A Simple Guide to XML Sitemaps
Learn which URLs belong in a sitemap and how to keep it useful.
A discovery aid, not an indexing promise
An XML sitemap lists URLs that you consider important on your site. It can help search engines discover pages, particularly on large or frequently updated sites, but submitting a sitemap does not guarantee that every URL will be crawled or indexed.
Choose the right URLs
Include canonical URLs that you want search engines to consider. Avoid URLs that redirect, return errors, require a login, are marked noindex or duplicate another preferred page. Use the same hostname and protocol that your site treats as canonical.
Keep the file accurate
Update the sitemap when important URLs are added, removed or materially changed. The lastmod value should reflect a real significant update, not a routine automated timestamp change. Do not use priority or changefreq as a promise of crawling frequency.
Respect file limits
A standard sitemap file supports up to 50,000 URLs or 50 MB uncompressed. Large sites can split their URLs across multiple sitemap files and reference them through a sitemap index.
Publish and submit
Place the sitemap at a stable public URL, check that it returns valid XML and mention its location in robots.txt if useful. Submit it through Search Console and review any reported parsing or URL issues.
Review it periodically
A sitemap can become stale after a redesign or migration. Compare it with your live canonical URLs, remove obsolete entries and make sure important sections are represented. A tidy sitemap is more useful than a long list of every possible URL variant.
Use the related tools on FrontSEOTools to prepare and review your own website work. Generated results should always be checked against the needs of your site.