Runs in your browser. Nothing you enter is uploaded or stored.
To create an XML sitemap, paste your list of URLs into the free XML Sitemap Generator above and download the file. It builds a valid sitemap in your browser, so your URLs are not uploaded or stored. You then place the file on your site and tell search engines where it is.
Google’s sitemap guidance states that all formats limit a single sitemap to 50MB (uncompressed) or 50,000 URLs, so larger sites need several files, and it asks for fully qualified, absolute URLs.
How to use the XML Sitemap Generator
- Collect the URLs you want search engines to find. Use the final live address of each page, including
https://and your preferredwwwchoice. - Paste them into the box, one per line.
- Generate the sitemap and download the XML file.
- Upload it to your site, usually at the root, for example
yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml. - Reference it in your robots.txt and submit it in Google Search Console, then check it with the XML Sitemap Validator.
How to read the results
The file is a list of entries. Each page appears inside a url block with a loc tag holding its address. That is the core of a sitemap, and it is all search engines need to discover a page.
- Count the entries. The number should match the URLs you pasted. If it is lower, a line may have been malformed.
- Check the addresses. They should be absolute, on the right protocol and host, and exactly the version you want indexed.
- Check the encoding. Google asks for UTF-8, and special characters in URLs need to be escaped correctly.
A good sitemap lists only canonical, indexable pages that return a normal response. A bad one is full of redirects, error pages and addresses you do not want in search.
What to put in, and what to leave out
- Include pages you want ranked: key service pages, products, categories and articles.
- Leave out URLs that redirect, return errors, are blocked by robots.txt, carry a noindex, or are duplicates of another page.
- Leave out internal search results, basket and account pages, and parameter variations.
- Keep it current. Regenerate the file when you add or remove important pages, so it does not drift away from the real site.
A worked example
This is an illustrative example. A small agency site has twelve pages. You paste the twelve final URLs, one per line, and download the file. You upload it to the root, add a Sitemap: line to robots.txt, and submit the address in Search Console. Later you add a service page and a case study, so you paste the full updated list again and replace the old file. For a site this size the manual route is perfectly workable.
After you download the file
Generating the sitemap is only half the job. Open the downloaded file in a text editor and scan it before uploading. You should see an XML declaration at the top, a single wrapping element, and one entry for each page. If something looks wrong, such as a stray line or a half-pasted address, fix your list and generate again rather than editing the XML by hand.
Once the file is live, add its address to your robots.txt with a Sitemap: line and submit it in Google Search Console. Search Console will tell you when it was last read and whether it found problems. Check back after a few days. If it reports that some URLs could not be fetched, look at those pages first, since the cause is often a redirect, a block or a server error rather than the sitemap itself.
Limits and when to use something else
This tool builds a sitemap from the list you give it. It does not crawl your site, so it cannot discover pages you forgot, and it does not check whether each URL works. A sitemap helps discovery but does not guarantee crawling or indexing. For a large or constantly changing site, a sitemap generated automatically by your CMS or SEO plugin will stay accurate with less effort. Remember Google’s limit of 50,000 URLs or 50MB per file, and split the list if you pass it. After publishing, test the live file with the XML Sitemap Validator, and make sure your robots.txt file does not block it.
Questions about the XML Sitemap Generator
Where should I upload my sitemap?
Put it at the root of the site, for example at the top level of your domain. Google notes that a sitemap affects only descendants of its parent directory, so the root is the safest place.
Do I need to add priority and change frequency?
Not for the tool to work. The essential part is the address of each page. Do not spend time inventing priority values, since they are not what makes a sitemap useful.
How often should I update my sitemap?
Update it whenever you add, remove or change the address of important pages. For a site that changes often, an automatic generator inside your CMS is easier than pasting lists by hand.
Back to all free technical SEO tools or the full toolkit. If you would rather have someone check the whole site, see my technical SEO services or ask for a free audit.