When to use it
Use this tool to create a sitemap.xml file, the list of pages you want search engines to find. It is handy for new websites, small sites without a plugin that does it automatically, static sites, and quick fixes when a site’s built-in sitemap is missing pages.
How to use it
- Paste your Page URLs, one per line. Use full addresses including https://. Duplicates are removed for you.
- Choose Last modified: Today or Leave out.
- Choose a Change frequency, from daily to yearly, or Leave out.
- Choose a Priority: Automatic (by depth), 0.5 for all or Leave out.
- Check the sitemap.xml preview, then Copy sitemap or Download sitemap.xml.
If a line is not a full URL, the tool skips it and tells you which one.
Worked example
The example lists four pages: the home page, an about page, a blog post and a contact page with tracking parameters. With automatic priority, the home page gets 1.0, top-level pages like /about and /contact get 0.8, and the deeper blog post gets 0.6. Every page gets today’s date as last modified, and monthly as change frequency.
The contact URL contains ?ref=footer&lang=en. In the sitemap it is written with &, which is how XML requires an ampersand to be stored.
Collecting your URLs
For a small site, copy the links from your navigation menu and footer. For a larger site, export them from your content management system, or from a crawler tool, and paste them in. Leave out pages you do not want in search, such as thank-you pages, logins and duplicates.
Tips
- List only canonical URLs. Use the main version of each page, not copies with tracking tags.
- Keep it current. Regenerate the sitemap when you add or remove pages, and upload the new file over the old one.
- Check it in Search Console. The Sitemaps report shows how many pages Google read and any errors it found.
- Point to it from robots.txt. Add a Sitemap line using the Robots.txt Generator.
Common mistakes
- Mixing http and https, or www and non-www. Use the same version your site actually uses.
- Including blocked or noindex pages. A sitemap should only list pages you want indexed.
- Setting every page to priority 1.0. It tells search engines nothing.