XML Sitemap Generator

A sitemap is a list of URLs for crawlers to discover, with optional hints about when each page last changed. Its main value is discovery: it guarantees that crawlers can find pages that are not linked from anywhere else, which happens routinely in JavaScript apps, paginated sections and parameterised URLs.

It is not a ranking factor, and submitting one does not get a neglected page into the index. A page that is listed but has a noindex directive, a canonical elsewhere, or returns 404 will be ignored — and a sitemap full of such URLs will generate warnings that mask real problems.

The protocol caps one sitemap file at 50,000 URLs and 50 MB uncompressed. A site that large needs a sitemap index: several child sitemaps, each under the limit, listed inside one sitemapindex file. Splitting by section — products, blog, pages — is the usual approach.

For the vast majority of sites none of this matters: a hundred-URL sitemap is a few kilobytes. The limit is worth knowing so a large site does not silently produce a file that crawlers reject partway through.

lastmod tells a crawler when a page last changed. Used honestly it helps: a crawler that knows a page is new can prioritise it, and one that knows nothing changed can stop re-fetching.

Used carelessly it works against you. Google states it ignores lastmod it cannot verify, so stamping today's date on every URL teaches crawlers that your signal is noise, and genuine updates stop being noticed. This generator fills every URL with one fallback date unless a line carries ?lastmod=YYYY-MM-DD, so set the fallback to a date you are actually willing to stand behind.

Every URL in a sitemap should return 200, be self-canonical, and be indexable. Redirects should be left out in favour of their destination, 404s and 500s obviously should not appear, and a page with noindex in its head must not be listed — the two directives contradict each other and the crawl wastes budget before discovering that.

Also leave out any URL you do not want associated with the site, such as filtered, paginated or search-result pages. Sitemaps are a filing system; putting everything in it makes the file useless for the purpose.

The same page can easily end up in a sitemap three or four times. This generator removes URL fragments, drops tracking parameters that never belonged in a canonical address, and collapses repeated lines while telling you which line repeated which.

Protocol is the other common duplicate source. A site reachable over both http and https, or with and without a trailing slash, splits its own signals. The protocol control forces every entry to one value, which is almost always the right fix for a site you control end to end.

Put the file at https://example.com/sitemap.xml so it sits in one predictable place, list it in robots.txt, and submit the URL in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. The robots.txt line matters because it is how a crawler learns where the file is without being told.

Then leave it alone. Search Console reports how many URLs were discovered and indexed, which is a far better signal than re-submitting. A sitemap is a filing cabinet, not a button.