A sitemap generator turns a list of your website’s pages into a properly formatted XML sitemap — the file search engines read to discover your content. Paste your URLs (one per line), choose optional settings, and this free tool validates every line, removes duplicates, escapes special characters, and produces a clean, ready-to-submit sitemap.xml you can download or copy. Nothing you paste is uploaded to a server: the file is built entirely in your browser, which makes it ideal for staging sites, private URL lists, and batch sitemaps for newly published pages.
How to Use the Sitemap Generator
- Paste your URLs, one per line, in the top box. Use full absolute addresses that start with http:// or https:// — relative paths like /about/ are not valid in a sitemap.
- Check the live report under the output box: it counts included URLs, removed duplicates, and skipped invalid lines as you type.
- Set the optional defaults. Change frequency, priority, and the last-modified date are applied to every URL in the file. Leave them on None if you are unsure — only the address itself is required.
- Download or copy the file.
- Publish it at your site’s root (https://example.com/sitemap.xml) and submit it in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.
What Is an XML Sitemap?
An XML sitemap is a machine-readable list of the pages you want search engines to know about. It follows a simple public protocol maintained at sitemaps.org and supported by Google, Bing, and every other major engine. Crawlers can find pages by following links, but a sitemap helps them discover new, deep, or weakly linked pages sooner — which is why it matters most for new sites, very large sites, and pages several clicks from the homepage.
Two expectations are worth setting correctly. A sitemap is a discovery hint, not an indexing guarantee: including a URL never forces Google to index it, and leaving a page out does not prevent indexing either. And a sitemap only helps when it is clean — a file full of redirecting, broken, or blocked URLs teaches crawlers to distrust it. That is why the validation step here (absolute URLs only, duplicates removed, invalid lines reported) is the difference between a sitemap that earns crawl attention and one that gets ignored.
Anatomy of the File You Just Generated
Every entry in your sitemap sits inside a <url> block within a <urlset> document. The only required element is <loc>, the page’s full canonical address. The three optional elements deserve an honest explanation:
- <lastmod> — the date the page’s content last changed (YYYY-MM-DD). This is the one optional field search engines take seriously, and only when it is accurate. Setting every date to “today” on each upload is a known way to get the field ignored.
- <changefreq> — a hint about how often the page changes (daily, weekly, monthly…). Google has stated it largely ignores this value; include it if you like, but do not expect it to schedule crawls.
- <priority> — a number from 0.0 to 1.0 ranking the page against others on your own site. Google ignores it; marking every page 1.0 defeats its only purpose.
One formatting detail the generator handles for you: URLs containing characters such as an ampersand (common in query strings) must be escaped in XML, or the whole file becomes invalid. Your output escapes them automatically.
Which URLs Belong in a Sitemap?
Include a URL only if it returns a 200 status, is the canonical (preferred) version, is allowed to be indexed, and genuinely deserves to be found:
- Include: your homepage, main landing pages, products, articles, and any important page that is hard to reach through normal navigation.
- Exclude: redirecting URLs and their chains, 404s and other errors, pages marked noindex, login and admin areas, search-results pages, filtered or sorted duplicates of a listing, and staging or test pages.
- Be consistent: use one version of each address — the same http/https and www/non-www form your site actually serves. A sitemap that mixes versions contradicts your own canonical tags.
For a typical small site, the honest list is simply “every page a visitor should be able to find in search.”
Limits, and What to Do With a Very Large Site
The protocol caps a single sitemap file at 50,000 URLs and 50 MB uncompressed. This generator counts your URLs live and warns you if you cross the limit. Past that point, split the list into several files — often one per site section — and tie them together with a sitemap index file: a small XML document listing each sitemap’s location and date, using <sitemapindex> elements instead of <urlset>. You then submit only the index file, and search engines read the rest themselves. Most CMS platforms split sitemaps automatically; this tool shines for the manual cases — a new section launch, a migration checklist, or a batch of fresh pages you want discovered as one group.
Special Sitemaps: Images, Video, and News
The plain URL list this generator builds is the right format for ordinary pages. Google also accepts specialized extensions of the same file: image entries that point to the important pictures on each page, video entries with titles and durations, and news entries for very recent articles. If your site depends on image search or video results, your CMS or SEO plugin usually generates those variants automatically. For a hand-built page list like this one, the standard format above is what you want — extensions only help when the media itself is the content.
After You Generate: Publishing and Submitting
- Upload sitemap.xml to your site’s root, so it lives at https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml. Open it in a browser to confirm it loads.
- Reference it in robots.txt with one line: Sitemap: https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml. This helps every crawler, not just the big two.
- Submit it in Google Search Console under Indexing → Sitemaps, and check the status report after a few days for fetch errors.
- Submit it in Bing Webmaster Tools as well — the same file works unchanged, and Bing powers results for several other search experiences.
- Update it when content changes in bulk. For one or two new pages, internal links are enough; a fresh batch file is worthwhile when you publish or migrate dozens of URLs at once.
Common Sitemap Mistakes This Tool Helps You Avoid
- Relative or incomplete URLs. “/about/” or “example.com/about” are invalid — always absolute addresses with the protocol. Invalid lines are flagged in the report instead of silently shipped.
- Duplicates. The same URL pasted twice wastes crawl attention and looks sloppy; duplicates are removed automatically.
- Listing pages that redirect or are blocked. If a URL 301s elsewhere or is disallowed in robots.txt, listing it contradicts your own signals.
- Fake lastmod dates. Refreshing every date on every upload trains search engines to ignore the field.
- Generating once and forgetting. A sitemap describing last year’s site is worse than a modest, accurate one.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is a sitemap generator?
A sitemap generator converts a list of your website’s pages into an XML sitemap file in the standard sitemaps.org format, which search engines read to discover your pages faster. This one works from a URL list you paste, validates each line, and produces a downloadable sitemap.xml — no crawling and no uploads.
Does this sitemap generator crawl my website?
No. It builds the sitemap from the URLs you provide — ideal for staging sites, pre-launch lists, private lists you do not want to send to a third-party crawler, and batch sitemaps for new pages. If your site runs on WordPress, its SEO plugin probably maintains a full sitemap automatically; use this tool when you need a specific, hand-picked set of URLs.
How many URLs can one sitemap file contain?
The sitemap protocol allows up to 50,000 URLs and 50 MB (uncompressed) per file. The generator counts your URLs as it builds and warns you if you pass the limit. For larger sites, split the list into multiple sitemap files and connect them with a sitemap index file, then submit only the index.
What do changefreq and priority actually do?
Less than most people hope. Both are optional hints, and Google has said it ignores priority and largely ignores changefreq. The optional field worth keeping accurate is lastmod, the real date the page last changed.
Should every page on my site be in the sitemap?
No. List only pages that return a 200 status, are the canonical version, are allowed to be indexed, and deserve to appear in search. Leave out redirects, error pages, noindex pages, admin areas, internal search results, and duplicate filtered views.
Where do I put sitemap.xml, and how do I submit it?
Upload it to the root of your domain so it is available at https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml, add a Sitemap line pointing to it in robots.txt, then submit the address in Google Search Console (Indexing → Sitemaps) and Bing Webmaster Tools. The same file works for both.
Is my URL list uploaded or stored?
No. The sitemap is generated entirely in your browser. Your URLs never leave your device, which is why this tool is safe for staging or unpublished page lists.