Do I need a sitemap for a small site?

It's not required, but it helps search engines discover pages faster. Even small sites benefit from clear sitemap submissions.

How often should I update my sitemap?

Update it when you add, remove, or significantly change pages. Automated sitemaps (via frameworks or CMS) often update on each build.

What URLs should I include?

Include canonical, indexable pages. Exclude pages with noindex, blocked by robots.txt, or non-canonical variants.

Does priority actually affect ranking?

Google largely ignores priority values. It's more useful for internal reference. Focus on correct URLs and lastmod instead.

Create sitemap.xml files fast – Free Sitemap.xml Generator

Base URL

Used to convert relative paths (like /pricing) into full URLs.

URLs (one per line)

Tip: you can paste paths (/about) or full URLs. Lines starting with # are ignored.

Normalization

Sort & dedupe

Removes duplicates and sorts URLs for stable output.

Strip query & hash

Removes ?utm_* and #sections so you keep canonical URLs.

Include trailing slash

Converts /about ↔ /about/.

Optional sitemap fields

lastmod

Recommended when it’s accurate.

changefreq

Some crawlers may use it; Google typically ignores it.

priority

Mostly ignored by Google; include only if you need it.

Extra output

HTML sitemap

Also generates a simple sitemap.html file.