Google: XML Sitemap Do Not Help With User ExperienceXML sitemaps are not something users look at and obviously do not have any impact on user experience...
...XML Sitemaps are for machines, not humans. So they give machines a good experience, but not users a good user experience....
Aug 17, 2020
Make sure you (or your website developer/web designer) knows what they are doing.
A XML sitemap can hurt your site if not done properly. Also, as noted in the Google article linked to above, you do not have to have one. Using proper internal linking will get the search bots to your pages.
A HTML site map is a tool for your user to find their way to specific pages if in a hurry or gets lost on your site. As noted in the Nielsen Norman article linked to above most users will not use it but it is there in case they need it. It is not for listing summary of your inventory without any links to your "static" content pages. (Yes I have seen a lot of sites using a site map incorrectly lately)