What a sitemap does
A sitemap.xml file lists all the URLs on your site that you want search engines to crawl and index. Google can discover pages without a sitemap by following links, but a sitemap:
- Speeds up indexing of new pages — especially pages with few inbound links
- Tells Google the last modification date of each page — useful for recrawl scheduling
- Communicates page priority (0.0 to 1.0) — though Google uses this as a hint, not a strict rule
- Is especially important for large sites, new sites, and sites with content updated frequently
Generate a sitemap free
Use the free sitemap generator — enter your domain URL and it crawls your site to produce a sitemap.xml file. No account required.
The generated sitemap follows the standard XML sitemap protocol (sitemaps.org) and is accepted by Google, Bing, and all major search engines.
What a sitemap looks like
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
<url>
<loc>https://example.com/</loc>
<lastmod>2026-06-01</lastmod>
<changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
<priority>1.0</priority>
</url>
<url>
<loc>https://example.com/about</loc>
<lastmod>2026-05-01</lastmod>
<changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
<priority>0.6</priority>
</url>
</urlset>What to include in your sitemap
- All important public pages — homepage, product pages, blog posts, tool pages
- Your canonical URLs (not duplicate versions of the same page)
- Only pages with indexable content — not admin pages, login pages, or pages with noindex tags
Do not include:
- Pages blocked by robots.txt — including a URL in the sitemap that robots.txt disallows sends conflicting signals
- Redirected URLs — only include the final destination URL
- Paginated URLs beyond the first page (if you use rel=canonical to consolidate pagination)
- Duplicate content — only the canonical version
How to submit to Google Search Console
- Go to search.google.com/search-console
- Select your property (your website)
- In the left panel: Indexing → Sitemaps
- Enter your sitemap URL — typically
https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml - Click Submit
Google will crawl the sitemap and start indexing the listed URLs. The "Discovered URLs" count in Search Console shows how many pages Google found. The "Indexed" count shows how many it actually indexed — the gap indicates pages Google chose not to index (typically thin content, duplicate content, or pages that compete with stronger URLs).
How often to update your sitemap
For static sites: generate and upload the sitemap once, then update whenever you add significant new pages.
For dynamic sites (CMS, Next.js, WordPress): generate the sitemap programmatically so it updates automatically when new content is published. Most CMS platforms (WordPress + Yoast SEO, Shopify, Next.js with next-sitemap) generate sitemaps automatically.
After major content additions — a new category, 20+ new blog posts, a new tool section — resubmit the sitemap URL in Search Console to prompt a fresh crawl.
Sitemap index files for large sites
A single sitemap.xml is limited to 50,000 URLs and 50MB. For large sites, use a sitemap index — a master file that links to multiple individual sitemaps:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<sitemapindex xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
<sitemap><loc>https://example.com/sitemap-blog.xml</loc></sitemap>
<sitemap><loc>https://example.com/sitemap-tools.xml</loc></sitemap>
<sitemap><loc>https://example.com/sitemap-pages.xml</loc></sitemap>
</sitemapindex>Summary
Generate a sitemap.xml with the free sitemap generator. Include all canonical, indexable pages. Submit in Google Search Console under Indexing → Sitemaps. For dynamic sites, generate it automatically so it stays current. Resubmit after major content additions.