Search engines discover your pages by following links — but new or isolated pages can wait weeks to be found. An xml sitemap generator fixes that: it builds a machine-readable list of your URLs, so crawlers get the complete picture instead of guessing. Paste your page URLs and get a valid sitemap.xml ready to upload.
This free xml sitemap generator validates every URL, escapes special characters properly, removes duplicates, and lets you set change frequency (hourly to yearly), priority from 0.0 to 1.0, and last-modified dates. You get a live preview of the XML, a one-click copy button, and a download of your finished sitemap.xml file. Run this xml sitemap generator again whenever you publish new pages — no signup, no watermarks, no crawling your site; everything runs in your browser.
XML Sitemap Generator
Crawl a complete website, or turn one URL — or a whole list of URLs — into a valid sitemap.xml. Instantly, in your browser.
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How crawling works: your browser first tries to fetch each page directly. Most sites block cross-site browser requests (CORS), so the tool automatically retries through the public relay api.allorigins.win — shown as “via relay” below. Pages are fetched only to discover links; nothing is stored anywhere. If a site blocks both routes, switch to 📋 Paste URLs mode instead.
Defaults to today. Clear to omit <lastmod>.
Sitemaps support up to 50,000 URLs and 50 MB uncompressed per file. For larger sites, split your URLs into multiple sitemap files and list them in a sitemap index.
🔒 Private by design — the sitemap is generated in your browser. Crawling fetches pages from the target site directly (or via a public CORS relay when the site blocks direct browser access).
How to Use the XML Sitemap Generator
- Paste your page URLs — one per line, each starting with
http://orhttps://. - Set change frequency (how often pages typically change) or leave it omitted.
- Set priority (relative importance, 0.0–1.0) or leave it omitted.
- Pick a last-modified date or leave it empty to omit
<lastmod>. - Click “Generate sitemap”. Invalid URLs are flagged line by line; duplicates are removed automatically.
- Review the XML preview to confirm everything looks right.
- Download
sitemap.xml(or copy the XML) and upload it to your site’s root directory.
Features That Set This Tool Apart
- URL validation: malformed URLs are flagged with exact line numbers instead of silently breaking your sitemap.
- Proper XML escaping: ampersands, quotes, and angle brackets in URLs are escaped per the XML spec — a common source of invalid sitemaps.
- Automatic deduplication: repeated URLs are collapsed to a single entry.
- Optional fields: changefreq, priority, and lastmod can each be omitted — Google ignores changefreq and priority anyway.
- 50,000-URL guardrail: the tool warns you before you exceed the per-file limit, with guidance on splitting.
- 100% in-browser: your URL list never leaves your device.
What Goes Into a Sitemap
A sitemap is a list of your site’s canonical, indexable URLs — the pages you want search engines to crawl and potentially rank. That means full absolute URLs including the scheme and host (https://example.com/about/, not /about/), and only URLs that return a 200 status, don’t redirect, and aren’t blocked by robots.txt or a noindex tag. Including redirected or error pages confuses crawlers and wastes your crawl budget.
Every URL in the file must live on the same host as the sitemap itself (with narrow exceptions for verified cross-domain setups). A single sitemap file supports up to 50,000 URLs and 50 MB uncompressed — beyond that, you split into multiple sitemap files and list them in a sitemap index file, which itself can reference up to 50,000 sitemaps. Most small and medium sites never come close to these limits; one file is enough.
Generate sitemaps from your content source (your CMS database, your static site’s page list), not by crawling your own site — crawling can surface orphaned pages, redirect chains, and parameterized URLs you never intended to submit. This xml sitemap generator takes your curated list and turns it into spec-valid XML; the curation part is yours, and it’s the part that matters most.
Lastmod, Changefreq, and Priority — Honestly
Each URL entry supports three optional tags, and there’s a lot of mythology around them. Lastmod is the genuinely useful one: the date the page last changed, in YYYY-MM-DD format. Search engines use it as a hint when scheduling recrawls — but only if it’s honest. Stamping today’s date on every page during each deploy teaches crawlers to ignore your lastmod entirely, degrading the signal for pages that actually changed.
Changefreq (always, hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, never) and priority (0.0–1.0) are, frankly, hints that Google ignores. They were designed to help crawlers schedule, but in practice crawlers determine change patterns and importance themselves. Other search engines may pay them some attention, so they’re harmless to include — but don’t spend an afternoon fine-tuning priority values. That’s why this tool lets you omit both with one click.
The practical takeaway: set lastmod from your CMS’s actual “updated” timestamp, omit or accept the defaults for the other two, and spend your SEO energy on content and internal linking instead.
After Generating: Upload and Submit
Once this xml sitemap generator produces your file, save it as sitemap.xml and upload it to your site’s root so it’s reachable at your domain’s /sitemap.xml path. Then reference it in your robots.txt with a Sitemap: line pointing at its full URL — this is how crawlers discover it without any manual submission.
Next, submit it in Google Search Console (Sitemaps section) and Bing Webmaster Tools. Submission doesn’t guarantee indexing, but it gives you reporting: both tools tell you how many submitted URLs were actually indexed, which is invaluable for spotting coverage problems. Keep the sitemap fresh — regenerate it when you publish or remove pages, or better, generate it automatically from your CMS so it never goes stale.
If your site grows past 50,000 URLs, split the list into multiple files (e.g. sitemap-posts.xml, sitemap-pages.xml) and create a sitemap index that references them, then submit the index instead. The structure is simple and this same generator can produce each part — just paste each URL group separately.
XML Sitemap Generator: Frequently Asked Questions
How do I create a sitemap.xml file?
Paste your page URLs into this xml sitemap generator, set your options, and click Generate. Download the resulting sitemap.xml, upload it to your website’s root directory, reference it in robots.txt, and submit it in Google Search Console. The whole process takes a few minutes for a typical site.
What is the 50,000 URL limit?
The sitemap protocol allows a maximum of 50,000 URLs and 50 MB uncompressed per sitemap file. Larger sites split their URLs across multiple sitemap files and list those files in a sitemap index, which can reference up to 50,000 sitemaps. This tool warns you before you exceed the limit.
Do changefreq and priority affect rankings?
No. They are crawl hints, not ranking factors, and Google ignores both. Lastmod is the only tag with practical value, used as a recrawl scheduling hint — and only when it’s honest. Set lastmod from your actual content update timestamps and don’t overthink the other two fields.
Should my sitemap include every URL on my site?
Include every canonical, indexable page you want crawled: articles, product pages, key landing pages. Exclude redirected URLs, 404s, noindexed pages, login/admin pages, and thin utility pages like tag archives you don’t want indexed. A sitemap of clean canonical URLs beats a sitemap of everything.
How often should I update my sitemap?
Whenever your content changes: new pages published, old pages removed, or significant updates. For active sites, generate the sitemap automatically from your CMS on publish. For static sites, regenerate after each meaningful content update. Then let Search Console recrawl on its own schedule.
Related Free Tools
- Hreflang Tag Generator — generate hreflang tags for multilingual sites.
- Robots.txt Generator — build a robots.txt that references your sitemap.
- HTML Minifier — shrink your pages for faster crawling and loading.
- All Free Tools — browse the complete collection of free online utilities.
A good sitemap is the simplest SEO infrastructure you’ll ever build. With this free xml sitemap generator, you get validated URLs, spec-correct XML, and a download-ready file in under a minute — no plugins, no signup, no server needed. Paste your URLs above and get your site discovered faster.