Google’s Mueller: AI Crawlers Access Sitemaps, RSS Feeds

Featured Image: Tetiana Yurchenko/Shutterstock. Google wordmark: Source: Google. — Image credit: Search Engine Journal

Google search advocate John Mueller confirmed Thursday that artificial intelligence (AI) training crawlers frequently access sitemaps and RSS feeds, advising site owners on best practices for content discovery and privacy.

Mueller’s comments offer guidance for webmasters aiming to make their content accessible to AI systems or, conversely, to keep certain sitemaps hidden from broad access.

AI crawlers, unlike traditional search engine bots, typically do not offer a submission mechanism similar to Google Search Console, Mueller noted. He suggested that sites wishing to be found by these AI systems should use a generic sitemap.xml file name or leverage RSS feeds.

Mueller stated that he observed AI crawlers accessing his own sitemap and RSS files within his personal server logs. This direct observation underscores the active role these crawlers play in content discovery.

For site owners seeking to keep specific sitemaps private, Mueller recommended using an unusual file name, excluding the sitemap from the robots.txt file, and submitting it only to specific, intended systems.

The llms.txt file, designed to control AI crawler access, is not a substitute for an XML sitemap, Mueller clarified. He explained that Google’s systems currently cannot utilize llms.txt in the same way due to its less structured format compared to XML sitemaps.

Regarding common issues in Google Search Console, Mueller addressed instances where a valid sitemap might display a “Couldn’t fetch” error. He attributed such errors to factors like host load or low crawl demand, often linked to the perceived quality of a website.

Google’s Martin Splitt previously discussed similar challenges, highlighting the complexities of how various crawlers interact with web content. Mueller’s recent remarks further clarify the distinct behaviors of AI training crawlers.

The increasing presence of AI crawlers necessitates that webmasters understand how these systems interact with existing web infrastructure, particularly sitemaps and RSS feeds, to manage content visibility effectively.

Source: Search Engine Journal