How to Create a Sitemap: A Step-by-Step XML Sitemap Guide

Knowing how to create a sitemap is basic SEO hygiene, especially for new sites, large sites and sites with pages that few internal links reach. This guide follows Google's documentation on building and submitting a sitemap: formats, limits, what to include, how to generate the file and how to check it. For the definition, see our glossary entry on the XML sitemap.

What is a sitemap?

A sitemap tells search engines which pages exist on your site and, optionally, when they last changed. The XML format follows the open sitemaps.org protocol, supported by Google, Bing and others. Google also accepts RSS or Atom feeds and plain text files with one URL per line.

Do you need a sitemap?

Google says sitemaps are most useful for large sites, new sites with few external links, sites with many pages not well linked internally, and sites with rich media or news. A small, well-linked site can be crawled without one, but a sitemap costs little and helps you monitor indexing in Search Console. Most SEOs create one for every site.

How to create a sitemap step by step

1. Check whether your CMS already makes one

WordPress (core since version 5.5, or through SEO plugins), Shopify, Wix, Squarespace and Webflow generate sitemaps automatically, usually at /sitemap.xml. Open that address on your domain first.

2. Otherwise, generate it

Use a crawler or the free XML sitemap generator, or build the file from your database or framework. Static site generators and frameworks often have a sitemap plugin.

3. Include the right URLs

• Only canonical URLs, in full absolute form (https://www.example.com/page).
• Only pages that return 200 and are indexable (no noindex, not blocked in robots.txt).
• No redirects (list the final URL, see 301 vs 302 redirects), no duplicates, no parameter variants.
• The language versions if you use hreflang.

4. Respect the limits

Each file can contain up to 50,000 URLs or 50 MB uncompressed, in UTF-8. Above that, split into several files and list them in a sitemap index.

5. Use lastmod honestly

Google uses lastmod only when it is consistently accurate, and ignores priority and changefreq. Update lastmod for significant content changes, not for a new copyright year.

How to submit a sitemap to Google

1. Open Search Console, then the Sitemaps report.
2. Enter the sitemap URL and submit.
3. Add a line Sitemap: https://www.example.com/sitemap.xml to your robots.txt so all engines find it (the robots.txt generator can add it).
4. Submit it to Bing Webmaster Tools too (see how to submit a website to search engines).
5. Come back after a few days: check the status, discovered URLs and the Page indexing report.

Common sitemap errors and fixes

Sitemaps and AI crawlers

AI crawlers such as GPTBot and ClaudeBot also read robots.txt, where your sitemap line helps them discover pages. Decide which bots you allow (see robots.txt and AI crawlers); the free llms.txt generator covers the optional file some AI tools read.

The bottom line

Create a sitemap with only your indexable, canonical pages, keep it under Google's limits, submit it and watch the reports. It is a small step that makes indexing problems visible. Sorank, SEO and GEO software that runs on autopilot, publishes articles that your CMS adds to its sitemap automatically, with internal links that help discovery; see the Sorank plans, with a 3-day free trial. For indexing in general, read Google indexing.