What is an XML sitemap?

An XML sitemap is a file that lists the URLs a site wants search engines to crawl and index, optionally with the date each page last changed. It helps crawlers find new and deep pages sooner. One sitemap file can hold up to 50,000 URLs, and larger sites split them under a sitemap index.

What belongs in it

Only canonical, indexable pages that return status 200. Redirected URLs, pages marked noindex and duplicates should stay out, because they send mixed signals.

How search engines find it

Reference it in robots.txt and submit it in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. Many platforms, Framer and Webflow among them, generate one automatically.

XML sitemap versus HTML sitemap

The XML file is for crawlers. An HTML sitemap is an ordinary page that lists a site's sections for people and adds internal links along the way, like our own sitemap page.

Want this working on your site?

Tell us about your site and what you want it to do, and we will say what we would change first.