Sitemap Generator
Turn a plain list of page addresses into a standards-compliant sitemap.xml. Paste, generate, copy, and upload the file to your site.
An XML sitemap is a machine-readable list of the pages you want search engines to know about. Crawlers normally find pages by following links, which works well for a small, well-linked site but can miss pages that sit several clicks deep, were published recently, or have few inbound links. A sitemap gives the crawler a direct list to work from. It does not guarantee that a page will be indexed or ranked, but it removes one common reason pages go undiscovered.
The Sitemap Generator on this page builds that file for you. You paste the addresses, choose one change frequency and one priority, and the tool writes the XML in the format defined by the sitemaps.org protocol. You then copy the result and save it as sitemap.xml.
How to use the Sitemap Generator
- Type your site address into Website Base URL, for example
https://www.example.com. A trailing slash is removed automatically. - Paste your pages into the URLs (one per line) box. You can paste full addresses such as
https://www.example.com/about.html, or only paths such as/about.htmlorblog/first-post. - Pick a Change Frequency (Daily, Weekly, Monthly or Yearly) and a Priority (1.0, 0.8, 0.6 or 0.4).
- Click Generate Sitemap. The XML appears in the result box with a Copy button.
- Paste the copied text into a plain-text file, save it as
sitemap.xml, and upload it to the root folder of your website.
Exactly what the tool writes
Every line you enter becomes one <url> block. The tool is deliberately simple, so it is worth knowing how each value is chosen.
| Element | Where the value comes from |
|---|---|
<loc> | Your line as typed. If the line does not contain "http", the tool joins it to the base URL. If the base URL box is empty, it falls back to https://example.com, so always fill the base field when you use short paths. |
<lastmod> | Today's date in YYYY-MM-DD form, the same for every URL. |
<changefreq> | The single value chosen in the dropdown, applied to every URL. |
<priority> | The single value chosen in the dropdown, applied to every URL. |
Two details to check before you upload: the tool does not escape special characters inside addresses, so any URL containing an ampersand must be written with & in the final XML or the file will be rejected as malformed. Also, because the priority and frequency are uniform, you cannot give your homepage 1.0 and your archive pages 0.4 in one run. Generate separate batches and merge the <url> blocks by hand if you want that.
What search engines actually read
Google has stated publicly that it ignores the priority and changefreq values, and that it uses lastmod only when the dates are consistently accurate. That matters here, because this tool stamps today's date on every line. If you regenerate the file next month without changing any page, every page will claim to have been modified recently, and a crawler that notices the mismatch may simply stop trusting the field. For a small site this is harmless. For a large site, remove or correct the lastmod lines for pages you have not touched.
The URL list itself is the valuable part. Include pages you want indexed and exclude anything blocked by robots.txt, marked noindex, redirected, or duplicated by another address. A sitemap full of redirecting or blocked URLs sends contradictory signals.
Where the finished file goes
For a site where you control the files, such as a static site, a custom-coded site or a typical shared host, upload sitemap.xml to the top-level folder so that it loads at https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml. A sitemap may only list URLs on the same host and at or below its own location, which is why the root is the safest place. Then submit the address in the Sitemaps report of Google Search Console, and optionally add a line to your robots.txt file: Sitemap: https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml.
Hosted platforms behave differently. Blogger, for example, already serves an automatic sitemap at /sitemap.xml and does not let you upload your own file to the root, so a hand-built file is mainly useful when you can place files yourself. Check what your platform already provides before replacing anything.
Practical limits and good habits
- A single sitemap file may hold at most 50,000 URLs and 50 MB uncompressed. Larger sites split into several sitemaps listed by a sitemap index file; this tool produces one file at a time.
- Use the canonical form of each address: the same protocol (https), the same host spelling (with or without www) and the same trailing-slash convention your site uses everywhere else.
- Keep the list current. Add new pages when you publish them and remove pages you delete, because stale entries lead to "not found" errors in Search Console.
- Open the generated XML once in a browser before submitting. A well-formed file displays as a tree or as plain text without error messages.
Typical situations where this helps
A freelancer launching a five-page brochure site can paste five paths and finish in a minute. A developer who exported a list of routes from a framework can turn it into a sitemap without writing a script. A blogger who keeps a hand-maintained "all articles" list can reuse it as sitemap input. In each case the value is speed and a correct structure, not any ranking effect.
Nothing is sent anywhere when you press the button: the XML is assembled by script running on the page, and the result box simply displays it. If you want a deeper check afterwards, paste the file into the XML Formatter tool to confirm the structure.
Frequently asked questions
Does a sitemap improve my rankings?
Not directly. It helps crawlers discover and revisit pages, which is a prerequisite for indexing, but quality, relevance and links decide how a page ranks.
Why do my addresses show example.com?
You entered paths without a full address and left the Website Base URL empty, so the tool used its placeholder domain. Fill in the base URL and generate again.
Can I download the file instead of copying it?
The tool shows the XML with a Copy button. Paste it into any text editor, such as Notepad, and save the file as sitemap.xml using UTF-8 encoding.
Should I include every page on my site?
Include pages you want to appear in search results. Leave out thank-you pages, internal search results, login pages and anything duplicated elsewhere.
How often should I regenerate the sitemap?
Whenever you add or remove important pages. If your site changes often, a platform or plugin that updates the sitemap automatically is a better long-term choice.