XML Sitemap Generator
Enter your URL and we crawl your site from its HTML, then show you every URL we saw with the reason it is in or out. The sitemap.xml you download holds only final, canonical, indexable pages, with lastmod dates only where there is evidence for them.
Crawling…
URLs with query strings are left out by default: they are usually filters, sorts or tracking variants of a page that is already listed, and crawling them can consume the whole page budget. If a parameter selects real content, approve it and crawl again.
| URL | Decision | lastmod |
|---|
A tick means the URL goes into sitemap.xml. Rows we could not fetch, that did not return 200, or that end on another host cannot be ticked on: a sitemap that lists them reports errors back to you in Search Console. Everything else is your call.
Compare with the sitemap you already have
Compare against a different sitemap instead
Paste the XML of any sitemap. It is parsed in your browser and never uploaded. Any lastmod dates it carries become evidence for the matching URLs, replacing what we found on the site.
You have your sitemap.xml. Now what?
- Upload it to your site root so it is reachable at yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml. Use FTP or SFTP, your hosting file manager, or the public folder of your deploy. The file must sit on the same domain as the URLs inside it.
- Submit it in Google Search Console. Open your property, go to
Indexing, then Sitemaps, type
sitemap.xmlinto the field and press Submit. Google reports how many URLs it discovered. Bing Webmaster Tools works the same way. - Optional: reference it in robots.txt by adding a line like
Sitemap: https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xmlso every crawler can find it without a manual submission. - Keep it true. A static file goes stale the moment you publish again. If your CMS can generate a sitemap, prefer that; use this file when it cannot, and regenerate it after significant changes.
On WordPress? Your site probably already has a self-updating sitemap at /sitemap.xml or /wp-sitemap.xml, generated by core or your SEO plugin. Check yours first before uploading a static file over it.
Sitemap facts vs myths
Half of what people believe about sitemap.xml files comes from tools that generate tags Google stopped reading years ago. Before you generate sitemap.xml for your site, here is what actually matters, straight from how Google documents it.
| Claim | Verdict | Reality |
|---|---|---|
| The priority tag tells Google which pages matter most | Myth | Google has publicly confirmed it ignores priority entirely. This generator leaves it out on purpose. |
| changefreq controls how often Google crawls a page | Myth | Also ignored. Google decides crawl frequency from how often a page actually changes, not from what the sitemap claims. |
| lastmod helps pages get recrawled faster | Fact, if truthful | Google uses lastmod when it is consistently accurate. Stamping every page with today teaches Google to distrust it, so this tool writes lastmod only where it found real evidence and tells you which source it came from. |
| A URL that redirects is fine to list | Myth | Google tries to crawl URLs exactly as listed and asks for canonical URLs. A redirect source in a sitemap wastes a crawl and muddies which URL you want indexed. This tool always lists the destination, never the redirect. |
| A sitemap can list URLs on any domain you own | Myth | A sitemap may only list URLs on the same host it is served from, unless you go through cross-submission in Search Console. URLs that redirect off the crawled host are excluded here for that reason. |
| A sitemap can hold at most 50,000 URLs or 50 MB | Fact | That is the protocol limit per file, uncompressed. Bigger sites split URLs across multiple sitemap files tied together by a sitemap index. |
| Submitting a sitemap guarantees indexing | Myth | A sitemap is a discovery hint. Google still decides what to index based on content quality, canonical tags and whether the page answers a real search. |
| Every site needs an XML sitemap | Mostly myth | A small site with clean internal links gets crawled fine without one. Sitemaps matter most for new sites, large sites and pages that are weakly linked internally. |
A sitemap gets you discovered, not indexed
An XML sitemap solves exactly one problem: discovery. It hands search engines a list of URLs so the crawler does not have to find every page by following links. Whether those pages get indexed, and stay indexed, is a separate fight. Thin pages get skipped, redirect chains and 404s waste crawl budget, and a stray noindex tag from a redesign can silently pull pages out of Google while your sitemap keeps listing them.
That is the part a one-time sitemap generator cannot watch for you. DevDome Site Health checks your site continuously: uptime probes every 15 minutes plus a daily audit that flags broken pages, redirect problems and SEO regressions before they cost you rankings.
XML sitemap generator FAQ
What is an XML sitemap?
An XML sitemap is a file, usually named sitemap.xml, that lists the URLs on your site in a standard format search engines understand. Crawlers read it to discover pages, including ones that are hard to reach by following links alone. The format is defined by the sitemaps.org protocol and supported by Google, Bing and every major search engine.
How do I create a sitemap online with this generator?
Enter your homepage URL, pick a page limit and press Generate sitemap. The tool fetches your pages server-side, follows same-site links found in the HTML, and respects your robots.txt. Every URL it saw appears in a decision table with the reason it is in or out of the sitemap. Untick anything you disagree with, then copy or download the finished sitemap.xml.
Why are some of my pages left out of the sitemap?
Because a sitemap should only contain final, canonical, indexable URLs that return HTTP 200. The tool excludes redirect sources in favour of their destination, non-200 responses, non-HTML files, pages carrying noindex in a meta tag or an X-Robots-Tag header, pages whose rel=canonical points somewhere else, duplicate content, URLs with query parameters, and pages whose own text reads like an error page. Every exclusion is shown with its reason and most can be overridden with one click.
Why is lastmod missing from most of my URLs?
Because lastmod has to be true to be useful. This tool writes it only from evidence: the sitemap your site already publishes, a modified date the page itself declares (article:modified_time or schema.org dateModified), or a Last-Modified header that is not simply the time of the crawl. Where there is no evidence, lastmod is omitted, which is safer than inventing a date Google will learn to distrust.
Does the crawler run JavaScript?
No. It reads the HTML your server returns and follows the links in it. Links, canonical tags and content that only appear after JavaScript runs are not seen, so a fully client-rendered site will show fewer pages than it has. The crawler also identifies itself with an ordinary browser user agent and applies the robots.txt rules written for *, not rules addressed to Googlebot specifically.
Where do I upload the sitemap.xml file?
Upload it to your site root so it is reachable at yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml, using FTP, your hosting file manager or your deploy process. The sitemap must live on the same domain as the URLs it lists. Optionally add a Sitemap line to your robots.txt so crawlers find it without being told.
How do I submit a sitemap to Google?
Open Google Search Console, select your property, go to Indexing, then Sitemaps. Type sitemap.xml into the field and press Submit. Google fetches it, reports how many URLs it found, and rechecks it periodically. Bing Webmaster Tools has an identical flow.
Do priority and changefreq matter in a sitemap?
No. Google has confirmed it ignores both tags, which is why this free sitemap generator does not include them. The only optional tag worth using is lastmod, and only if the dates are real.
Does WordPress already have a sitemap?
Usually yes. WordPress core has generated a sitemap at /wp-sitemap.xml since version 5.5, and SEO plugins like Yoast and Rank Math serve their own at /sitemap_index.xml or /sitemap.xml. This tool looks for your existing sitemap automatically and shows you what would be added or removed, so you can compare before replacing anything. A plugin-generated sitemap updates itself while a static file does not.
How many URLs can a sitemap contain?
One sitemap file can hold up to 50,000 URLs and must stay under 50 MB uncompressed. Larger sets are split across numbered files and tied together by a sitemap index, which this tool generates automatically when a set is that large. The free crawl itself stops at 100 pages.
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