Starlight Tools

Create a valid sitemap.xml — crawl or paste URLs

Discover pages from a website that permits browser requests, or convert a pasted or imported URL list into XML. Validate the result, edit page metadata, and download it without signup.

FreeNo signupProtocol-aware validationPrivate URL-list processing

Crawl a website

Network disclosure: crawl mode requests pages directly from your browser, and the target must allow cross-origin requests (CORS). Paste and file-import processing stays in your browser.

Discovered 0Accepted 0Excluded 0

Paste or import URLs

Blank lines and lines starting with # are ignored. Relative paths need a base site URL below.

Drop TXT, CSV, or existing XML sitemap files here
or select UTF-8 files

lastmod should be the page’s last significant update. Google ignores changefreq and priority; those legacy hints remain available for other consumers.

    Editable URL metadata

    Imported CSV columns named loc, lastmod, changefreq, and priority are retained. Edit per-page overrides below.

    URLlastmodchangefreqpriorityAction
    Generate or import URLs to edit them.

    Output

    URLs: 0
    Skipped: 0
    Bytes: 0
    <!-- Your sitemap.xml will appear here. -->
    Proposed filenameURLsBytes
    Generate to see the export plan.

    Validation results

    Generate a sitemap to run validation.

    Sitemap XML Notes

    A sitemap tells search engines which canonical URLs you want crawled. The sitemap protocol requires each URL inside a <loc> element. This generator also supports optional <lastmod>, <changefreq>, and <priority> hints.

    • Use absolute URLs: https://example.com/page. Relative inputs are converted only when a base site URL is provided.
    • Keep files within limits: one sitemap can contain up to 50,000 URLs and 50 MB uncompressed. Split larger sites and use a sitemap index.
    • Make lastmod accurate: include it only when it reflects the page content date, not the date the sitemap was generated.
    • Escape safely: generated XML escapes characters such as & in query strings.

    Sitemap best practices

    A sitemap should describe the URLs you actually want indexed. Start with canonical pages, then leave out duplicates, filtered search results, session URLs, staging pages, admin routes, and anything blocked by robots.txt or a noindex directive. Search engines can discover pages through links, but a clean sitemap gives crawlers a concise inventory of the important addresses they should revisit.

    The <lastmod> value is most useful when it represents a real content change. Updating every URL to today just because the sitemap was rebuilt makes the signal noisy. Use it for article edits, product changes, documentation updates, category refreshes, and other meaningful page changes. If you do not have a trustworthy modified date, it is better to omit the field than to publish misleading timestamps.

    Large sites should split sitemap files by content type or section, such as pages, posts, products, images, or localized paths. Smaller files are easier to debug, regenerate, and submit. After publishing, list the sitemap location in robots.txt and check it in search engine tools. A valid XML file is only useful if the URLs return the expected status codes and point to indexable pages.

    FAQ

    Can I include query strings?

    Yes. Query strings are kept and XML-escaped. Use canonical URLs when parameter variants should not be indexed separately.

    Can I use relative paths?

    Yes, enter a base site URL such as https://example.com/. Relative inputs like /about and blog/post are converted to absolute URLs.

    Does priority improve ranking?

    No. Priority is only a crawl hint within your own site and may be ignored. It is not a ranking signal.

    5 Fun Facts about XML Sitemaps

    One file has hard limits

    A standard sitemap can list up to 50,000 URLs and must stay under 50 MB before compression.

    Protocol limit

    Indexes link sitemap files

    Very large sites use sitemap index files to point crawlers at multiple smaller sitemap documents.

    Scale pattern

    Only loc is required

    The <loc> element is mandatory. <lastmod>, <changefreq>, and <priority> are optional hints.

    Minimal XML

    Escaping keeps XML valid

    Characters like ampersands in query strings must be escaped, so ?a=1&b=2 becomes safe XML markup.

    Markup safety

    Discovery is not indexing

    A sitemap helps crawlers find URLs, but each page still needs to be crawlable, indexable, and worth showing.

    Crawl signal

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