What is an XML sitemap and do I need one?

An XML sitemap is a machine-readable list of the pages on your website that you want search engines to find, usually living at yourdomain.com.au/sitemap.xml. It does not make pages rank — it helps Google discover them:

• Where it matters most — discovery matters most for new sites, large sites, or pages that are not well linked from elsewhere.
• Automatic generation — most modern platforms (WordPress, Shopify, Squarespace, Wix) generate and update one automatically, so you rarely build it by hand.
• One-time submission — submit the sitemap URL once in Google Search Console, then check the Sitemaps report to confirm Google read it and to see how many of the listed pages it actually indexed.
• The submitted-vs-indexed gap — a wide gap between submitted and indexed is a signal worth investigating.

A sitemap helps Google find your pages; it does not force Google to rank, or even index, them.