XML Sitemap Generator
Articles, guides, and in-depth tips for the XML Sitemap Generator — everything you need to get the most out of it.
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Submitting a URL in Your Sitemap Doesn't Guarantee Google Indexes It — What Actually Determines Sitemap Processing
News Sitemaps Are Not Standard XML Sitemaps — The Format, 48-Hour Rule, and Google News Inclusion Process Explained
News sitemaps use a different XML namespace with required fields (news:publication, news:publication_date, news:title) and a 48-hour recency rule — Google's News crawler processes them separately from standard Googlebot indexing. Here's the exact XML structure, why the 48-hour limit exists, how Google News inclusion differs from organic indexing (different system, different requirements), and what happened to the AMP requirement for Top Stories after June 2021.
Why Putting Everything in Your Sitemap Hurts More Than It Helps — Sitemap Quality Over Quantity
Submitting 10,000 URLs in a sitemap when your site has 500 worth indexing wastes crawl budget and signals poor quality — sitemaps are hints to Google, not commands. Here's what sitemaps actually do (discovery and crawl scheduling signals) vs what they don't (override noindex, guarantee indexing), why pagination, filter parameters, and canonicalized-away duplicates shouldn't be in your sitemap, and why accurate lastmod dates matter more than frequent updates.
Sitemap Priority and Changefreq: Why Google Mostly Ignores Them — and What's Worth Getting Right Instead
XML sitemaps have priority and changefreq fields that look like crawl-prioritization controls — and Google has stated it largely ignores both, relying instead on observed crawl/change patterns. Here's why self-reported metadata loses value when it doesn't reflect reality, why lastmod is the one field worth getting right (if it's genuinely accurate), and where sitemap effort actually matters.
Image and Video Sitemaps: How to Feed Google Images and Video Search Beyond Standard XML
Standard XML sitemaps only cover pages — image and video sitemaps feed Google Images and Google Video with specific metadata. Here's the full XML structure for both types, when they provide the most value, the licence property for photographers, and how to organise them with a sitemap index.
Sitemap Indexation: Why Google Doesn't Index All Your Submitted URLs
A low sitemap indexation ratio is Google giving you feedback. Here's what the common exclusion reasons (crawled-not-indexed, duplicate canonicals, 404s) actually mean, how crawl budget works for large sites, and how to improve what gets indexed.
XML Sitemap Generator — Help Google Discover & Index All Your Pages
Learn how XML sitemaps work, what to include and exclude, the size limits, how to use sitemap index files, and how to submit and monitor your sitemap in Google Search Console with a free generator.
