How to Generate an XML Sitemap for Your Website

What is an XML Sitemap

An XML sitemap is a file that lists all important pages on your website. Search engines use this file to find and index your content. Every website needs a sitemap to help search engines understand its structure.

How to Create a Sitemap

You can generate a sitemap in two ways:

• Use our free sitemap generator to create one automatically
• Create a sitemap.xml file manually listing your URLs

Sitemap Format Requirements

A proper XML sitemap needs:

• The full URL of each page
• When the page was last updated
• How often the page changes
• The importance of each page

How to Submit Your Sitemap

After you generate your sitemap:

1. Upload the sitemap.xml file to your website
2. Add the sitemap location to your robots.txt file
3. Submit it to Google Search Console
4. Submit it to Bing Webmaster Tools

Common Sitemap Issues

• Missing important pages from the sitemap
• Including pages that should not be indexed
• Wrong URL format in the sitemap
• Sitemap file too large