XML Sitemap Generator

A sitemap generator turns a plain list of page URLs into a valid XML sitemap in the sitemaps.org 0.9 format. Paste one absolute URL per line, optionally set global lastmod, changefreq, and priority values, and the tool trims, validates, deduplicates, and XML-escapes every line before emitting the <urlset> document. It builds strictly from the list you provide — it never fetches or crawls a site, so it cannot discover URLs on your behalf.

Building a Sitemap from a URL List

1. Export your URLs from a CMS, static-site build, server log, or a query against your pages table. Keep only pages you want indexed.
2. Paste the list into the input, one absolute URL per line. Lines are trimmed; blank lines are ignored.
3. Optionally set a global change frequency, priority (0.0–1.0), and lastmod date. Leave any of them on 「Omit」 to drop the element entirely.
4. Read the warning panel. Invalid lines are listed with their line numbers, and a duplicate counter tells you how many repeats were dropped.
5. Copy the XML, or download it directly as sitemap.xml.
6. Host it at your site root, reference it from robots.txt, and submit it in Search Console.

Worked Example: Three URLs In, One Sitemap Out

Given this input, with lastmod 2026-09-11, changefreq weekly, and priority 0.8:

https://example.com/
https://example.com/about
https://example.com/blog/?tag=js&page=2

The output is:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
  <url>
    <loc>https://example.com/</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-09-11</lastmod>
    <changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.8</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://example.com/about</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-09-11</lastmod>
    <changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.8</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://example.com/blog/?tag=js&amp;page=2</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-09-11</lastmod>
    <changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.8</priority>
  </url>
</urlset>

Notice the & in the query string became & so the XML stays well formed. Paste https://example.com/about twice and the second copy is dropped as a duplicate; paste example.com/about or ftp://example.com/file and those lines are reported as invalid rather than breaking the file.

The Optional Elements Explained

Element	Accepted values	Practical guidance
lastmod	W3C date, e.g. 2026-09-11, or full ISO 8601	Use real per-page modification dates when you can; otherwise omit
changefreq	always, hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, never	A hint only; Google ignores it, so omit unless another engine consumes it
priority	0.0–1.0, one decimal	Relative within one site only; clamped, and ignored by Google

Limits and Failure Modes

• Size limits: one file may hold 50,000 URLs or 50 MB uncompressed. Larger sites need a sitemap index pointing at several sitemap files.
• Deduplication is exact and case-sensitive. https://example.com/About and https://example.com/about both survive, as do URLs differing only by a trailing slash. Canonicalise before pasting.
• It validates syntax, not reachability. new URL() accepts a URL that is well formed but returns 404 or redirects. The generator will happily include it.
• No compression. If you want sitemap.xml.gz, gzip the downloaded file yourself; that is valid and still within the 50 MB limit.
• Escaping covers &, <, >, ", and ', so query strings and unusual paths survive intact.

When You Need a Sitemap Index

For sites above 50,000 URLs, or content split cleanly by section, publish several sitemap files and a top-level index. The index uses a different root element, <sitemapindex>, and points at each child file with its own <loc> and optional <lastmod>:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<sitemapindex xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
  <sitemap>
    <loc>https://example.com/sitemap-products.xml</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-09-11</lastmod>
  </sitemap>
  <sitemap>
    <loc>https://example.com/sitemap-blog.xml</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-09-11</lastmod>
  </sitemap>
</sitemapindex>

Each child holds up to 50,000 URLs, so an index of two files covers 100,000 pages and so on. Reference only the index in robots.txt; crawlers discover the children through it. This generator produces a single flat sitemap, so for very large sites generate it per section and assemble the index by hand.

Common Mistakes

• Listing redirected, canonicalised-away, or 404 URLs — crawlers waste budget on them.
• Stamping every build with today’s lastmod, which makes the field meaningless.
• Believing priority influences rankings. It only expresses relative importance within your own site.
• Using relative or protocol-relative URLs. Every loc must be absolute and start with http:// or https://.
• Pointing robots.txt at sitemap-index.xml when you only published sitemap.xml.
• Mixing http and https, or www and non-www, so the same page appears twice.

Related Tools

• Robots.txt Generator — Write the crawler rules that accompany your sitemap.
• Meta Tag Generator — Produce the canonical, OG, and Twitter tags for the pages you list.
• XML Formatter — Pretty-print or validate the generated XML.
• URL Encoder/Decoder — Encode query strings before adding them to a loc.
• URL Parser — Break URLs into components to audit them.