Paste your page addresses, or a base address and a list of paths, and get a clean sitemap.xml. Duplicates and broken lines are taken out, special characters are escaped properly, and you get the robots.txt line to go with it. It is free and runs in your browser.
How to make a sitemap, step by step
- Paste your Page addresses or paths, one per line. If you use paths, type the Base address for paths.
- Choose how to handle Trailing slashes.
- Choose Last modified, Change frequency and Priority, or leave them out.
- Check the sitemap.xml that appears.
- Press Download sitemap.xml and copy the robots.txt line.
Where to put your sitemap
Upload sitemap.xml to the root of your site, so it opens at yoursite.com/sitemap.xml. Add the Sitemap line to robots.txt so every search engine can find it, and submit the address in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools to have it read sooner.
Do lastmod, changefreq and priority matter?
Google uses lastmod when it is accurate and ignores changefreq and priority. Bing and some other crawlers still read them. If you include lastmod, update it when a page really changes; a date that changes on every page every day tends to be ignored.
Which pages belong in a sitemap?
List the pages you want found in search, using the exact address you want shown: the same https or http, the same www or not, and the same trailing slash style throughout. Leave out redirects, error pages, pages marked noindex and duplicates. A single sitemap can hold up to 50,000 addresses.
Tips for a healthy sitemap
- Use the final address of each page, not a link that redirects.
- Choose one trailing slash style and use it everywhere.
- Update the sitemap when you add or remove pages.
- Give each page a title and description with the meta tag generator.
- Check your site before launch with the pre-launch scan.
Who uses it
Owners of small sites, portfolios, shops and blogs who do not use a plugin that makes a sitemap for them, and anyone launching a new site who wants search engines to find every page.
Privacy
The sitemap is built in your browser from the addresses you type. Nothing is fetched or sent to a server.
Questions
Does a sitemap improve my ranking?
It helps search engines find your pages. It does not rank them higher by itself.
Does the tool crawl my site?
No. It only uses the addresses you give it.
What if I have more than 50,000 pages?
Split them into several sitemaps and list them in a sitemap index file.