A map for crawlers.
A clearer view of your site.

What a sitemap does

A crawler usually finds content by following links. An XML sitemap provides an additional, machine-readable list of URLs you want it to discover. It is particularly helpful when useful pages are buried deep in navigation.

Discovery, crawling and indexing are different stages: finding a URL does not mean it will be fetched, and fetching a page does not mean it will appear in search results.

When does a sitemap matter most?

For a small, well-linked website, ordinary navigation may already make every page easy to find. A sitemap is still a useful inventory. Its practical value grows when discovery becomes harder.

Large collections

Articles, products and archives can sit many links away from the homepage.

New or changing content

An up-to-date list gives crawlers another way to find recently published URLs.

Image-heavy websites

An image sitemap associates image locations with the pages that contain them.

Complex navigation

A sitemap can supplement links that are difficult for crawlers to follow. Clear HTML navigation still matters.

Useful directions, not a ranking shortcut

A sitemap does not improve content quality, repair broken links, override access restrictions or force a crawler to index a page. It complements good navigation, accessible pages and useful content.

Do not include confidential URLs or treat omission from a sitemap as a privacy control. Protect private content with authentication. Review indexing directives and canonical URLs separately.

Which URLs belong in your sitemap?

Include the preferred public version of each page you want crawlers to discover. A successful response alone does not make a URL a good candidate: review its purpose and whether it duplicates another page.

The generator follows redirects within its crawl scope and removes fragment duplicates. It preserves query strings and does not interpret canonical tags. Use the result checkboxes to remove unwanted URLs before downloading. Unchecking a page changes only this file, not that page’s visibility on the web.

Sitemap, robots.txt and noindex: different jobs

Sitemap: discovery

Lists public content you want crawlers to find.

robots.txt: crawl rules

Requests that cooperating crawlers avoid particular paths. It is not access control.

noindex: indexing instruction

Asks supporting search engines not to include a page in their index. They need to fetch the page or its headers to see the instruction.

Authentication: privacy

Restricts access to confidential content. Neither sitemap omission nor crawler directives replace it.

Blocking a page in robots.txt can prevent a crawler from seeing its noindex instruction. Do not assume that a blocked URL cannot appear in results. A sitemap also cannot override noindex or force indexing.

This generator skips pages marked with recognised noindex directives in HTML or response headers. It does not interpret robots.txt and is not a full indexing audit. Check your site’s rules and crawl permissions before starting.

Image sitemaps: useful for visual content

For portfolios, galleries and product pages, an image sitemap can help supporting crawlers discover images and associate them with the relevant page. It adds image locations to a page entry; it does not upload images or guarantee their appearance in results.

This tool extracts URLs from img src, data-src and responsive srcset attributes on images and picture sources. It does not render scripts, inspect CSS backgrounds or fetch each image to validate it. Images loaded only after an interaction may be absent; placeholder images may be present.

• Review image locations and ensure they are publicly accessible.
• Media-host or CDN URLs can appear alongside the page URL. Check the crawler’s requirements for externally hosted images.
• Pages with no extracted images are omitted from image-mode results.
• Unchecking a page removes all its image references from this export. Individual image selection is not available.
• Up to 1,000 image references are included per page; this is separate from the 1,000-page crawl limit.

If you already publish a page sitemap, an image sitemap can complement it. Keep their filenames and robots.txt references distinct.

Page sitemaps and image sitemaps

Page URLs is the starting point for listing your public pages. Images records image URLs alongside their containing pages. Use the format that fits the content you want crawlers to discover.

A minimal page sitemap looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
  <url>
    <loc>https://example.com/about</loc>
  </url>
</urlset>

The protocol allows optional metadata. This generator deliberately produces a minimal file without guessed modification dates or priorities.

Put your sitemap to work

1. Generate and review. Check that the file contains the public, preferred URLs you actually want discovered. Remove errors and unwanted entries.
2. Publish on the target website. Upload the file as /sitemap.xml on the website it describes. Downloading a file here does not publish it there.
3. Make it discoverable. Add its full address to that website’s robots.txt:

Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap.xml

Check the published URL in a browser and ensure it returns the XML file successfully, without requiring a login. If your website platform already maintains a sitemap, review that existing file before adding another.

When should you update your sitemap?

Update it when your public URL inventory changes, rather than following an arbitrary daily schedule. A static portfolio and a frequently updated catalogue have different needs.

• New content: add newly published articles, pages and products.
• Deleted or private content: remove obsolete URLs or pages that should no longer be listed.
• Renamed URLs: replace old addresses with their preferred destinations.
• Website moves: check the new host and paths, redirects, canonical tags and robots.txt references.
• Changed images: regenerate image sitemaps when image URLs or page associations change.
• Routine checks: verify that the published file still loads and matches the live site.

Regenerate your sitemap after substantial content changes. Check for removed pages, redirects, duplicate URL variants and accidental staging links. A smaller, accurate sitemap is more useful than an outdated list.

Partial crawl results need extra attention: the generator may stop at its safety limit or skip pages that time out or block access. Compare the file with your own content inventory when completeness matters.

From navigation pages to an open protocol

Early website sitemaps helped people navigate growing sites. XML sitemaps extended the idea to automated crawlers, and the protocol gained broad cross-industry support as an open standard in 2006.

They remain useful because a simple list of public URLs is easy for automated systems to process. Search engines and other crawlers decide whether and how to use it; there is no promise that every automated or AI system will consult a sitemap.