What is an XML sitemap?
An XML sitemap is a file that lists the URLs on your site you want search engines to discover, optionally with the date each page last changed. It follows the sitemaps.org protocol: a <urlset> element containing one <url> entry with a <loc> per page. Search engines use it as a discovery hint alongside your internal links — it does not guarantee crawling or indexing.
This generator builds a sitemap from a list of URLs you paste. It does not crawl your website: export the URLs from your CMS, a crawler or a spreadsheet, paste them here, and the tool validates them, removes duplicates, escapes special characters such as &, adds lastmod dates if you want them and outputs a ready-to-upload sitemap.xml.
A single sitemap file is limited to 50,000 URLs and 50 MB uncompressed. Larger lists are split automatically into numbered files plus a sitemap index that references them, and every file can be downloaded individually. A plain-text sitemap (one URL per line) is available too.
How to use the XML Sitemap Generator
- Paste absolute URLs, one per line. To include per-page dates, choose Per URL under lastmod and add the date after each URL.
- Choose a lastmod option. Leave changefreq and priority off unless another search engine you target uses them — Google ignores both.
- Fix any skipped lines and review warnings about mixed hosts, http/https or www/non-www duplicates.
- Download
sitemap.xml(and every part file if the list was split) and upload it to your site. - Reference it in robots.txt with a
Sitemap:line — the Robots.txt Generator can add it — and submit it in Google Search Console.
Example
Two URLs with a lastmod date produce:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
<url>
<loc>https://example.com/</loc>
<lastmod>2026-09-30</lastmod>
</url>
<url>
<loc>https://example.com/products/?category=shoes&color=red</loc>
<lastmod>2026-09-30</lastmod>
</url>
</urlset>What to include in a sitemap
- Only canonical, indexable URLs that return HTTP 200 — no redirects, 404s,
noindexpages or parameter duplicates. The Canonical URL Generator helps normalize lists first. - Fully qualified absolute URLs on the same host and protocol the sitemap is served from.
- An accurate
lastmodreflecting the last significant content change, in W3C format (2026-09-30or2026-09-30T14:30:00+00:00). - Nothing else is required: Google ignores
changefreqandpriority.
WordPress sitemaps
Since WordPress 5.5, core generates a sitemap index automatically at /wp-sitemap.xml, covering posts, pages, custom post types, taxonomies and author archives. Most SEO plugins replace it with their own sitemap (often at /sitemap_index.xml) with more control over what is included. You usually do not need a hand-made sitemap on WordPress — this tool is most useful for static sites, custom apps, landing-page subsets or sitemaps for specific sections.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does this tool crawl my website?
No. It builds the sitemap from the URLs you paste and never fetches your pages. Use a crawler, your CMS export or analytics data to get the URL list.
Should I set changefreq and priority?
Google ignores both values, so they are off by default. Some other crawlers may read them, but an accurate lastmod is far more useful.
What happens with more than 50,000 URLs?
The list is split into sitemap-1.xml, sitemap-2.xml and so on, and sitemap.xml becomes a sitemap index pointing to each part. Set the base URL to the folder where you will upload the files.
Why are characters like & changed to &?
Sitemaps are XML, so &, <, >, ' and " must be written as entities. The tool escapes them automatically; with normalization on, spaces and non-ASCII characters are also percent-encoded.
Where should I put the sitemap?
Usually in the site root, e.g. https://example.com/sitemap.xml. A sitemap can only list URLs at or below its own location, so a file in /blog/ should only contain /blog/ URLs unless it is referenced from robots.txt or submitted in Search Console.