Free Sitemap Generator: Build Your XML Sitemap

How to use the sitemap xml generator

1. Paste your URLs into the text area, one per line. Each must start with http:// or https://.
2. Optionally set a default lastmod date in YYYY-MM-DD format, a changefreq value and a priority between 0.0 and 1.0.
3. The XML output updates automatically as you type. Review it for correctness.
4. Copy the generated XML and save it as sitemap.xml in your website root directory.
5. If you have more than 50,000 URLs, split them into multiple files and use a sitemap index.

How the XML structure works

A valid sitemap follows the schema defined at sitemaps.org. The root element is <urlset> with the namespace http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9. Each page goes inside a <url> block containing a required <loc> tag and optional <lastmod>, <changefreq> and <priority> tags.

For example, if you enter https://example.com/about with a lastmod of 2024-06-01, changefreq of monthly and priority of 0.7, this free xml sitemap generator produces:

<url><loc>https://example.com/about</loc><lastmod>2024-06-01</lastmod><changefreq>monthly</changefreq><priority>0.7</priority></url>

Special characters in URLs such as ampersands are escaped to & so the resulting document remains well-formed XML.

Reference table of changefreq values

The changefreq tag tells search engines how often a page is likely to change. The protocol defines it as a hint rather than a command, and Google says it ignores changefreq and priority entirely, so treat them as optional. Here are the allowed values:

This sitemap generator free tool lets you pick any of these values as a default for all URLs you paste.

Limits: 50,000 URLs and 50 MB

The sitemaps.org protocol enforces two hard limits on each file: a maximum of 50,000 URLs and a maximum uncompressed size of 50 megabytes. If your site exceeds either threshold, you must split the URLs across multiple sitemap files and reference them from a sitemap index file.

This sitemap online generator free tool warns you when your input approaches the 50,000 URL limit. For very large sites, consider generating batches of 40,000 URLs per file to leave room for future growth without immediately hitting the cap. You can then combine those files using a simple index structure.

After generating your file, you can verify its structure using an XML sitemap validator to catch formatting issues before submitting to search engines.

Practical uses beyond standard SEO

While most people use a free sitemap generator for search engine submission, the same XML format serves other purposes. Internal tooling can parse the sitemap to build navigation menus, run link checkers or generate reports. Some teams use it as a lightweight inventory of published pages.

If you need a human-readable version for visitors, you might look for an html sitemap generator instead. An HTML sitemap is a regular web page with links, whereas the XML format produced here is designed for machines. Both serve different roles: XML for crawlers, HTML for users.

You can also pair the generated sitemap with a properly configured robots.txt file that points crawlers to your sitemap location using the Sitemap: directive.

Common mistakes to avoid

Several errors frequently break sitemaps or cause search engines to ignore them. Avoid including relative URLs: every <loc> must be an absolute URL starting with http:// or https://. Do not include URLs that redirect or return 404 errors, as this wastes crawl budget and signals poor maintenance.

Another common mistake is using invalid date formats. The <lastmod> field must use the W3C date format: YYYY-MM-DD, or a full date-time such as 2024-01-15T09:30:00+00:00. Values like "01/15/2024" or "Jan 15, 2024" will cause parsing failures, and this tool rejects impossible dates such as 2024-02-30. Google only uses lastmod when it is consistently accurate, so set it to the real last change date rather than today's date.

Finally, do not mix protocols. If your site uses HTTPS, all URLs in the sitemap should use HTTPS. Including HTTP URLs on an HTTPS site creates duplicate content signals. Among available sitemap xml generator tools, validation at the point of creation saves time compared to debugging after submission.

Worked examples