BUSTED
XML sitemaps boost rankings
TECHNICAL
LOW Impact
BEGINNER
The Myth
"Having an XML sitemap directly improves your rankings."
The Truth
XML sitemaps do NOT boost rankings. They help Google discover and crawl your pages, but they don't give you any ranking advantage. Sitemaps are useful for large sites, new sites, or sites with poor internal linking where Google might not naturally find all pages. For most sites with good structure, sitemaps are helpful but not critical.
DInsight from @dejanseo
"Sitemaps are housekeeping, not strategy. Have one, keep it updated, then forget about it. It won't move the needle on rankings."