XML sitemap generator from a URL list
When a CMS can't produce a sitemap, or produces a broken one, a clean URL list is enough to build it yourself.
Your data stays in your browser. Nothing is uploaded or stored.
Key facts
- A single sitemap is limited to 50 MB (uncompressed) or 50,000 URLs; larger lists must be split.
- Sitemaps must be UTF-8 encoded, with fully qualified absolute URLs and entity-escaped values.
- Google ignores the priority and changefreq values; lastmod is used if it's consistently accurate.
- Unless submitted in Search Console, a sitemap only covers URLs in its own directory and below, so the site root is the usual place.
Download the checklist: diagnosing indexing problems
Step by step: status in Search Console, page availability, robots.txt, noindex, canonical URL, redirects, sitemap and backlinks, with what to do in each case.
Download PDF PDF · 2 pagesHow to use it
- Paste the URLs you want in search results, one per line, or choose a file.
- Choose whether to add lastmod: none, today or a date you pick.
- If the list may exceed one file, enter the base URL where you'll upload the files.
- Click Generate sitemap and download each file.
- Upload the files to your site root and submit the sitemap (or the index) in Search Console or list it in robots.txt.
Where to get the data
Your CMS or database
An export of published, indexable page URLs.
A crawl of your site
URLs from a crawler, filtered to pages that return 200 and are canonical.
An old sitemap
URLs extracted from an existing sitemap, cleaned and updated.
Which URLs to include
Only canonical URLs you want to see in search results. Leave out redirects, noindex pages, duplicates with parameters and pages blocked by robots.txt.
lastmod done right
lastmod should show the last significant update of the page, not the date the file was generated. If you don't know real dates, leave lastmod out rather than setting every page to today.
Submitting the sitemap
Submit it in the Sitemaps report in Search Console or add a Sitemap: line to robots.txt. A sitemap is a hint: it helps Google find URLs but doesn't guarantee they'll be crawled or indexed.
Next step
Need the reverse? You can extract every URL from an existing sitemap.
Questions and answers
Should I add priority and changefreq?
No need: Google ignores both values.
Does a sitemap guarantee indexing?
No. It helps discovery; whether a page is indexed depends on the page itself.
Can one sitemap list several sites?
A sitemap referenced in a site's robots.txt should list only URLs from that site. The tool warns when the list mixes hosts.
Where should the files go?
Usually in the site root, such as https://your-site/sitemap.xml, so they cover the whole site.
Sources
- Build and submit a sitemap — Google Search Central: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/sitemaps/build-sitemap