Sitemap Generator

Generate valid sitemap.xml files for your website. Add URLs with last modified date, change frequency, and priority. Use presets for common site structures or import existing sitemaps.

What is Sitemap Generator?

A Sitemap Generator creates XML sitemap files that tell search engines exactly which pages exist on your website, when they were last updated, how often they change, and their relative importance to each other. The XML Sitemap protocol (defined at sitemaps.org and supported by Google, Bing, Yahoo, and all major search engines) is one of the most effective ways to ensure all your website's pages get discovered and indexed, especially for large sites, newly launched sites, or sites with pages that are not well-linked internally. Without a sitemap, search engine crawlers must discover your pages by following links—which means pages buried deep in your site architecture, not well-linked from other pages, or recently published may go undiscovered for weeks or months. A sitemap eliminates this uncertainty by explicitly telling crawlers: 'These are all the pages I want you to index.' Each URL entry in the sitemap can include a lastmod date (when the page was last substantially updated—helping Google understand freshness), a changefreq hint (how often content typically changes), and a priority value (0.0–1.0 indicating relative importance to help crawlers allocate crawl budget). The sitemap also helps search engines understand your site structure, making it a fundamental SEO technical requirement for virtually every website.

How to Use Sitemap Generator

Start by selecting a preset template that matches your site type: Blog (homepage, category pages, and blog posts with appropriate priorities), E-commerce (homepage, category pages, product pages), Corporate (homepage, services, about, contact), or Documentation (homepage and doc pages). The preset populates the URL list with a realistic structure you can customize. To add URLs manually, click 'Add URL' and enter the full page URL including the https:// prefix. Set the lastmod date to the most recent date you made substantial content changes to that page (not CSS or template changes—only content changes that matter to readers). Set changefreq to your page's update pattern: always (real-time changing content), hourly, daily (news, live data), weekly (blog), monthly (stable content), yearly (legal pages), or never (archived content). Set priority from 0.1 to 1.0—assign 1.0 to your homepage, 0.8 to major section pages, 0.6 to regular content pages, and 0.3–0.4 to low-importance pages. Click Generate to produce the XML, then Download to save sitemap.xml and upload it to your web server root. Add the sitemap URL to your robots.txt file as Sitemap: https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml, then submit it in Google Search Console under Sitemaps.

FAQ

Where should I place the sitemap.xml file?

Upload sitemap.xml to your website's root directory so it is accessible at https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml. Reference it in your robots.txt file with the line Sitemap: https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml so search engines can find it automatically during their crawl. Most importantly, submit it directly to Google Search Console (Search Console > Sitemaps > Add a new sitemap) and Bing Webmaster Tools for immediate processing. Static site generators like Next.js, Gatsby, and Nuxt can also generate sitemaps automatically during the build process.

What should I set for the priority and changefreq fields?

Priority (0.0–1.0) is relative—it only matters in relation to your other pages. Typical values: Homepage = 1.0, Main section/category pages = 0.8, Regular content pages (blog posts, product pages) = 0.6, Supplementary pages (about, contact, FAQ) = 0.4, Low-importance pages (archive, tag pages) = 0.2. Changefreq hints: always for live data, daily for news/blog homepages, weekly for regularly updated blog content, monthly for stable service pages, yearly for legal/about pages. Note: Google has publicly stated it mostly ignores changefreq and priority hints—set them for Bing and other engines that use them.

How many URLs can a sitemap contain?

A single XML sitemap file can contain a maximum of 50,000 URLs and must be under 50MB in file size (uncompressed). Sites exceeding these limits must use a sitemap index file—an XML file that lists multiple sitemap files, each staying under the 50,000 URL limit. Large e-commerce sites often have separate sitemaps for products, categories, and blog content, all referenced from a sitemap index. Dynamic frameworks like Magento, WordPress, Shopify, and Next.js generate sitemap indexes automatically.

Should I include every page of my website in the sitemap?

No. Only include pages you want indexed in search results. Exclude: duplicate content pages (sort/filter URL parameters like ?sort=price&color=red), paginated pages beyond page 1 (or handle them with rel=canonical), admin and internal tool pages, thank-you pages after form submissions, login/account pages, and low-value placeholder pages. Including low-quality pages in your sitemap dilutes your crawl budget and can signal poor site quality to search engines. Focus your sitemap on pages with unique, valuable content.

Do I need an image sitemap or video sitemap?

For most websites, a standard URL sitemap is sufficient. Image sitemaps (using the <image:image> extension) help Google index images that might be missed by crawlers—useful for photography sites, stock image libraries, and image-heavy e-commerce. Video sitemaps (using <video:video> extension) help Google index and show video thumbnails in search results—useful for sites with significant video content. News sitemaps (<news:news> extension) are for Google News publishers requiring fresh content indexing within hours of publication.