The format looks like this:

   
      https://example.com/
      2026-04-15
      1.0
   
   
      https://example.com/about
      2026-04-10
      0.8
   

Each <url> entry includes: loc (full page URL), lastmod (when the page was last updated), and priority (how important this page is relative to others, 0.0 to 1.0).

Why you need one

Search engines discover pages by following links. If your pages don't have internal links pointing to them — or if those pages are buried five clicks deep — crawlers might never find them. A sitemap fixes this. It's a direct list. No navigation required. Crawlers read the file and know exactly which pages to visit.

You definitely need a sitemap if:

• Your site is new (few external links pointing to you)
• Your site has 500+ pages (crawlers might miss deep pages)
• Your pages don't link well internally (poor navigation structure)
• Your site uses rich media or AJAX (standard crawling misses dynamic content)

You probably don't need a sitemap if: your site has under 50 pages with good internal linking, all pages are reachable within 2-3 clicks from your homepage, or you already submit your RSS feed to search engines. That said, adding a sitemap never hurts. Takes five minutes. Just do it.

What gets crawled

• HTML pages: Your main content
• Posts and articles: Blog entries, news items
• Categories and tags: Taxonomy pages (if you want them indexed)
• Images referenced in pages: Optional image sitemap entries

What gets ignored

• External links: We don't crawl other domains
• Noindex pages: If a page has a noindex meta tag, we skip it
• Disallowed URLs: If your robots.txt blocks a path, we respect it
• Duplicates: We crawl each unique URL once

Limits of the free tool

• 500 pages maximum: Most free sitemap generators cap at 200-300. We give you 500. For larger sites, use a desktop tool like Screaming Frog or a paid service.
• Crawl time: 500 pages takes 2-5 minutes depending on server speed. Be patient.
• No JavaScript crawling: We see what a text browser sees. JavaScript-heavy sites (React, Angular) may not crawl fully. Generate sitemaps from your CMS instead.

Method 1: Google Search Console (recommended)

1. Go to Google Search Console
2. Select your website property
3. Click "Sitemaps" in the left sidebar (under Indexing)
4. Enter your sitemap URL: sitemap.xml
5. Click "Submit"

That's it. Google crawls your sitemap within hours. You'll see how many pages were discovered and whether any failed.

Method 2: Robots.txt reference

Add this line to your robots.txt file:

Google finds the sitemap when it reads your robots.txt. No manual submission needed. But Search Console gives you better visibility into errors.

Method 3: Ping Google

Send a GET request to:

Use this for automated notifications after site updates. Google recrawls the sitemap within a few days.

• Keep it under 50,000 URLs per file: Google's limit is 50,000 URLs per sitemap file. If you have more pages, split into multiple sitemaps (sitemap1.xml, sitemap2.xml) and create a sitemap index file.
• Keep the file under 50MB uncompressed: Large files slow down crawlers. Compress with gzip if needed (sitemap.xml.gz). Most sites never hit this limit.
• Only include canonical pages: Don't include duplicate content, paginated pages (page=2, page=3), or parameter-based URLs. Include only the version you want indexed.
• Exclude noindex pages: If a page has a noindex meta tag, leave it out of your sitemap. Conflicting signals confuse Google.

• Update when you add pages: Static sitemaps are useless. Generate a new one every time you publish content. Or set up automated generation through your CMS.
• Use lastmod correctly: Set lastmod to the actual last modification date. Google uses this to recrawl updated pages faster. Don't fake it — Google ignores inaccurate dates.

• Mistake #1: Including blocked pages. Your sitemap lists /admin/. Your robots.txt disallows /admin/. Google gets confused. Fix: Never include pages in your sitemap that you've blocked with robots.txt.
• Mistake #2: Forgetting HTTP vs. HTTPS. Your site runs on HTTPS. Your sitemap lists HTTP URLs. Google treats them as different pages. Fix: Use absolute URLs with the correct protocol (https://).
• Mistake #3: Not compressing large sitemaps. A 30MB sitemap loads slowly. Crawlers might timeout. Fix: Compress with gzip. Upload as sitemap.xml.gz.

• Mistake #4: Including pagination URLs. /blog/page/2/, /blog/page/3/ — these shouldn't be in your main sitemap. Fix: Include only the canonical view (usually /blog/).
• Mistake #5: Never updating the sitemap. You generated a sitemap six months ago. You've added 50 pages since then. Fix: Regenerate your sitemap weekly. Automate it if possible.

The format looks like this:

   
      https://example.com/
      2026-04-15
      1.0
   
   
      https://example.com/about
      2026-04-10
      0.8
   

Each <url> entry includes: loc (full page URL), lastmod (when the page was last updated), and priority (how important this page is relative to others, 0.0 to 1.0).

Why you need one

Search engines discover pages by following links. If your pages don't have internal links pointing to them — or if those pages are buried five clicks deep — crawlers might never find them. A sitemap fixes this. It's a direct list. No navigation required. Crawlers read the file and know exactly which pages to visit.

You definitely need a sitemap if:

• Your site is new (few external links pointing to you)
• Your site has 500+ pages (crawlers might miss deep pages)
• Your pages don't link well internally (poor navigation structure)
• Your site uses rich media or AJAX (standard crawling misses dynamic content)

You probably don't need a sitemap if: your site has under 50 pages with good internal linking, all pages are reachable within 2-3 clicks from your homepage, or you already submit your RSS feed to search engines. That said, adding a sitemap never hurts. Takes five minutes. Just do it.

What gets crawled

• HTML pages: Your main content
• Posts and articles: Blog entries, news items
• Categories and tags: Taxonomy pages (if you want them indexed)
• Images referenced in pages: Optional image sitemap entries

What gets ignored

• External links: We don't crawl other domains
• Noindex pages: If a page has a noindex meta tag, we skip it
• Disallowed URLs: If your robots.txt blocks a path, we respect it
• Duplicates: We crawl each unique URL once

Limits of the free tool

• 500 pages maximum: Most free sitemap generators cap at 200-300. We give you 500. For larger sites, use a desktop tool like Screaming Frog or a paid service.
• Crawl time: 500 pages takes 2-5 minutes depending on server speed. Be patient.
• No JavaScript crawling: We see what a text browser sees. JavaScript-heavy sites (React, Angular) may not crawl fully. Generate sitemaps from your CMS instead.

Method 1: Google Search Console (recommended)

1. Go to Google Search Console
2. Select your website property
3. Click "Sitemaps" in the left sidebar (under Indexing)
4. Enter your sitemap URL: sitemap.xml
5. Click "Submit"

That's it. Google crawls your sitemap within hours. You'll see how many pages were discovered and whether any failed.

Method 2: Robots.txt reference

Add this line to your robots.txt file:

Google finds the sitemap when it reads your robots.txt. No manual submission needed. But Search Console gives you better visibility into errors.

Method 3: Ping Google

Send a GET request to:

Use this for automated notifications after site updates. Google recrawls the sitemap within a few days.

• Keep it under 50,000 URLs per file: Google's limit is 50,000 URLs per sitemap file. If you have more pages, split into multiple sitemaps (sitemap1.xml, sitemap2.xml) and create a sitemap index file.
• Keep the file under 50MB uncompressed: Large files slow down crawlers. Compress with gzip if needed (sitemap.xml.gz). Most sites never hit this limit.
• Only include canonical pages: Don't include duplicate content, paginated pages (page=2, page=3), or parameter-based URLs. Include only the version you want indexed.
• Exclude noindex pages: If a page has a noindex meta tag, leave it out of your sitemap. Conflicting signals confuse Google.

• Update when you add pages: Static sitemaps are useless. Generate a new one every time you publish content. Or set up automated generation through your CMS.
• Use lastmod correctly: Set lastmod to the actual last modification date. Google uses this to recrawl updated pages faster. Don't fake it — Google ignores inaccurate dates.

• Mistake #1: Including blocked pages. Your sitemap lists /admin/. Your robots.txt disallows /admin/. Google gets confused. Fix: Never include pages in your sitemap that you've blocked with robots.txt.
• Mistake #2: Forgetting HTTP vs. HTTPS. Your site runs on HTTPS. Your sitemap lists HTTP URLs. Google treats them as different pages. Fix: Use absolute URLs with the correct protocol (https://).
• Mistake #3: Not compressing large sitemaps. A 30MB sitemap loads slowly. Crawlers might timeout. Fix: Compress with gzip. Upload as sitemap.xml.gz.

• Mistake #4: Including pagination URLs. /blog/page/2/, /blog/page/3/ — these shouldn't be in your main sitemap. Fix: Include only the canonical view (usually /blog/).
• Mistake #5: Never updating the sitemap. You generated a sitemap six months ago. You've added 50 pages since then. Fix: Regenerate your sitemap weekly. Automate it if possible.