Free XML Sitemap Generator
Create a Google-compatible XML sitemap for your website in seconds.
Fast Crawling
Google Compatible
Always Free
What a Sitemap Actually Does for SEO
An XML sitemap is a discovery channel, not a ranking lever. It hands search engines a complete list of the URLs you care about, so new pages get found in hours instead of whenever a crawler stumbles across a link. That speed matters most for new sites with few backlinks, large sites where deep pages are many clicks from home, and sites that update often. The sitemap also unlocks Search Console's per-sitemap coverage report â the fastest way to see exactly which of your pages Google has indexed and which it's ignoring, and why.
What belongs in a sitemap (and what doesn't)
Include only canonical, indexable, 200-status pages. Exclude redirects, 404s, noindexed pages, parameter duplicates, and thin tag/archive pages. Every URL in the sitemap is a statement â "please index this" â and polluting it with junk both wastes crawl budget and makes your coverage stats unreadable. Keep lastmod accurate (Google uses it to prioritize recrawls); ignore changefreq and priority, which Google discards.
From generated file to indexed pages
Generate the sitemap below, upload it to your site root as /sitemap.xml, add a "Sitemap:" line to robots.txt, and submit the URL once in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. From then on, keep it updated as pages change â a stale sitemap that contradicts your site teaches crawlers to distrust it. If your CMS can auto-generate sitemaps (WordPress, Django, Shopify all can), use the generated file to bootstrap and switch to automatic generation as the site grows.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an XML sitemap?
An XML sitemap is a machine-readable file listing the URLs on your site you want search engines to know about, optionally with last-modified dates. It helps crawlers discover pages faster â especially new pages and pages with few internal links.
Do I need a sitemap for a small website?
For a well-linked site under ~500 pages, Google can usually find everything by following links. A sitemap still helps: it speeds up discovery of new and updated pages and gives you indexing diagnostics in Search Console's sitemap report.
Does a sitemap improve rankings?
No â a sitemap affects discovery, not ranking. It gets pages found and crawled sooner, which matters for new sites and fresh content, but the ranking of a page is decided by content and links, not by sitemap presence.
How do I submit a sitemap to Google?
Host the file (usually at /sitemap.xml), then submit the URL in Google Search Console under Sitemaps. Also add a 'Sitemap:' line to robots.txt so Bing and other engines find it automatically.
What is the maximum size of a sitemap?
One sitemap file may contain up to 50,000 URLs and be up to 50 MB uncompressed. Larger sites split URLs across multiple sitemaps tied together by a sitemap index file.
Should I include every page in my sitemap?
No â include only canonical, indexable pages that return 200. Leave out redirects, noindexed pages, duplicates, and thin utility pages. A clean sitemap makes Search Console's coverage stats meaningful.
What do lastmod, changefreq and priority actually do?
Google uses lastmod (if it's accurate) to prioritize recrawling changed pages, and ignores changefreq and priority entirely. Keep lastmod truthful; don't bother tuning the other two.
Is this sitemap generator free?
Yes â free and instant. Enter your site's URL and it crawls up to 50 pages and produces a ready-to-upload XML sitemap. For bigger sites, use it to bootstrap and switch to CMS-generated sitemaps later.