Updated September 3, 2026
If you're searching for how to create a sitemap, you probably don't need another complicated SEO tool. You need a properly formatted list of the important URLs on your website that search engines can discover and process.
For smaller websites, we've made that particularly easy.
You can use the RichInWriters Free XML Sitemap Generator to scan up to 50 public pages and generate a downloadable sitemap.xml file.
What Is a Sitemap?
A sitemap is a file that provides information about URLs and other resources on a website.
For search engines, the most familiar version is an XML sitemap.
A basic XML sitemap might tell Google that your website contains pages such as:
- Your homepage
- About page
- Service pages
- Product pages
- Blog posts
- Category pages you want indexed
- Other important public URLs
A typical sitemap is commonly accessible at a location such as:
https://example.com/sitemap.xml
Why Create a Sitemap?
Search engines normally discover webpages by following links.
Google visits one page, discovers links pointing toward other pages and continues crawling.
A sitemap gives search engines another source for discovering URLs.
Google specifically says sitemaps can help provide information about pages, videos, images and other files on a website.
They're particularly useful when:
- Your website is new
- You have relatively few external links
- Your website contains many pages
- Some pages aren't extensively linked internally
- You frequently publish new content
- Your website contains important media resources
Does Creating a Sitemap Improve SEO?
A sitemap is useful for SEO, but don't confuse discovery with rankings.
Creating sitemap.xml doesn't automatically make your website rank higher.
Google also doesn't guarantee that every URL submitted through a sitemap will be crawled or indexed.
Think of the sitemap as giving search engines a better map of your website.
Showing Google where a page exists doesn't automatically prove that the page deserves to rank.
How to Create a Sitemap for Free
If you operate a smaller website, start with our Free XML Sitemap Generator.
The process is straightforward:
- Open the RichInWriters Sitemap Generator.
- Enter your website address.
- Start the sitemap scan.
- Allow the tool to discover accessible internal pages.
- Review the URLs it finds.
- Download the generated sitemap.xml file.
- Upload the file to your website.
The generator is intentionally simple. It scans up to 50 public pages, follows internal links and ignores many common non-page files.
It's designed primarily for smaller websites that don't already have sophisticated automatic sitemap functionality.
Where Should sitemap.xml Go?
For a basic website-wide sitemap, placing the file in the public root is usually the simplest arrangement.
For example:
https://yourwebsite.com/sitemap.xml
After uploading it, enter that URL directly into your browser.
If the file loads successfully, the next step is making search engines aware of it.
Submit Your Sitemap to Google Search Console
Google Search Console provides a dedicated sitemap submission feature.
After verifying your website in Search Console, locate the Sitemaps section and submit the sitemap URL.
For example:
https://yourwebsite.com/sitemap.xml
Submission helps Google know where the file is located.
Again, submitting it isn't a request Google is obligated to obey. Google describes sitemap submission as a hint rather than a guarantee of crawling or indexing.
You Can Also Reference the Sitemap in robots.txt
Another useful option is identifying the sitemap inside your website's robots.txt file.
For example:
Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap.xml
This gives compliant crawlers another straightforward way to discover the sitemap location.
Don't Put Every Possible URL in Your Sitemap
A sitemap shouldn't necessarily contain every URL your server can generate.
Ideally, it should communicate the canonical public URLs you actually want search engines to consider.
Be cautious about including:
- Duplicate URLs
- Administrative pages
- Private pages
- Internal search results
- Temporary URLs
- Tracking URLs
- Parameter variations
- Pages intentionally excluded from search engines
- Broken or redirected URLs
A clean sitemap is more useful than a massive collection of meaningless URLs.
WordPress May Already Create Your Sitemap
If your website uses WordPress, check before creating another sitemap manually.
WordPress introduced native XML sitemap support in version 5.5.
A modern WordPress installation will commonly expose its sitemap index at:
https://yourwebsite.com/wp-sitemap.xml
SEO plugins can also generate their own sitemaps.
If your website automatically publishes and removes content, a dynamic sitemap generated directly from the database is generally more practical than repeatedly downloading and uploading a static XML file.
What If You Have More Than 50 Pages?
The RichInWriters generator is deliberately a simple sitemap tool.
If you operate an ecommerce store containing thousands of products, a large publication or a custom application generating substantial numbers of URLs, you probably need automated sitemap generation integrated directly into the website.
Large websites can use multiple sitemap files organized through a sitemap index.
Google's current sitemap protocol limits a single sitemap to 50,000 URLs or 50 MB uncompressed. Larger collections can be divided among several sitemap files and referenced through a sitemap index.
Creating a Sitemap Can Reveal Website Problems
Sometimes creating sitemap.xml is the easy part.
While reviewing your URLs, you might discover:
- Broken links
- Unexpected redirects
- Duplicate pages
- Incorrect canonical URLs
- Old pages that should have been removed
- Pages that aren't linked anywhere
- URLs search engines shouldn't receive
Those aren't necessarily sitemap problems.
They're website-architecture problems that the sitemap helped expose.
AI Can Help—Until the Problem Becomes the Website
Modern AI is extremely useful for technical website work.
You can ask AI to explain XML, create sitemap code, diagnose redirects, write PHP, troubleshoot WordPress and analyze errors.
For straightforward problems, that's often enough.
But there's still a time cost.
Someone has to modify the files, test the code, protect the production website, verify the database and make sure fixing one problem didn't create another.
If you find yourself spending an entire day fixing something that should have taken twenty minutes, professional assistance starts making considerably more sense.
Need Help Creating or Fixing Your Sitemap?
If your sitemap has turned into a larger WordPress, PHP, database or website-development problem, WebmasterSolutions.ca provides website and application development, troubleshooting, bug fixes and ongoing technical support.
They can help with:
- XML sitemap generation
- WordPress sitemap problems
- Custom PHP sitemap systems
- Large dynamic websites
- Broken URLs and redirects
- Technical SEO infrastructure
- Database-driven websites
- Custom web applications
- Website maintenance
There's nothing wrong with creating a simple sitemap yourself.
The value of a programmer becomes clearer when the sitemap needs to stay synchronized automatically with a website containing changing content, custom applications or thousands of URLs.
Create Your Sitemap Now
If your website contains fewer than 50 public pages and all you need is a basic XML sitemap, don't overcomplicate it.
Open the RichInWriters Free XML Sitemap Generator, enter your website address, review the URLs and download your sitemap.xml file.
Then upload it, verify that it works and submit its location to the appropriate search engines.
If you discover that your sitemap problem is actually a website problem, consider professional assistance from WebmasterSolutions.ca.
A sitemap can't make your content valuable—but it can help search engines discover the valuable content you've already created.