XML Sitemap Generator

What is an XML sitemap?

An XML sitemap is a file that lists the important pages of your website in a format search engines understand. It works like a table of contents for crawlers. A sitemap does not guarantee that every page gets indexed, but it helps Google and Bing discover new and updated pages faster, especially on new sites, large sites and sites with few backlinks.

This XML sitemap generator gives you two ways to build one:

• Paste a list of URLs, one per line, for full control.
• Crawl my website: enter your homepage and the tool follows your internal links to find pages automatically (up to 500). Pages marked noindex are skipped and canonical URLs are respected.

How to create a sitemap

1. Choose a tab: paste URLs or crawl your site.
2. Pick the optional fields: change frequency, priority and last modified date.
3. Click Create sitemap. Invalid lines and duplicates are removed automatically.
4. Click Download sitemap.xml and upload the file to the root folder of your site.
5. Submit https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.

Also add a Sitemap: line to your robots.txt. Our Robots.txt Generator does this for you.

What should go in your sitemap?

Only include pages you want to appear in search results:

• pages that return status 200, not redirects or 404 errors
• the canonical version of each page (one URL per page)
• pages that are not blocked by robots.txt or noindex

Leave out thank-you pages, login pages, filters and internal search results. Use the Broken Link Checker to find dead URLs before you add them.

Do priority and changefreq matter?

Google has said it ignores the priority and changefreq values, but it does use an accurate lastmod date. Bing may use them as hints. That is why the generator lets you leave them out. See Google's sitemap overview and the official sitemaps.org protocol for details.

A single sitemap can hold up to 50,000 URLs or 50 MB. Bigger sites split it into several files listed in a sitemap index.

Keep your sitemap healthy

A sitemap is only useful when it is accurate. Every few months, check that listed pages still work with the Broken Link Checker, confirm redirects with the Redirect Checker, and make sure pages are not near-duplicates with the Duplicate Content Checker. A full Website SEO Audit also confirms your sitemap is reachable.

XML sitemap format explained

A sitemap is a simple XML file. Each page is a <url> entry:

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Only <loc> is required. <lastmod> is useful when it is accurate, because Google uses it to decide when to re-crawl. The protocol is documented at sitemaps.org. One sitemap file can hold up to 50,000 URLs or 50 MB uncompressed; larger sites split it into several files listed in a sitemap index.

How to submit your sitemap to Google

1. Upload the file to the root of your site, so it opens at https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml.
2. Add a line to your robots.txt: Sitemap: https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml. Our Robots.txt Generator can do this for you.
3. Open Google Search Console, choose your property, go to Sitemaps, enter sitemap.xml and click Submit.
4. Come back after a few days. Search Console shows how many URLs were discovered and whether any could not be indexed.

For Bing, submit the same file in Bing Webmaster Tools, which can also import your sites from Search Console.

Pages that should not be in your sitemap

A sitemap should list the pages you want to rank. Leave out:

• Pages with a noindex tag (thank-you pages, internal search results).
• URLs that redirect somewhere else; list the final URL instead.
• Duplicate versions, such as URLs with tracking parameters or print versions.
• Pages that return errors.
• Login, cart and account pages.

Listing these sends mixed signals and makes the Search Console report harder to read.

Sitemaps for different kinds of websites

Small business sites with 10-50 pages can paste their URLs into this tool and update the file whenever they add a page. Blogs and news sites benefit from an automatic sitemap from their CMS, because new posts appear in the file immediately. Online shops often split sitemaps by type, for example products, categories and blog posts, so problems are easier to spot. Image and video sitemaps are optional extras that can help media appear in Google Images and video results.

Check your sitemap regularly

Every few months, test a sample of URLs from your sitemap with the Broken Link Checker and the Redirect Checker. Remove anything that no longer returns status 200, and make sure new important pages have been added.

Example: a 20-page business website

You run a local services website with a homepage, eight service pages, a few location pages, an about page, a contact page and a handful of blog posts. Generate the sitemap, upload it as sitemap.xml, add it to robots.txt and submit it in Search Console. Each time you publish a new service page or article, add its URL and upload the new file. Within a few weeks, the Pages report in Search Console will show which URLs are indexed and which need work.

Last updated: October 25, 2026