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XML Sitemap Generator

Developer Tools · Added

Paste a list of URLs and get a sitemap file you can upload. Every line is checked before it goes in — relative paths, unsupported schemes and duplicates are reported rather than silently dropped — and the optional fields are explained rather than filled in with confident-looking values that do nothing.

One absolute URL per line. Blank lines and lines starting with # are ignored.

How to use the xml sitemap generator

  1. 1Paste your URLs, one absolute URL per line. Blank lines and lines starting with # are ignored.
  2. 2Read the error box if any lines were left out, and fix them in the list.
  3. 3Decide whether to include lastmod. Leaving it out is safer than stamping today onto everything.
  4. 4Download the file, put it at the root of your site, and add the Sitemap line to robots.txt.

Examples

A small site

Input
Four absolute URLs, one per line
Result
A urlset with four <url> entries and no optional fields

A pasted list with problems

Input
A list containing /about, a duplicate, and a URL with an #anchor
Result
The relative path is refused, the duplicate is merged, the fragment is stripped with a note

About the xml sitemap generator

What belongs in a sitemap

Canonical URLs that return 200 and are meant to be found in search. That rules out more than people expect: redirects, pages that carry a noindex directive, duplicate parameter variations, staging URLs, and anything that canonicalises elsewhere all belong out of it.

The reason is not that including them is forbidden. It is that a sitemap is a statement about which pages matter, and one full of URLs that resolve to something else makes that statement less reliable for every URL in the file.

Where the file goes, and why the location matters

A sitemap covers the host it sits on. Placed at the root of a domain it may list any URL on that domain; placed in a subdirectory it is only trusted for URLs beneath that path. Listing another hostname's URLs works only where the ownership of both is verified together.

The last step is the Sitemap line in robots.txt, which is how a crawler finds the file without being told. It is a single line, it is checked on every robots.txt fetch, and it is the part people most often forget after uploading the sitemap itself.

Frequently asked questions

Why are changefreq and priority switched off?
Because Google ignores both, and has said so publicly more than once. Priority has never been a ranking signal and changefreq does not control how often a page is crawled. They stay in the sitemaps.org schema and other consumers may still read them, so the switches are there — but filling every URL in with a priority of 0.8 achieves nothing except the impression that it did something.
Should I include lastmod?
Only if it is true. Google does use it, and it uses it per site: a sitemap whose dates all change every time it is regenerated teaches the crawler that the field carries no information there, and it stops being trusted for that domain. A correct date on the pages that genuinely changed is worth far more than a fresh date on everything.
How many URLs fit in one file?
Fifty thousand, or fifty megabytes uncompressed, whichever comes first — those limits are in the sitemaps.org protocol. Past either one you split the list across several files and point at them from a sitemap index. This tool reports both figures as you paste, so you know before you upload.
Does submitting a sitemap get my pages indexed?
No. A sitemap makes URLs discoverable and tells a crawler they exist. Whether a page is then crawled, and whether it is then indexed, are separate decisions made on the page's own merits. No file you upload changes that, and any tool implying otherwise is selling something.

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