Does every website need an XML sitemap?

Not every site strictly needs one, but Google recommends sitemaps for sites with more than 500 pages, sites with many orphan pages that are not well-linked internally, new sites with few external backlinks, and sites that use rich media content. In practice, every site benefits from having a sitemap because it removes guesswork from the crawling process.

How often should you update your XML sitemap?

Your sitemap should update automatically whenever you publish, modify, or remove pages. Most CMS platforms and static site generators handle this automatically. If you manage your sitemap manually, update it every time you make content changes. Stale sitemaps with incorrect lastmod dates can reduce Google's trust in the timestamps you provide.

Can a sitemap help pages get indexed faster?

A sitemap alone does not guarantee faster indexing, but it helps search engines discover new pages more quickly. Submitting your sitemap through Google Search Console and using accurate lastmod dates signals which pages are new or updated. Combining a sitemap with the IndexNow protocol or manual URL inspection can further accelerate the indexing process.

What is the maximum size of an XML sitemap?

A single XML sitemap file can contain a maximum of 50,000 URLs and must not exceed 50 MB when uncompressed. If your site has more URLs than this limit, you need to split your sitemap into multiple files and reference them using a sitemap index file. Most sites with fewer than 50,000 pages can use a single sitemap file without issues.

Should you include every page in your XML sitemap?

No. Only include pages you want search engines to index. Exclude pages blocked by robots.txt, pages with noindex tags, redirect URLs, duplicate content pages, admin or login pages, and low-value filter or pagination pages. Your sitemap should represent the canonical, indexable version of every important page on your site.

How to Create an XML Sitemap

An XML sitemap is a structured file that tells search engines which pages on your website exist, when they were last updated, and how important they are relative to each other. According to Google's own documentation, sitemaps are especially useful for large sites, new sites with few external links, and sites with pages that are not well-connected through internal linking. A well-configured sitemap does not guarantee indexing, but it significantly improves the efficiency of how search engines discover and prioritize your content.

Think of a sitemap as a table of contents for search engine crawlers. Without one, crawlers rely entirely on following links to discover pages - a process that can miss orphan pages, newly published content, or deep pages that are several clicks away from the homepage.

What Does an XML Sitemap Look Like?

An XML sitemap follows a standardized format defined by the sitemaps.org protocol. At its most basic, a sitemap is an XML file that lists URLs along with optional metadata about each URL.

Here is a simplified example:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.example.com/</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-02-28</lastmod>
    <changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
    <priority>1.0</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.example.com/blog/my-post</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-02-25</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.8</priority>
  </url>
</urlset>

Each <url> entry includes several optional tags:

loc (required). The full URL of the page. This is the only required field.

lastmod (recommended). The date the page was last modified. Google uses this to determine whether it needs to re-crawl a page. Use accurate dates - Google has stated it will ignore lastmod values it believes are inaccurate.

changefreq (optional). How frequently the page is likely to change. Values include always, hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, and never. Google has indicated it largely ignores this field, so it is considered low priority.

priority (optional). A value between 0.0 and 1.0 that suggests the relative importance of a page within your site. This is a hint, not a directive - Google may ignore it entirely. It does not affect how your pages rank against other websites.

How Do You Create an XML Sitemap?

The method for creating a sitemap depends on your tech stack and how your site is built.

CMS and Framework Auto-Generation

Most modern platforms generate sitemaps automatically:

WordPress. Since version 5.5, WordPress generates a basic sitemap at /wp-sitemap.xml. SEO plugins like Yoast or Rank Math provide more configurable sitemaps with additional features like image sitemaps and exclusion controls.

Next.js. Next.js supports sitemap generation through the app/sitemap.ts or app/sitemap.xml convention, letting you programmatically generate sitemaps from your content data. This is how sites built on modern frameworks - including programmatic SEO sites - typically handle sitemap generation.

Shopify. Automatically generates a sitemap at /sitemap.xml that includes products, collections, blog posts, and pages.

Webflow, Squarespace, Wix. All generate sitemaps automatically with limited customization options.

Manual and Programmatic Creation

For custom-built sites or when you need more control:

Sitemap generators. Tools like Screaming Frog, XML-Sitemaps.com, and Yoast's standalone generator can crawl your site and produce a sitemap file.

Programmatic generation. For sites with dynamic content, write a script that queries your database or content directory and generates the sitemap XML. This is common for sites with thousands of programmatic pages that change frequently.

Manual creation. For very small sites, you can write the XML by hand. This is only practical for sites with fewer than 50 pages and infrequent changes.

How Do You Submit Your Sitemap to Search Engines?

Creating a sitemap is only half the job. You also need to make sure search engines know it exists.

Google Search Console. The most reliable method is submitting your sitemap URL through Google Search Console. Navigate to the Sitemaps section, enter your sitemap URL, and click Submit. Google will report how many URLs were discovered, how many were indexed, and any errors it encountered.

Robots.txt. Add a Sitemap: directive to your robots.txt file pointing to your sitemap URL. This is a passive method that works for all search engines that respect robots.txt, not just Google.

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

Bing Webmaster Tools. Submit your sitemap through Bing's webmaster interface, similar to the Google Search Console process.

Ping endpoints. Some search engines offer ping URLs where you can send a GET request to notify them of sitemap updates. Google deprecated its ping endpoint in 2023, but the approach still works for some other search engines.

What Are Common Sitemap Mistakes?

Several common issues reduce sitemap effectiveness and can even hurt your crawl budget:

Including non-indexable URLs. Your sitemap should only contain pages that return a 200 status code and do not have a noindex tag. Including 404 pages, redirects, or noindexed pages wastes crawl budget and sends conflicting signals.

Inaccurate lastmod dates. Setting all lastmod dates to today's date - or never updating them - teaches search engines to ignore your timestamps. Use genuine modification dates that reflect actual content changes.

Missing the sitemap index. Sites with more than 50,000 URLs need a sitemap index file that references multiple individual sitemap files. Trying to stuff more than 50,000 URLs into a single file will cause parsing errors.

Not including all important pages. Orphan pages that are not linked from anywhere else on your site are exactly the pages that benefit most from sitemap inclusion. Audit your site to make sure key pages are represented.

Forgetting to update after structural changes. If you redesign your URL structure, migrate domains, or remove content, your sitemap needs to reflect those changes promptly. An outdated sitemap points crawlers to pages that no longer exist.

How Does a Sitemap Relate to Getting Indexed Faster?

A sitemap is one piece of the indexing puzzle. It helps search engines discover your pages, but discovery alone does not guarantee indexing. Google evaluates page quality, uniqueness, and demand before deciding whether to add a page to its index.

That said, combining a well-maintained sitemap with other indexing acceleration strategies creates the best results. Accurate lastmod dates tell Google which pages are fresh. Clean URL structures make crawling more efficient. And submitting your sitemap through Search Console ensures Google knows about new pages within hours rather than days or weeks.

For sites publishing content at scale - especially those using programmatic SEO to generate hundreds or thousands of pages - the sitemap becomes an essential indexing tool. Without it, search engines may take weeks or months to discover deep pages that are not well-linked from the rest of the site.