How to Generate an XML Sitemap Online — URL Discovery Guide

An XML sitemap lists important URLs on a website so search engines can discover and crawl them more efficiently. It is especially useful for new sites, large sites, pages that are not heavily linked, and content that changes over time.

Utilao's XML Sitemap Generator helps you build simple sitemap XML from URLs.

What belongs in an XML sitemap?

Include canonical, indexable pages that you want search engines to discover. Do not include blocked pages, duplicate URLs, admin pages, internal search results or URLs that return errors.

A sitemap should support your internal linking strategy, not replace it. Important pages should still be linked from your website.

How to generate an XML sitemap online

1. Open the XML Sitemap Generator.
2. Enter your main URL.
3. Add extra URLs if needed.
4. Choose lastmod, changefreq and priority values if relevant.
5. Copy the generated XML.
6. Upload it as /sitemap.xml or submit it in search console tools.

For crawl instructions, create a matching robots.txt file and include the sitemap URL.

Sitemap fields explained

The loc field is the page URL. The lastmod field indicates when the page was last significantly updated. changefreq and priority are hints, not commands, and search engines may ignore them.

The most important part is that the sitemap contains clean, canonical, working URLs.

FAQ

Does a sitemap guarantee indexing?

No. A sitemap helps discovery, but search engines decide whether to index a page.

Should I include every URL?

No. Include important canonical URLs that should be crawled.

How often should I update my sitemap?

Update it when important pages are added, removed or significantly changed.