Sitemap Generator – Create XML Sitemap Free
Base URL — auto-prepended to all relative paths
Output Options
4 URLs in sitemap
How to submit your sitemap:
- Download sitemap.xml
- Upload to your website root: yoursite.com/sitemap.xml
- Add to robots.txt: Sitemap: https://yoursite.com/sitemap.xml
- Submit in Google Search Console → search.google.com/search-console
What is an XML Sitemap?
An XML sitemap is a structured file that lists every important URL on your website. It is written in XML format and submitted to search engines like Google and Bing so their crawlers know which pages exist, how frequently they change, and which ones are most important. Without a sitemap, search engines still find pages through internal links — but a sitemap ensures no page gets missed, especially on large or newly launched sites.
Why Does Your Website Need a Sitemap?
Search engines have limited crawl budgets. A sitemap helps them allocate that budget efficiently by surfacing your most important pages directly. Key benefits include:
- Faster indexing of new or updated pages
- Discovery of deep pages that have few or no inbound links
- Improved crawl coverage on large sites with thousands of URLs
- Better visibility for video, image, and news content through specialized sitemaps
- Diagnosis of crawl errors through Search Console reports
How to Create and Submit a Sitemap
- Add your website URLs using the Manual Input or Bulk Paste tab above.
- Set the priority and change frequency for each page.
- Click Download sitemap.xml to save the generated file.
- Upload sitemap.xml to your website root directory.
- Submit the URL in Google Search Console under Indexing → Sitemaps.
- Submit to Bing Webmaster Tools at bing.com/webmasters as well.
Sitemap Best Practices
- Keep each sitemap file under 50,000 URLs and 50 MB uncompressed.
- Update the lastmod date only when the page content actually changes.
- Use priority 1.0 exclusively for your homepage.
- Set changefreq accurately — overstating frequency wastes crawl budget.
- Always use HTTPS URLs, never HTTP.
- Split very large sites into multiple sitemaps and link them from a sitemap index file.
- Exclude pages with a noindex tag, redirects, and duplicate content URLs.
Priority and Change Frequency Guide
| Page Type | Priority | Change Freq |
|---|---|---|
| Homepage | 1.0 | Weekly |
| Blog posts | 0.8 | Monthly |
| Product pages | 0.8 | Weekly |
| Category pages | 0.7 | Weekly |
| About / Contact | 0.5 | Yearly |
| Old content | 0.3 | Never |
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an XML sitemap?
An XML sitemap is a file that lists all the important pages on your website and tells search engines like Google and Bing where to find them. It helps search engines crawl and index your site more efficiently.
Does every website need a sitemap?
Not every site strictly requires a sitemap, but it is strongly recommended. Large sites, new sites with few inbound links, and sites with rich media content benefit most. Even small sites benefit because a sitemap ensures no pages are missed during crawling.
How often should I update my sitemap?
Update your sitemap whenever you add, remove, or significantly change pages. For blogs or news sites that publish frequently, update it daily or weekly. Update the lastmod date to reflect when each page was last changed.
What is sitemap priority?
Priority is a value from 0.1 to 1.0 that indicates the relative importance of a page on your site compared to other pages. Use 1.0 for your homepage, 0.8 for main sections, 0.5 for standard pages, and 0.1–0.3 for rarely updated archive pages.
What is changefreq in a sitemap?
changefreq tells search engines how often a page is likely to change — values include always, hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, and never. It is a hint, not a directive. Search engines may ignore it but use it to prioritize crawl frequency.
How do I submit a sitemap to Google?
Go to Google Search Console, select your property, navigate to Sitemaps under the Index section, enter the URL of your sitemap (e.g. https://yoursite.com/sitemap.xml), and click Submit.
How many URLs can a sitemap have?
A single sitemap file can contain up to 50,000 URLs and must not exceed 50 MB uncompressed. If your site has more than 50,000 pages, split them into multiple sitemap files and create a sitemap index file that references each one.
What is the difference between sitemap.xml and sitemap.html?
sitemap.xml is a machine-readable file intended for search engine crawlers. sitemap.html is a human-readable page listing your site's content for visitors. Both can coexist and serve different purposes. Search engines use the XML version.
Should I include all pages in my sitemap?
No. Exclude pages that have a noindex directive, duplicate content pages, admin or login pages, thank-you pages, and filtered or paginated URLs that add no unique content. Include only canonical, indexable URLs you want search engines to discover.
How do I submit my sitemap to Bing?
Go to Bing Webmaster Tools at bing.com/webmasters, add your site, then navigate to Sitemaps and submit your sitemap URL. Bing also picks up sitemaps automatically if you add the Sitemap directive to your robots.txt file.
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