Question: What is a Mobile Sitemap and How Can I Create One?

A mobile sitemap is essentially a blueprint for your mobile site that helps search engines understand the structure of its content. This becomes increasingly important as mobile browsing takes precedence over desktop. If you have separate URLs for mobile and desktop versions of your site, having a mobile sitemap can increase visibility during mobile-only indexing.

Here are the steps to create a mobile sitemap:

1. Identify Mobile URLs: The first step is identifying all the mobile URLs on your website. These are usually separate from the standard desktop URLs.

2. Create the XML Sitemap: You need to create an XML file that lists the URLs of the mobile version of your website. Each URL must be enclosed within <url> tags. A simple example would look something like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"
  xmlns:mobile="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-mobile/1.0">
  <url>
    <loc>http://example.com/mypage.html</loc>
    <mobile:mobile/>
  </url>
</urlset>

In the above XML, the <loc> tag specifies the webpage's location (URL). The <mobile:mobile/> self-closing tag indicates that this URL is meant for a mobile website.

3. Validate the Sitemap: Use a sitemap validator tool to check if the sitemap has been created correctly without any errors.

4. Submit the Sitemap to Search Engines: Finally, submit the sitemap to search engines. For Google, you can use the Google Search Console. You should also include a link to your sitemap in your robots.txt file.

Please note that if your website uses responsive design (the same URLs for desktop and mobile), you don't need a separate mobile sitemap. Your standard sitemap would suffice.