How to create your sitemap
Collect your URLs
Paste the pages you want in Google, one URL per line.
Download and upload
Upload sitemap.xml to your site root so it lives at example.com/sitemap.xml.
Tell Google
Submit the sitemap URL in Google Search Console and add a Sitemap line to robots.txt.
What Google uses from a sitemap
| Tag | Used by Google? | Note |
|---|---|---|
loc | Yes | The page’s full URL; the only required tag. |
lastmod | Yes, if accurate | When the page’s content last changed significantly. |
xhtml:link | Yes | hreflang links that connect each language version. |
changefreq | No | Google ignores it, so there’s no need to add it. |
priority | No | Google ignores it too. |
FAQ
What is an XML sitemap?
A file listing your site’s important URLs so Google and other search engines find and crawl them faster, especially on new or large sites.
Do I need a sitemap?
It isn’t required, but it helps new sites with few links pointing to them, and large sites and stores. It doesn’t guarantee indexing; it helps it.
What does hreflang do in a sitemap?
It tells Google that pages in different languages are versions of the same content, so each visitor sees their language. Each version must point to the others and to itself.
How many URLs can a sitemap hold?
Up to 50,000 URLs and 50 MB per file. For more, split them across files and list them in a sitemap index.
Why paste the content instead of the sitemap URL?
Browsers stop pages reading files from other sites directly, for security. We don’t use a proxy server, so the tool stays fast, free and always on.
Are my URLs stored?
No. Creating and checking happen in your browser; nothing is sent to a server.