A sitemap is a list of promises, not a request for indexing
It's a common misconception that submitting a sitemap gets pages indexed. It doesn't — a sitemap is a discovery aid, not a guarantee. It tells search engines 'these URLs exist and here's some metadata about them,' which helps crawlers find pages they might otherwise miss, especially on large or poorly-linked sites. Whether a page actually gets crawled, indexed, and ranked depends on entirely separate signals: content quality, internal linking, crawl budget, and indexability directives like noindex tags. A sitemap listing 10,000 URLs doesn't mean 10,000 pages will show up in search results — it just means the crawler now knows those 10,000 URLs exist.
The sitemaps.org 0.9 protocol
This tool generates output following the standard sitemaps.org 0.9 protocol — the same specification supported by Google, Bing, Yandex, and effectively every other major search engine, with the root <urlset> element correctly namespaced according to that spec. Using a shared standard rather than a search-engine-specific format is exactly why one sitemap file works across every search engine you'd want to submit it to, without needing separate versions per crawler.
Which fields actually matter today
| Field | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| loc (URL) | Required | The actual page URL, the core of every entry |
| lastmod | Meaningful | Helps crawlers prioritize recently-changed pages for re-crawling |
| changefreq | Largely ignored | Google has stated it mostly disregards this field today |
| priority | Largely ignored | Also mostly ignored by Google; doesn't hurt to include |
Generating your sitemap
Paste your URLs into the textarea, one per line.
Optionally choose a default change frequency and priority for all entries.
Toggle the last-modified date — which defaults to today — on or off.
Copy the generated XML or download it as sitemap.xml.
Why lastmod is worth getting right, even though the other two aren't
Deciding which URLs to actually include
A sitemap should only list canonical, indexable URLs — this is a curation exercise, not a dump of every URL on the site. Specifically worth excluding: redirects (a sitemap URL that immediately redirects elsewhere wastes crawl budget on an extra hop), pages with a noindex directive (listing a page you've told search engines not to index sends a contradictory signal), parameterized duplicate URLs (like the same page reachable via ?utm_source= variants), and pagination pages that don't add unique content beyond what's already indexed elsewhere. Including these dilutes the sitemap's usefulness — a shorter, clean list of genuinely indexable pages is more valuable to a crawler than a comprehensive dump padded with redirects and duplicates.
Size limits and splitting large sites
A single sitemap file supports up to 50,000 URLs and 50MB — limits set by the sitemap protocol itself, not by this tool. Sites exceeding either limit need to split their URLs across multiple sitemap files, then list those individual sitemaps inside a sitemap index file, which is itself a small XML file that simply references the other sitemaps. This tool generates individual sitemap files; for a site large enough to need multiple sitemaps and an index file tying them together, you'd generate each sitemap segment separately and assemble the index file to reference them.
Deploying the sitemap correctly
Generating the file is only half the job — it needs to actually be discoverable. Upload sitemap.xml to your site's root (so it's reachable at something like https://example.com/sitemap.xml), reference that path inside your robots.txt file so crawlers can find it automatically, and separately submit it directly through Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools for faster initial discovery. Skipping the robots.txt reference or the direct submission step means the sitemap technically exists but is less likely to be found and used promptly.
Common mistakes
Listing every URL on the site indiscriminately, including redirects, noindex pages, and parameterized duplicates, which dilutes the sitemap's usefulness.
Spending significant effort hand-tuning changefreq and priority values that Google largely ignores, while neglecting an accurate lastmod date that actually matters.
Generating the sitemap but forgetting to reference it in robots.txt or submit it through Search Console — an undiscovered sitemap provides no benefit.
Exceeding the 50,000-URL or 50MB limit in a single file without splitting into multiple sitemaps and an index file.
Frequently asked questions
Q: What's the sitemap protocol used?
A: The standard sitemaps.org 0.9 protocol, which Google, Bing, Yandex, and others all support. The root <urlset> element is namespaced accordingly.
Q: Do I need changefreq and priority?
A: They're optional and largely ignored by Google today. Including them doesn't hurt, but lastmod is the field that actually matters for crawl prioritization.
Q: How many URLs can one sitemap contain?
A: Up to 50,000 URLs and 50MB per file. For larger sites, split into multiple sitemaps and list them in a sitemap index file.
Q: Should I include every URL?
A: Only canonical, indexable URLs. Skip redirects, noindex pages, parameterized duplicates, and pagination that doesn't add unique content.
Q: Where do I put the sitemap?
A: Upload sitemap.xml to your site root (https://example.com/sitemap.xml), reference it in robots.txt, and submit it via Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.
Q: Does submitting a sitemap guarantee my pages get indexed?
A: No — a sitemap only aids discovery by telling crawlers which URLs exist. Whether a page actually gets crawled and indexed depends on separate factors like content quality, internal linking, and indexability directives.
Generate your sitemap now
Build yours with the XML Sitemap Generator. Need to reference it correctly for crawlers? Set up your Robots.txt Generator file next. Also check your page-level SEO tags with the Meta Tag Generator, or preview social sharing with Open Graph Preview.
