Sitemap Generator
- Add your URLs, one per line, always absolute and on the same domain as the sitemap.
- Fill in the optional fields per URL: last modification date, change frequency and priority.
- Copy the generated XML into a file, publish it at your site root, and declare its address in robots.txt.
The URL is the only required field and the only one that always matters.
Last modification date is used by search engines to prioritise crawling — but only when it is trustworthy. Sites that stamp today’s date on every page at every build teach the crawler to ignore the field.
Change frequency and priority are, in practice, ignored by major search engines. They come from the original 2005 specification, and priority in particular never worked as imagined: it is relative within your own site and does not influence ranking.
The practical takeaway: invest in an accurate URL list and honest modification dates, and do not spend time tuning priority.
One sitemap holds up to 50,000 URLs and 50 MB uncompressed. Beyond that you must split into several files and create an index pointing to them.
It can be worth splitting before the limit when it aids diagnosis: separating by site section lets you see in Search Console which area has an indexing problem.
The file can be served gzip-compressed, which cuts transfer significantly on large lists.
- Include only URLs that return 200 and are indexable. A noindex page in the sitemap is a contradictory signal.
- Include only the canonical version. Listing parameter variations creates duplication.
- Leave out redirects, error pages and anything blocked in robots.txt.
- A sitemap aids discovery but does not guarantee indexing — the search engine still decides whether a page earns a place in the index.
Frequently asked questions
No. Major search engines ignore both fields. They are part of the original specification but in practice affect neither ranking nor crawl rate.
Up to 50,000 URLs or 50 MB uncompressed, whichever comes first. Above that, split into several files and create an index pointing to them.
No. A sitemap helps with URL discovery, but the search engine independently decides whether a page enters the index.
No. It is a contradictory signal: the sitemap asks for crawling while the page asks for exclusion. Keep only indexable pages in the file.
For small, stable sites, regenerating occasionally is fine. For sites that change often, generating it automatically at build time is the right approach.