How to generate an XML sitemap
- Paste the full URLs of the pages you want search engines to find, one per line, starting with
https://. - Choose whether to include a last-modified date, change frequency and priority.
- Click Generate sitemap. Invalid lines are listed so you can fix them.
- Copy the XML or download
sitemap.xml, upload it to your site’s root, and submit it in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.
Important: this tool does not crawl your site
This sitemap XML generator builds a sitemap from the URLs you give it. It doesn’t visit or crawl your website to discover pages. You can get a list of URLs by exporting it from your CMS, your analytics, a spreadsheet of your pages or a desktop crawling tool. If your site runs on WordPress with an SEO plugin like Yoast, a sitemap is usually created and updated automatically, so you may not need this tool at all.
The output follows the sitemaps.org 0.9 protocol. Characters such as & in URLs are escaped correctly so the file stays valid XML. Automatic priority gives the homepage 1.0 and lowers the value for deeper pages. The tool warns you if your list mixes different domains, since a sitemap should only list pages from the site that hosts it, and it enforces the 50,000-URL limit per file.
When a manual sitemap is useful
- Static or hand-coded websites without a CMS.
- Landing page sites hosted on simple platforms.
- Creating a separate sitemap for a specific section or campaign.
- Testing sitemap submission for a new site.
Sitemap generator FAQ
Do I need changefreq and priority?
They are optional. Google ignores them, though other search engines may use them. An accurate lastmod date is more useful.
How many URLs can a sitemap hold?
Up to 50,000 URLs and 50 MB uncompressed. Larger sites use several sitemaps listed in a sitemap index.
Where should I put sitemap.xml?
Usually in your site’s root folder. Also add a Sitemap: line to robots.txt so crawlers can find it.