Free XML sitemap generator

How to use the sitemap generator

1. Enter a start address. Use your home page for the whole site, or a folder such as example.com/docs/ for one section. The crawl stays on that host and under that path.
2. Wait for the crawl. The generator reads up to 100 pages, six at a time, and follows the links it finds. A large site can take up to a minute.
3. Download sitemap.xml. Upload it to the root of your site, list it in robots.txt, and submit it in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.

What the generator includes and leaves out

Each URL is a page the crawler reached by following links from the start address. It leaves out:

• Pages robots.txt blocks for our crawler. If robots.txt blocks the start page, nothing is read.
• Duplicates. URLs are normalized: tracking parameters such as utm_source are removed and the query is sorted, so one page is listed once. A page whose canonical tag points to another URL is listed under the canonical URL.
• Files and traps. Images, PDFs, scripts, session URLs and endless calendar or paging links are skipped.
• Errors. A page that returns an error or a non-HTML response is not listed.

When the crawl reaches 100 pages, links found on the last pages are still listed but not opened. The result marks how many. If it says the crawl stopped at its limit, your site has more pages than this tool can read, and a sitemap from your CMS or build is the right fix.

The sitemap format

The file follows the sitemaps.org protocol. A minimal sitemap looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
  <url><loc>https://example.com/</loc></url>
  <url><loc>https://example.com/pricing</loc></url>
</urlset>

Only <loc> is required. The generator does not add <lastmod>, because a crawl cannot know when a page last changed, and search engines ignore dates they cannot trust. It also leaves out <priority> and <changefreq>, which Google ignores.

When a generated sitemap is the right choice

• A small static site or landing page with no CMS.
• A first sitemap for a site that has none, while you set up a proper one.
• A check of which pages are reachable by links, compared with the pages you expect.

For anything that changes often, a sitemap your platform keeps up to date is better. WordPress, Shopify, Webflow, Next.js and most docs platforms can create one, either built in or with a plugin.

Use the crawl to find orphan pages

A crawl only finds pages that are linked. Compare the generated list with the pages you know you have. A page that is missing is an orphan: no page links to it, so visitors and crawlers struggle to find it. Search engines can still find it through a sitemap, but AI tools and chatbots that follow links may never read it. Add a link from a related page or from your navigation.

Mistakes to avoid with a generated sitemap

• Generating it from a staging site. The URLs then point to the staging host. Always crawl the live address that visitors use.
• Mixing hosts. If your site answers on both example.com and www.example.com, redirect one to the other first, then crawl the one you keep.
• Listing pages you do not want found. Thank-you pages, internal search results and test pages that are linked will be in the list. Remove them from the file, and add a noindex tag to the pages.
• Forgetting the file exists. A sitemap that still lists deleted pages sends crawlers to errors. Put a reminder next to your release checklist.

After you publish the sitemap

1. Add Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap.xml to robots.txt.
2. Submit it in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.
3. Check it with the sitemap checker to confirm it loads as XML.
4. Regenerate it when you add or remove pages.