What is an XML sitemap?
An XML sitemap is a file that lists the pages of your website that you want search engines to find. It works like a table of contents for crawlers. Google can discover pages by following links, but a sitemap makes sure new pages, deep pages and pages with few links are found quickly. It is especially helpful for new websites, large sites and sites that add content often.
How to create your sitemap
- Paste the full URLs of your important pages, one per line. Include
https://. - Choose whether to add today's date as the last-modified date.
- Click Generate sitemap. Invalid lines and duplicates are reported and left out.
- Download
sitemap.xml, upload it to the root folder of your site and check that it opens atyourdomain.com/sitemap.xml. - Submit the sitemap URL in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, and add it to your robots.txt.
Sitemap format
<url>
<loc>https://example.com/about</loc>
<lastmod>2026-10-24</lastmod>
</url>
- loc (required): the full, canonical URL of the page. Special characters like
&are escaped automatically. - lastmod (recommended): when the page content last changed. Google uses it if it is accurate, so update it only when the page really changes.
- changefreq and priority (optional): Google says it ignores these, but some other search engines may read them.
Which pages to include
Include pages you want to appear in search results: your home page, main sections, products, services, articles and tools. Leave out login pages, thank-you pages, internal search results, duplicate pages and anything marked noindex. Every URL should return a normal 200 status, not a redirect or an error.
Frequently asked questions
Can this tool crawl my site automatically?
Web browsers cannot read other websites directly for security reasons, so paste your URL list. Many CMS platforms, such as WordPress, can also create a sitemap automatically.
Is there a size limit?
One sitemap can hold 50,000 URLs and be up to 50 MB uncompressed. Larger sites use several sitemaps and a sitemap index.
How often should I update it?
Whenever you add or remove pages. Search engines check it again regularly.