How to use XML Sitemap Generator
The Sitemap Generator creates XML sitemaps that help search engines discover and prioritise every page on your website. It produces standards-compliant XML following the Sitemap Protocol (sitemaps.org), supports all optional attributes (lastmod, changefreq, priority) and can generate both standard XML sitemaps and Sitemap Index files for large sites with more than 50,000 URLs.
- Enter your website's root URL (e.g., https://example.com).
- Add each URL you want to include — paste a list or enter them one at a time.
- For each URL, optionally set lastmod (last modification date), changefreq and priority (0.0–1.0).
- Enable the Sitemap Index option if you have multiple sitemap files to reference from a parent index.
- Click Generate to produce the XML output.
- Download the sitemap.xml file and upload it to your website root, then submit the URL to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.
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Sitemap XML structure and protocol
An XML sitemap begins with the <urlset> root element declaring the Sitemap Protocol namespace (xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"). Each URL is wrapped in a <url> element containing <loc> (required, the absolute URL), and optional <lastmod> (ISO 8601 date), <changefreq> (always/hourly/daily/weekly/monthly/yearly/never) and <priority> (0.1–1.0, default 0.5). A single sitemap file must not exceed 50 MB uncompressed and 50,000 URLs; larger sites use a Sitemap Index file that lists multiple sitemap files.
Priority, changefreq and their real impact
Contrary to popular belief, priority and changefreq are hints, not commands — Google has stated they give little weight to these values. The only reliable way to influence crawl frequency is to publish high-quality content frequently and build inbound links. lastmod is more useful: when it accurately reflects the actual last-modified date of the page content, search engines can use it to re-crawl updated pages sooner. Never set lastmod to the current date for pages that have not changed — this trains crawlers to distrust your sitemap.
| Value | Intended meaning | Typical use case |
|---|---|---|
| always | Changes on every request | Real-time feeds (not recommended) |
| hourly | Changes every hour | Breaking news, live prices |
| daily | Changes every day | Blog indexes, news sites |
| weekly | Changes every week | Feature pages, documentation |
| monthly | Changes every month | Product pages, category pages |
| yearly | Rarely changes | Legal pages, static content |
| never | Archived content | Historical articles, PDFs |
Worked examples
Single URL entry
Inputs: loc https://example.com/ · lastmod 2025-01-01
Result: <url><loc>…</loc><lastmod>2025-01-01</lastmod></url>
Sitemap index
Inputs: 3 separate sitemap files
Result: <sitemapindex> referencing 3 <sitemap> entries
Over the per-file limit
Inputs: 60,000 URLs
Result: split into 2 files (50,000-URL max each)
Glossary
- XML sitemap
- A structured file listing all URLs on a website to help search engine crawlers discover and index pages.
- Sitemap Index
- A sitemap that references multiple sitemap files, used when a site has more than 50,000 URLs or 50 MB.
- robots.txt
- A text file at the website root that instructs crawlers which pages to access; should reference the sitemap URL.
- Crawl budget
- The number of pages Googlebot crawls on a site within a given time frame; sitemaps help allocate it efficiently.
- GSC
- Google Search Console — Google's free tool for submitting sitemaps and monitoring indexing status.
Related reading
Frequently Asked Questions
Why use XML Sitemap Generator?
- Generate standards-compliant XML sitemaps with lastmod, changefreq, and priority attributes
- Create Sitemap Index files for large sites exceeding the 50,000-URL per-file limit
- Produce a downloadable sitemap.xml ready to submit to Google Search Console
- Configure accurate lastmod dates on recently edited pages to signal freshness to crawlers
Common use cases
- Build a sitemap for a newly launched website before the first Google Search Console submission
- Generate a sitemap index referencing separate sitemaps for blog posts, products, and landing pages
- Update lastmod dates for recently edited pages to prompt faster Googlebot re-crawling
- Include changefreq hints on a news site where article pages update every day
- Validate the XML syntax of an auto-generated sitemap by pasting it into the formatter
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