ToolNestFree Online Sitemap Generator
Last updated: October 18, 2026
Quick answer: Help search engines find every page on your site. Our free sitemap generator turns a plain list of URLs into a valid XML sitemap — with lastmod dates, change frequencies, and priorities — ready to submit to Google Search Console. It validates each URL as it builds, so a typo never breaks your sitemap. No signup, everything runs in your browser.
🔒 100% Private: Data never leaves your device.
Upload the file to your domain root, add
Sitemap: https://yoursite.com/sitemap.xml to robots.txt, and submit it in Google Search Console (Sitemaps report). One sitemap holds up to 50,000 URLs / 50 MB — if you have more, split them and add a sitemap index.✓ Free forever · ✓ No signup · ✓ Tool inputs stay in your browser — never sent to our servers.
How to Use the Sitemap Generator
- Paste your page URLs, one per line — full URLs starting with https://.
- Set the defaults: today's date as last-modified, a change frequency, and a priority.
- Click Build Sitemap — each URL is validated before the XML is generated.
- Copy the XML or download it as sitemap.xml, then upload it to your domain root.
- Submit it in Google Search Console (Sitemaps report) and reference it from your robots.txt.
Why Use Our Sitemap Generator?
- Instant valid XML — proper urlset markup with correct escaping, ready to submit.
- URL validation — lines that aren't valid http(s) URLs are flagged before they can break the file.
- lastmod, changefreq & priority — applied to every URL with one set of defaults.
- 50k-URL guardrail — warns you when your list exceeds a single sitemap's limits.
- Copy or download — one click to grab sitemap.xml, free forever with no signup.
Common Use Cases
- New site launch: Generate the sitemap on day one, submit it in Search Console, and reference it in robots.txt so crawlers discover every page before you have any backlinks.
- Large e-commerce catalogs: Turn a product URL export into a valid sitemap per section — products, categories, blog — so deep product pages get crawled without waiting for internal-link depth.
- Blog publishing workflow: Re-run the generator with the full URL list each time you publish; the fresh lastmod dates signal crawlers to revisit.
- Migration QA: Build a sitemap of the old site's URLs, then verify each one 200s (not 404s or chains) on the new domain before submitting — catches migration losses early.
- Index-bloat audits: Compare your sitemap's URL count against Google's indexed count in Search Console; a big gap means crawl or quality issues worth investigating.
Sitemap Generator vs Alternatives
- Yoast / Rank Math (WordPress): The right answer if you're on WordPress: automatic sitemaps that update themselves on publish, including image and news variants. Useless outside WordPress — this generator is CMS-agnostic.
- Screaming Frog: The professional crawler: point it at your site and it builds the sitemap from the actual crawl, catching orphans you'd forget to list. It's a desktop app with a learning curve and a paid tier for large sites; ours is instant and free for list-to-XML.
- xml-sitemaps.com: A long-running online generator that crawls your site for you. The free tier caps at 500 pages and the crawl can take a while; paste a complete list here and you skip the crawl entirely with no page cap.
- Hand-writing the XML: Full control over every tag and extension. Also full responsibility for every escaping bug, unclosed tag, and invalid date — one typo and the whole file is rejected. Generate, don't hand-write.
Bottom line: on WordPress, let Yoast or Rank Math handle it automatically and never think about sitemaps again. Everywhere else — static sites, custom stacks, quick audits — paste your URLs here and get a valid sitemap.xml in under a minute.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an XML sitemap?
A machine-readable list of your site's pages at /sitemap.xml that tells search engines which URLs exist, when each was last modified, and how often it tends to change. It's a discovery aid — it doesn't guarantee ranking, but it helps crawlers find pages faster, especially on new or large sites.
How many URLs can a sitemap contain?
One sitemap file can hold up to 50,000 URLs and 50 MB uncompressed. Bigger sites split into multiple sitemaps and list them in a sitemap index file — this tool warns you if your list crosses the line.
Do changefreq and priority actually matter?
Honestly, barely. Google has said it largely ignores <changefreq> and <priority> and treats <lastmod> as a hint. Keep them sensible — an accurate lastmod is the part worth getting right — but don't expect them to move rankings.
Do I need a sitemap if Google already crawls my site?
For small, well-linked sites, probably not — Google finds pages through links. Sitemaps earn their keep on new sites with few backlinks, very large sites, pages hidden deep in navigation, and sites with lots of new content.
Where do I submit my sitemap?
Two places: Google Search Console's Sitemaps report (fastest feedback) and your robots.txt file, with a line like
Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap.xml so every crawler finds it automatically.What's the difference between a sitemap and robots.txt?
They do opposite jobs: robots.txt tells crawlers what NOT to fetch, while the sitemap lists what you WANT discovered. Use both — generate your robots.txt with our robots.txt generator and reference the sitemap inside it.
How do I update my sitemap when I publish new pages?
Re-run this tool with your full URL list (old pages included) and re-upload — a sitemap should always list your complete set of pages, not just the new ones. Or automate it: most CMSs (WordPress + Yoast/Rank Math) regenerate sitemaps automatically.
Should noindex or redirected pages go in my sitemap?
No — a sitemap should list only canonical, indexable URLs that return 200. Putting noindex pages, 404s, or redirect chains in the sitemap sends crawlers mixed signals and wastes crawl budget. This tool's URL validation catches typos, but the noindex/canonical decision is yours: cross-check your list against your robots meta tags before building.
How accurate does lastmod need to be?
More accurate than most people think. Google treats <lastmod> as a crawl-priority hint, so stamping every URL with today's date trains crawlers to distrust it. Set lastmod to the real last-modified date of each page's content — and when nothing meaningful changed, leave the old date alone.
When do I need a sitemap index instead of one sitemap?
When you cross either limit of a single sitemap file: 50,000 URLs or 50 MB uncompressed. Large e-commerce and news sites split by section (products, categories, articles) and list the pieces in a sitemap index file. This generator warns you at the 50k line; beyond that, generate one file per section and index them.
Should images and videos be in the sitemap?
They can be, via image and video sitemap extensions — worthwhile for photography, recipe, or video-heavy sites where Google Images or video search drives traffic. For ordinary text pages, the standard URL entries are enough; don't bloat the file with decorative images.
Why does Search Console say it couldn't fetch my sitemap?
The usual suspects, in order: the file isn't actually at the submitted URL (typo or wrong path), your robots.txt blocks it, the server returns the wrong content-type, it redirects (submit the final URL), or it's over the 50 MB limit. Fetch it yourself in a fresh browser tab first — if you can't open clean XML there, Google can't either.
Will a sitemap get a brand-new site indexed faster?
It helps discovery, which is half the battle for new sites with few backlinks — Google can't index what it can't find. But a sitemap is not a ranking lever: pair it with internal linking from your homepage to key pages and a few genuine external links, and the crawl follows.