-200 status URLs

Step 5: Submit the Sitemap to Search Engines

After hosting and testing, submit your sitemap to key search engines.

Google Search Console Submission

Sign in to Google Search Console.
Select your property (domain or URL prefix).
In the left navigation, click Sitemaps.
Enter the sitemap URL (for example, sitemap.xml).
Click Submit and monitor for status updates.

This process, which the Hubspot blog emphasizes, lets you see indexing coverage and potential crawl issues tied to your sitemap.

Bing Webmaster Tools Submission

In Bing Webmaster Tools, use the Sitemaps section to add the same sitemap URL. This gives Microsoft Bing clear instructions on what to crawl.

Step 6: Monitor Performance and Maintain Your Sitemap

Building a sitemap is not a one-time task. To maintain a Hubspot-level standard of SEO hygiene, you should:

Review sitemap coverage reports monthly
Remove URLs that become redirected or noindexed
Update the file whenever you launch new sections
Track impressions and clicks for key URLs in Search Console

If you manage complex sites or clients, consider working with specialized SEO and analytics partners such as Consultevo to streamline sitemap and indexing workflows.

Hubspot Style Sitemap Checklist

Use this quick checklist to confirm that your sitemap follows best practices inspired by the Hubspot guide:

The sitemap includes only canonical, indexable URLs.
High-value pages receive clear priority in structure.
No 404 or redirected URLs are present.
The sitemap is accessible at a stable URL, usually in the root directory.
robots.txt references the sitemap location.
The sitemap has been submitted to Google and Bing.
New content is added automatically via your CMS or process.
Reports are reviewed regularly to fix coverage issues.

By following these steps and adopting a process similar to what you see on the Hubspot blog, you create a reliable, search-friendly sitemap that supports scalable organic growth for your website.

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Hubspot Guide to Building Sitemaps