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Free SEO Tool

Free XML Sitemap Generator

Paste your URLs or pull links from a domain, then copy or download a valid sitemap.xml. No URL limit, no sign-up, and the file is built in your browser.

0 valid

Optional fields

Google ignores changefreq and priority, and has said so publicly. They are off by default and only worth adding for other crawlers that still read them. lastmod is the one Google does use, so keep it accurate or leave it out.

How to generate a sitemap in three steps

Nothing to install and no account to create:

1. Add your URLs

Paste a list, one per line, or enter a domain and let the tool collect the links it finds on the homepage.

2. Choose the optional fields

lastmod is on by default because Google uses it. changefreq and priority are off, because Google does not.

3. Copy or download

You get a valid sitemap.xml straight away. Save it to your site root, then declare and submit it.

What is an XML sitemap?

An XML sitemap is a file at the root of your site listing the pages you want search engines to know about. Crawlers normally find pages by following links, so a sitemap matters most where that fails: a new site nothing links to yet, pages buried deep in the navigation, or a large site where crawlers will not reach everything on their own.

It is worth being clear about what it does not do. A sitemap is a discovery aid, not a ranking factor. Listing a page does not guarantee it gets indexed, and it certainly does not make it rank. If a page is thin or duplicated, adding it to a sitemap changes nothing.

What the sitemap fields actually do

Most generators present all four as though they carry equal weight. They do not, and Google has been explicit about it:

FieldRequiredGoogleWhat it is
locRequiredUsedThe full URL of the page, including https. Every entry needs one.
lastmodOptionalUsedWhen the page last meaningfully changed. Google uses it when it is consistently accurate, and ignores it when it is not.
changefreqOptionalIgnoredA hint about how often the page changes. Google has stated it does not use this. Some other crawlers still read it.
priorityOptionalIgnoredA 0.0 to 1.0 hint about relative importance. Google has stated it does not use this either.

That is why changefreq and priority are switched off by default here. They are not harmful, and some non-Google crawlers still read them, but presenting them as important would be misleading. lastmod is the one Google does use, and only while the dates stay honest: set every page to today and the field stops being believed.

How to submit your sitemap to Google

Generating the file is the easy half. It does nothing until crawlers know where it is:

  1. 1Upload it to your site root, so it is reachable at yoursite.com/sitemap.xml.
  2. 2Declare it in robots.txt with a line reading Sitemap: https://yoursite.com/sitemap.xml. Every crawler reads that file, not just Google.
  3. 3Submit it in Search Console, under Sitemaps. It will report how many URLs it discovered and flag any it could not process.

To add the declaration line, our robots.txt generator builds the file with a sitemap entry included, and the robots.txt checker confirms an existing file declares yours and is not blocking the pages you just listed.

When a sitemap actually helps

A small, well-linked site often gains little from one. These are the cases where it earns its place:

A new site with no internal links yet

Crawlers find pages by following links. A brand new site has few, so a sitemap is the fastest way to tell Google what exists.

Pages buried deep in the structure

Anything more than a few clicks from the homepage gets crawled less often. Listing it explicitly helps.

A large site where crawl budget matters

An accurate sitemap with honest lastmod dates helps crawlers spend their time on the pages that actually changed.

After a migration or a bulk publish

When a lot of URLs change at once, a fresh sitemap is the clearest signal of what the new set of pages is.

Sitemap mistakes worth avoiding

Six that quietly reduce how much a sitemap is trusted:

  • Listing URLs that redirect, 404 or are blocked in robots.txt. A sitemap should only contain pages you want indexed and that return 200.

  • Setting every lastmod to today. If the dates are obviously not real, Google stops trusting the field entirely.

  • Including non-canonical URLs. List the canonical version of each page, not every parameter variant of it.

  • Mixing http and https, or www and non-www. Use exactly the form your site actually serves.

  • Going over 50,000 URLs in one file. Split into several sitemaps and reference them from a sitemap index.

  • Creating the file and never declaring it. Add a Sitemap line to robots.txt and submit it in Search Console.

Other free SEO tools

A sitemap helps crawlers find your pages. These other free tools handle the rest of the technical setup:

Frequently asked questions

How to generate an XML sitemap?
Paste your URLs into the tool above, one per line, or enter your domain to collect links from the homepage. Pick which optional fields to include, then copy or download the file. Save it as sitemap.xml at the root of your site, for example example.com/sitemap.xml.
How do I generate a sitemap?
The same three steps: give the tool your list of URLs, choose the optional fields, and download the result. If your site runs on WordPress, Shopify, Webflow or a similar platform, check first whether it already generates one for you, since most do and a manual file would then be redundant.
What is an XML sitemap?
An XML file that lists the pages on your site you want search engines to know about. Each entry has a URL and can carry optional metadata such as when the page was last modified. It is a discovery aid, not a ranking factor: it helps crawlers find pages, it does not make them rank.
What does an XML sitemap do?
It gives crawlers a direct list of your URLs instead of making them discover everything by following links. That matters most for new sites with few inbound links, large sites where crawl budget is limited, and pages buried deep in the navigation. It does not guarantee indexing.
What is sitemap used for?
Two audiences, two meanings. An XML sitemap is for search engines and lists URLs for crawling. An HTML sitemap is a page for human visitors that links to the main sections of a site. This tool builds the XML kind.
What is a sitemap for a website?
A structured list of the site's pages. In SEO the term almost always means the XML file at the site root that search engines read. Its job is coverage: making sure nothing important is invisible to a crawler because nothing links to it.
How can I create a sitemap online?
With a tool like this one, no installation and no account. Paste your URLs, generate the file, and download it. The only step that happens off this page is uploading the file to your web server, which your host or CMS handles.
How can I create a free sitemap?
This generator is free with no cap on how many URLs you paste. Worth knowing: several well-known sitemap tools limit their free tier to 500 URLs, so a larger site can hit that wall quickly.
Is a sitemap generator free to use?
This one is, entirely, with no sign-up and no URL limit. Across the market it varies: some are free up to a few hundred URLs, some require an account, and some are free only for a trial period.
Is sitemap free?
Yes, having a sitemap costs nothing. It is just an XML file on your own server, and every major platform either generates one automatically or lets you upload one. There is no fee to search engines for submitting it.
What is the best free XML sitemap generator?
It depends on your site. If your CMS already produces a sitemap, that is the best option because it stays current on its own. For a static or hand-built site, the useful tests for a generator are whether it caps the number of URLs, whether it makes you sign up, and whether it produces valid XML you can inspect before publishing.
How do I submit an XML sitemap to Google?
Two things, and do both. Add a line reading Sitemap: https://yoursite.com/sitemap.xml to your robots.txt, which every crawler reads. Then in Google Search Console open Sitemaps, enter the path and submit it. Search Console will report how many URLs it discovered and any it could not process.
How can I find the Sitemap XML file on a website?
Try /sitemap.xml or /sitemap_index.xml on the domain first, since those cover most sites. Failing that, open the site's robots.txt, where sitemaps are conventionally declared. Our free robots.txt checker reads that file and lists any sitemaps it declares.
Can you provide an example of an XML sitemap?
The tool above generates one as soon as you add a URL, so the fastest example is your own. The minimum valid structure is an XML declaration, a urlset element carrying the sitemaps.org namespace, and one url element per page containing a loc with the full address.
Does this tool crawl my whole site?
No, and it is worth being clear about that. The discovery option reads your homepage once and collects the internal links on it, up to 100. That is a useful starting point for a small site, but it is not a crawl and it will miss pages that the homepage does not link to. For a complete list, export the URLs from your CMS or paste them yourself.
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