Last updated: March 2026
What Is the Sitemap Generator?
Create a valid XML sitemap for your website in seconds. A sitemap is a file that lists all the important pages on your website, helping search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo discover, crawl, and index your content more effectively. This tool lets you add URLs manually or paste a list, set priority and change frequency for each page, and download a sitemap.xml file ready to submit to Google Search Console.
The generator includes real-time validation against the sitemap protocol specification, syntax-highlighted XML preview, a visual site structure tree, and quick presets for common website types. All processing happens in your browser — your URLs are never sent to any server.
How to Create and Submit a Sitemap
Step 1: Enter your website URLs using manual entry or paste a list using the bulk import tab. Set the priority, change frequency, and last modified date for each URL.
Step 2: Review the generated XML in the syntax-highlighted preview. Check the validation status to ensure your sitemap follows the protocol specification.
Step 3: Download the sitemap.xml file and upload it to your website's root directory (e.g., https://yoursite.com/sitemap.xml).
Step 4: Submit your sitemap to Google Search Console (Search Console → Sitemaps → Add a new sitemap). Google will crawl it within 24–48 hours. You can also add a Sitemap directive to your robots.txt file for automatic discovery.
Understanding Sitemap Priority and Change Frequency
Priority is a value from 0.0 to 1.0 that indicates the relative importance of a page compared to other pages on your site. It does not affect how your pages rank against other websites — it simply helps search engines understand which pages you consider most important. The default is 0.5. Set your homepage to 1.0, key landing pages to 0.8–0.9, blog posts to 0.5–0.7, and utility pages to 0.1–0.3.
Change frequency (changefreq) tells search engines how often a page is likely to change. Options range from "always" to "never." While Google has stated they don't strictly follow this value, setting it accurately is still a best practice that helps crawlers allocate their budget efficiently. A blog homepage might be "daily," while a privacy policy might be "yearly."
Sitemap Best Practices
Only include canonical, indexable URLs in your sitemap. Don't include pages with noindex tags, redirect URLs, or pages behind authentication. Every URL in your sitemap should return a 200 status code.
Keep your sitemap under 50,000 URLs and 50MB uncompressed. For larger sites, use a sitemap index file that references multiple individual sitemaps. Update your sitemap whenever you add new pages or make significant changes to existing ones.
Use consistent, absolute URLs with the same protocol (https preferred) and domain format (with or without www, but not both). The lastmod date should reflect when the page content was actually last modified, not just regenerated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I submit my sitemap to Google?
Go to Google Search Console, navigate to the Sitemaps section, enter your sitemap URL (e.g., https://yoursite.com/sitemap.xml), and click Submit. Google will crawl your sitemap within 24-48 hours. You can also add a Sitemap directive to your robots.txt file.
What priority should I set for my pages?
Homepage: 1.0, important pages (products, services): 0.8, blog posts: 0.6, supporting pages (about, contact): 0.3-0.5. Priority is relative to other pages on your own site — it tells search engines which pages you consider most important within your domain.
How many URLs can a sitemap have?
A single sitemap can contain up to 50,000 URLs and must be under 50MB uncompressed. If you need more, create a sitemap index file that references multiple individual sitemaps. Our generator warns you if you approach these limits.
What is changefreq and does it matter?
Changefreq tells search engines how often a page is expected to change (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.). While Google has stated they don't always follow this hint, it's still considered a best practice. Set it accurately: daily for active blogs, monthly for static pages, yearly for legal/policy pages.
Do I need a sitemap for my website?
While sitemaps aren't strictly required, they're highly recommended for sites with 50+ pages, new sites without many backlinks, sites with deep page hierarchies, and sites that update frequently. Sitemaps help search engines discover and index your content faster.
Should all my URLs use the same protocol?
Yes. Your sitemap should use a consistent protocol (https:// is strongly recommended). Mixing http and https URLs in a sitemap can cause indexing issues. If you've migrated to HTTPS, make sure all sitemap URLs reflect the new protocol.