Sitemap Generator

How to create a sitemap.xml

A sitemap is one of the first things search-engine optimizers make for a new site. It is a simple XML file that lists every page you want indexed, and it helps crawlers find pages that are buried deep in your navigation or linked only from JavaScript menus.

1. Paste your URLs above, one per line. They must be complete addresses starting with https://.
2. Set your defaults. Choose a changefreq, a priority between 0.0 and 1.0, and whether to stamp today's date as lastmod.
3. Copy or download. The preview updates live; copy the XML or download it as sitemap.xml.
4. Publish it. Upload the file to your site's root and submit it in Google Search Console under Sitemaps.

What each tag means

<loc> is the page's URL (required). <lastmod> is the date the page last changed, in YYYY-MM-DD format. <changefreq> says how often the page changes — always, hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, or never. <priority> ranks the page from 0.0 to 1.0 against your other pages. Special characters in URLs (like &) are escaped automatically so the XML stays valid.

Common mistakes to avoid

Do not include redirect URLs, error pages, or pages blocked by your robots.txt — that wastes your crawl budget and can confuse search engines. Also, every URL in one sitemap must come from the same host (no mixing www and non-www unless they both resolve to the same site).

What is a sitemap.xml file?

A sitemap.xml is a machine-readable list of the pages on your website. Search engines like Google read it to discover your pages and understand which ones matter most. It does not guarantee indexing, but it helps crawlers find pages they might otherwise miss.

Do the URLs need the full https:// address?

Yes. Every entry must be an absolute URL starting with http:// or https://, and it must belong to the same site that hosts the sitemap. This tool flags any line that is not a valid absolute URL instead of silently dropping it.

What are changefreq and priority for?

changefreq tells crawlers how often a page is expected to change (daily, weekly, monthly, and so on); priority ranks a page's importance from 0.0 to 1.0 relative to your other pages. Both are hints, not orders — search engines treat them as suggestions.

What should I put in lastmod?

lastmod is the date the page was last changed, in YYYY-MM-DD format. This tool can stamp today's date on every URL, or leave lastmod out entirely if you don't track modification dates.

How do I give the sitemap to Google?

Upload sitemap.xml to the root of your website (for example https://yoursite.com/sitemap.xml) and submit that URL in Google Search Console under Sitemaps. You can also point to it from your robots.txt file with a Sitemap: line.

Is there a limit to how many URLs a sitemap can hold?

Yes: a single sitemap may contain at most 50,000 URLs and must be no larger than 50 MB uncompressed. If your site is bigger than that, split it into several sitemaps and list them all in a sitemap index file.