What Is an XML Sitemap?
An XML sitemap is a file that lists all the URLs on your website that you want search engines to crawl and index. It acts as a roadmap for Google's crawlers — instead of discovering your pages by following links, Google can read your sitemap and find every page you want indexed, even if some are not well linked internally.
A basic XML 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/</loc>
<lastmod>2026-04-01</lastmod>
<priority>1.0</priority>
</url>
</urlset>Why Does Your Site Need a Sitemap?
Sitemaps are especially important for:
- New websites — Google has not had time to crawl and discover all your pages yet
- Large websites — hundreds of pages that might not all be reachable via internal links
- Sites with thin internal linking — if some pages have no links pointing to them
- Sites with frequently updated content — blogs, news sites, tool pages
Even if Google would eventually find all your pages without a sitemap, submitting one speeds up the process and ensures nothing gets missed.
What to Include in Your Sitemap
Include all pages you want indexed:
- Homepage
- Tool pages
- Blog posts
- About, Contact, Privacy Policy pages
Do not include:
- Pages blocked by robots.txt
- Duplicate content pages
- Pages with a noindex tag
- Redirect URLs
- Admin or login pages
How to Submit Your Sitemap to Google
- Create or locate your sitemap (usually at
yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml) - Open Google Search Console
- Go to Sitemaps in the left menu
- Enter your sitemap URL and click Submit
- Google will process it within a few days and show how many URLs were indexed
Sitemap vs Robots.txt
These two files serve opposite purposes. Your sitemap tells Google what to crawl. Your robots.txt tells Google what not to crawl. Both are important — use your sitemap to highlight your best content and your robots.txt to block admin areas, duplicate pages and internal search results. Use our free Robots.txt Generator to create a properly formatted robots.txt file for your site.
Keep Your Sitemap Updated
Every time you publish a new blog post or add a new page, make sure your sitemap is updated. Most CMS platforms (WordPress, Laravel, etc.) can auto-generate and update sitemaps. If yours does not, add the new URL manually and re-submit to Google Search Console.