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What is an XML sitemap?

An XML sitemap lists the URLs you want search engines to crawl, with optional last-changed dates. Limits, what Google ignores and how to submit one.

Updated

An XML sitemap is a file that lists the URLs on your site you want search engines to crawl and index, optionally with the date each was last changed. It helps engines find pages, especially new pages and pages with few internal links. It does not guarantee they will be indexed.

What does a sitemap look like?

sitemap.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
  <url>
    <loc>https://example.com/water-heaters</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-10-20</lastmod>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://example.com/drain-cleaning</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-09-02</lastmod>
  </url>
</urlset>

What are the rules?

  • At most 50,000 URLs and 50 MB (uncompressed) per file. Bigger sites use several sitemaps and a sitemap index file.
  • Use full, absolute URLs, the canonical version only.
  • List only pages that return 200 and are indexable: no redirects, 404s or noindex pages.
  • Google uses lastmod if it is consistently accurate, and ignores priority and changefreq.

How do you submit a sitemap?

  1. Reference it in robots.txt: Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap.xml. All major engines read this line.
  2. Submit it in Google Search Console (Indexing, then Sitemaps) and in Bing Webmaster Tools.

Example

A sitemap that still lists 300 old product URLs that now redirect sends mixed signals and fills the Page indexing report with Page with redirect entries. Regenerating it from live, canonical pages cleans that up. For instant pings to Bing and others, pair your sitemap with IndexNow.

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