What Is an XML Sitemap?
An XML sitemap is a structured file that lists the URLs on your website you want search engines to crawl and index. Defined by the sitemaps.org protocol (supported by Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Yandex), it acts as a roadmap for search engine crawlers — telling them which pages exist, when they were last updated, how often they change, and their relative importance within your site.
Without a sitemap, search engines rely solely on following links to discover your pages. This means orphan pages (pages with no internal links pointing to them), newly published content, and deep pages buried several clicks from the homepage may never get crawled. A sitemap.xml file solves this by explicitly listing every URL you want indexed.
Our free sitemap generator crawls your website automatically, discovers all internal pages, and creates a valid XML sitemap you can download and upload to your server. You can also reference it in your robots.txt file so crawlers can find it immediately. For domain-level SEO analysis, use our Domain Health Checker.
How to Create a Sitemap with Our Generator
Creating a valid sitemap.xml takes four simple steps:
Enter Your Website URL
Type your domain or full URL into the generator. Choose a crawl limit (25, 50, 100, or 200 pages) and click Generate. The tool starts crawling your site immediately.
Review Discovered Pages
The crawler discovers internal pages by following links. Each URL shows its page title, status code, and the number of outgoing links found. Select or deselect individual URLs to include.
Customize Priority & Frequency
Set the priority (0.0–1.0) and change frequency (always, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, never) for each URL. The generator auto-suggests values based on URL depth and path patterns.
Download Your Sitemap
Preview the generated XML, then copy to clipboard or download the sitemap.xml file. Upload it to your website's root directory and submit the URL to Google Search Console.
XML Sitemap Format Explained
Every XML sitemap follows the sitemaps.org protocol. Here's a breakdown of the four tags available for each URL entry:
<loc>RequiredRequired. The full URL of the page. Must include the protocol (https://) and be properly encoded. This is the only required tag — all others are optional.
<lastmod>RecommendedThe date the page was last modified, in W3C Datetime format (YYYY-MM-DD). Google uses this to identify updated content that may need recrawling. Keep this accurate.
<changefreq>OptionalHints how frequently the page changes: always, hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, or never. Google has confirmed they largely ignore this tag.
<priority>OptionalA value from 0.0 to 1.0 indicating the relative importance of the URL within your site. Default is 0.5. Google has confirmed they largely ignore this tag.
Example sitemap.xml entry:
<url> <loc>https://example.com/about</loc> <lastmod>2026-02-20</lastmod> <changefreq>monthly</changefreq> <priority>0.8</priority> </url>
Sitemap Best Practices for SEO
Follow these sitemap best practices to maximize your SEO benefit:
Keep lastmod Accurate
Only update the lastmod date when page content actually changes. Fake dates trigger crawling but Google will learn to ignore your sitemap if dates are unreliable.
Include Only Indexable URLs
Only list pages you want indexed. Exclude noindex pages, redirects, canonicalized duplicates, and error pages. Every URL in your sitemap should return a 200 status code.
Use Canonical URLs
Use the same URL format consistently — choose either www or non-www, http or https. Every URL in your sitemap should match its canonical tag. Avoid query parameters.
Reference in robots.txt
Add a Sitemap directive to your robots.txt file pointing to your sitemap. This ensures crawlers find it immediately. Use our robots.txt generator to create both files.
Compress Large Sitemaps
Gzip compress your sitemap to reduce bandwidth. Google and Bing support .xml.gz files. For sites with 50,000+ URLs, use a sitemap index file to reference multiple sitemaps.
Submit to Search Engines
Submit your sitemap URL to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. Monitor for crawl errors and indexing issues. Resubmit after major site changes.
How to Submit Your Sitemap to Google
After generating and uploading your sitemap.xml, submit it to search engines for faster discovery:
Upload sitemap.xml to your website root directory (accessible at yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml)
Open Google Search Console → select your property → click Sitemaps in the left menu
Enter the full URL of your sitemap and click Submit
Google will process the sitemap and report status (Success, Has errors, or Couldn't fetch)
For Bing: go to Bing Webmaster Tools → Sitemaps → Submit a sitemap
You can also add a Sitemap: https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml line to your robots.txt file — crawlers check this file automatically.
Common Sitemap Mistakes to Avoid
Including Noindex Pages
If a page has a noindex meta tag, don't include it in the sitemap. Google will see conflicting signals — the sitemap says 'index this' while the page says 'don't index me'.
Stale lastmod Dates
Don't set all lastmod dates to today or update them without actual content changes. Google learns to ignore sitemaps with unreliable dates, reducing your crawl efficiency.
Non-Canonical URLs
If example.com/page has a canonical pointing to example.com/page-2, only include example.com/page-2 in the sitemap. Including non-canonical URLs wastes crawl budget.
Blocked by robots.txt
If robots.txt blocks a URL, don't include it in the sitemap. Google may still try to index the URL based on the sitemap, creating crawl errors in Search Console.
Related Tools
Complement your sitemap with these free SEO and webmaster tools:
Create and customize robots.txt files with visual editor and AI bot blocking presets.
Analyze internal and external links on any page for SEO optimization.
Run DNS, email, and security checks for a comprehensive domain health report.
Inspect HTTP response headers including caching, security, and X-Robots-Tag.
Trace HTTP redirect chains and verify 301/302 redirects work correctly.
Detect the CMS platform, frameworks, and technologies used by any website.
Verify SSL certificate validity, expiration, and security configuration.
Check all DNS records (A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, NS, TXT) for any domain.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an XML sitemap?
An XML sitemap is a file that lists all the important URLs on your website. It helps search engines discover, crawl, and index your pages more efficiently. The file follows the sitemaps.org protocol and includes optional metadata like last modification date and priority.
How do I generate a sitemap?
Enter your website URL in our generator and click Generate. The tool crawls your site, discovers internal pages, and creates a valid sitemap.xml. You can customize priorities and frequencies, then download the file to upload to your server.
Where do I put the sitemap.xml file?
Upload it to your website's root directory so it's accessible at https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml. Submit the URL to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. Reference it in your robots.txt file with a Sitemap directive.
How many URLs can a sitemap contain?
Up to 50,000 URLs and 50 MB uncompressed per file. For larger sites, use a sitemap index file that references multiple sitemaps. You can also gzip compress sitemaps to reduce file size.
Does Google use priority and changefreq?
Google has confirmed they largely ignore priority and changefreq tags. They use their own algorithms for crawl frequency and page importance. The lastmod tag is the most useful — Google uses it to identify recently updated content.
How do I submit a sitemap to Google?
Go to Google Search Console → Sitemaps → enter your sitemap URL → click Submit. Google processes it and reports any errors. For Bing, use Bing Webmaster Tools → Sitemaps → Submit a sitemap.
Should I include all pages?
Include only pages you want indexed. Exclude noindex pages, redirects, canonicalized duplicates, pagination, search results, and thin content. Every URL should return a 200 status code.
How often should I update my sitemap?
Update it whenever you add, remove, or significantly modify pages. For dynamic sites, generate it automatically on each deployment. Keep lastmod dates accurate to help Google prioritize recrawling.
What is a sitemap index file?
An XML file that references multiple sitemap files. Used when you have more than 50,000 URLs or your sitemap exceeds 50 MB. Google and Bing support sitemap index files.
Do I need a sitemap if my site is small?
Small sites with good internal linking may not strictly need one, but a sitemap is still recommended. It ensures all pages are discoverable, helps new content get indexed faster, and provides metadata that aids crawling efficiency.