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Sitemap Generator

Generate XML sitemaps for your website with priority, change frequency, and last modified settings.

URLs (1)

Set all changefreq:Set all priority:

Generated sitemap.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
  <url>
    <loc>https://example.com/</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-03-30</lastmod>
    <changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
    <priority>1.0</priority>
  </url>
</urlset>
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Frequently Asked Questions

What is an XML sitemap?
An XML sitemap is a file that lists all important URLs on your website, along with metadata about each URL such as when it was last modified, how frequently it changes, and its relative priority. Search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo use sitemaps to discover and crawl pages more efficiently. The sitemap follows the Sitemaps Protocol format originally developed by Google.
Do I need a sitemap for my website?
While not strictly required, sitemaps are recommended for most websites. They are especially important for large websites with thousands of pages, websites with poor internal linking, new websites with few backlinks, websites with rich media content, and websites that are updated frequently. Google recommends sitemaps for any website that wants to ensure all pages are discovered.
What is the maximum number of URLs in a sitemap?
A single sitemap file can contain a maximum of 50,000 URLs and must be no larger than 50MB uncompressed. For websites with more URLs, create multiple sitemap files and reference them in a sitemap index file. Each sitemap can be gzip-compressed to reduce file size and bandwidth usage.
What does changefreq mean in a sitemap?
The changefreq tag indicates how frequently a page is likely to change. Valid values are: always, hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, and never. This is a hint to search engines, not a command. Google has stated they largely ignore this field, but other search engines may use it. Focus on lastmod dates for more reliable crawl scheduling.
What does priority mean in a sitemap?
The priority value ranges from 0.0 to 1.0 and indicates the relative importance of a URL compared to other URLs on your site. The default is 0.5. A homepage might have priority 1.0 while a category page has 0.8 and individual posts have 0.5. Note that priority only affects crawling of your own site; it does not affect ranking relative to other websites.
Where should I place the sitemap file?
Place your sitemap.xml at the root of your domain (e.g., https://example.com/sitemap.xml). Reference it in your robots.txt file with the Sitemap directive. You can also submit it directly through Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools for faster discovery. The sitemap URL can be placed anywhere accessible via HTTP, but the root is the standard location.

How to Use the Sitemap Generator

A properly formatted XML sitemap helps search engines discover and index your website pages efficiently. Our sitemap generator creates valid XML sitemaps that follow the Sitemaps Protocol specification, with configurable settings for each URL including last modification date, change frequency, and priority.

Step 1: Add your URLs. Enter your website URLs one per line in the input area. Include the full URL with protocol (https://). You can also paste an existing sitemap in XML format to edit it. The tool validates each URL for proper formatting.

Step 2: Configure per-URL settings. For each URL, optionally set the last modification date, change frequency (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.), and priority (0.0 to 1.0). These metadata values help search engines prioritize their crawling and understand how your content changes over time.

Step 3: Generate and download. The tool generates a valid XML sitemap that conforms to the Sitemaps Protocol specification. Preview the XML output, then download it as a sitemap.xml file ready to deploy to your website root directory.

Step 4: Deploy and submit. Upload the sitemap.xml to your website root directory and add a Sitemap directive to your robots.txt file. Submit the sitemap URL through Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools for faster discovery and indexing.

Understanding the Sitemaps Protocol

The Sitemaps Protocol is a URL inclusion standard that describes how search engines discover pages on a website. It was jointly developed by Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft in 2006 and has become the universal standard for communicating website structure to search engines. The protocol defines an XML format with specific tags for URL location, last modification, change frequency, and priority.

Each URL entry in a sitemap can include four properties. The loc tag (required) specifies the absolute URL of the page. The lastmod tag indicates when the page was last modified in W3C datetime format. The changefreq tag suggests how often the page content changes. The priority tag indicates the relative importance of the URL within your site hierarchy.

For large websites, sitemap index files allow you to organize multiple sitemaps. A sitemap index lists individual sitemap files, each of which can contain up to 50,000 URLs. This hierarchical structure supports websites with millions of pages while keeping individual files manageable and fast to parse.

Sitemap Best Practices for SEO

Include only canonical URLs. Your sitemap should contain the canonical version of each URL. Do not include duplicate pages, paginated URLs that redirect to the first page, or URLs that return non-200 status codes. Every URL in the sitemap should be a page you want indexed.

Keep lastmod accurate. Only update the lastmod date when the page content actually changes significantly. Search engines track lastmod changes to decide when to re-crawl pages. Artificially updating dates wastes crawl budget and can lead search engines to distrust your lastmod values entirely.

Use consistent URLs. Ensure the URLs in your sitemap match the URLs in your internal links and canonical tags. Inconsistencies between these signals can confuse search engines and dilute your page authority across multiple URL versions.

Why Use Our Sitemap Generator?

Valid XML output. The generator produces properly formatted XML that validates against the Sitemaps Protocol XSD schema. XML formatting errors can prevent search engines from reading your sitemap, so correct syntax is essential.

Per-URL configuration. Set lastmod, changefreq, and priority individually for each URL. This granular control lets you communicate the relative importance and update frequency of different sections of your website.

Instant download. Download the generated sitemap.xml file directly. No account registration, email verification, or payment required. The tool runs entirely in your browser for complete privacy.

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