{"id":30344,"date":"2019-09-19T06:28:47","date_gmt":"2019-09-19T14:28:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/?p=30344"},"modified":"2024-06-16T16:10:59","modified_gmt":"2024-06-16T21:10:59","slug":"how-to-create-a-sitemap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/how-to-create-a-sitemap\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Create an XML Sitemap (and Submit It to Google)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"intro-txt\">Just as it\u2019s difficult to find a new destination without a map, it\u2019s sometimes hard for Google to find all the pages on your website without a sitemap.<\/div>\n<p>Luckily, it\u2019s quick and easy to create and submit an XML sitemap to Google.<\/p>\n<p>Below, we walk through how to do this step by&nbsp;step.<\/p>\n<p>But first, let\u2019s cover a few basics.<\/p>\n<p><em>(Already know the basics? <a href=\"#section4\">Click to jump straight to creating a sitemap<\/a>.)<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"hub-link\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"SEO basics guide\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/svg\/6.svg\"><div class=\"hl-title\">New to SEO? Check out&nbsp;our<\/div><div class=\"hl-content\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/seo-basics\/\" target=\"_blank\">SEO basics guide<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n<div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text\">\n<h2>What is a sitemap?<\/h2>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>A sitemap is an XML file listing all the important content on your website. Any page or file that you want to show up in search engines should be in your sitemap.<\/p>\n<div class=\"recommendation\"><div class=\"recommendation-title\">Fun fact<\/div><div class=\"recommendation-content\">\n<p>Sitemaps can\u2019t list more than 50,000 URLs, and they can\u2019t be more than 50mb in size. If your sitemap exceeds one or more of those figures, then you\u2019ll need to create more than&nbsp;one.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text\">\n<h2>What does an XML sitemap look&nbsp;like?<\/h2>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>XML sitemaps are made for search engines, not humans. They can look a bit daunting if you\u2019ve never seen one before.<\/p>\n<pre>&lt;?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?&gt;\n&lt;urlset xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.sitemaps.org\/schemas\/sitemap\/0.9\"&gt;\n\t&lt;url&gt;\n\t\t&lt;loc&gt;https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/&lt;\/loc&gt;\n\t\t&lt;lastmod&gt;2019-08-21T16:12:20+03:00&lt;\/lastmod&gt;\n\t&lt;\/url&gt;\n\t&lt;url&gt;\n\t\t&lt;loc&gt;https:\/\/ahrefs.com.com\/blog\/&lt;\/loc&gt;\n\t\t&lt;lastmod&gt;2019-07-31T07:56:12+03:00&lt;\/lastmod&gt;\n\t&lt;\/url&gt;\n&lt;\/urlset&gt;\n<\/pre>\n<p>Let\u2019s break this&nbsp;down.<\/p>\n<h3>XML declaration<\/h3>\n<pre>&lt;?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?&gt;<\/pre>\n<p>This tells search engines that they\u2019re reading an XML file. It also states the version of XML and character encoding used. For sitemaps, the version <strong>should<\/strong>&nbsp;be 1.0, and the encoding <strong>must<\/strong>&nbsp;be UTF-8.<\/p>\n<h3>URL set<\/h3>\n<pre>&lt;urlset xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.sitemaps.org\/schemas\/sitemap\/0.9\"&gt;<\/pre>\n<p>This is a container for all the URLs in the sitemap. It also tells crawlers which protocol standard is used. Most sitemaps specify the Sitemap 0.90 standard, which is supported by Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft amongst others.<\/p>\n<h3>URL<\/h3>\n<pre>&lt;url&gt;\n&lt;loc&gt;https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/&lt;\/loc&gt;\n&lt;lastmod&gt;2019-08-21T16:12:20+03:00&lt;\/lastmod&gt;\n&lt;\/url&gt;<\/pre>\n<p>This is the parent tag for each URL. You must specify the location of the URL in a nested <code>&lt;loc&gt;<\/code>&nbsp;tag. Crucially, these must be absolute, not relative, canonical URLs.<\/p>\n<p>Although this is the only required tag here, there are a few optional properties:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><code>&lt;lastmod&gt;<\/code>: Specifies the date when the file was last modified. This must be in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/NOTE-datetime\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">W3C Datetime<\/a>&nbsp;format. For example, if you updated a post on September 25th, 2019, the attribute would read 2019-09-25. You can also include the time, but this is optional.<\/li>\n<li><code>&lt;priority&gt;<\/code><strong>: <\/strong>Specifies the priority of the URL relative to all other URLs on the site. Values range between 0.0 and 1.0. Higher is more important.<\/li>\n<li><code>&lt;changefreq&gt;<\/code><strong>: <\/strong>Specifies how frequently the page is likely to change. Its job is to give search engines some idea as to how often they might want to recrawl the URL. Valid values here are <em>always<\/em>, <em>hourly<\/em>, <em>daily<\/em>, <em>weekly<\/em>, <em>monthly<\/em>, <em>yearly<\/em>, and <em>never<\/em>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>None of these optional tags are <em>that<\/em>&nbsp;important for&nbsp;SEO.<\/p>\n<p>For&nbsp;<code>&lt;lastmod&gt;<\/code>, Google\u2019s Gary Ilyes <a href=\"http:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/questions\/31349345\/how-to-properly-format-last-modified-lastmod-time-for-xml-sitemaps?stw=2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">states<\/a>&nbsp;that they ignore it in most cases as \u201cwebmasters are doing a horrible job keeping it accurate.\u201d Since most sitemap generators set this to the current date for all pages, and not the date when the file was last modified, it\u2019s easy to see&nbsp;why.<\/p>\n<p>For &nbsp;<code>&lt;priority&gt;<\/code>, Google <a href=\"https:\/\/www.seroundtable.com\/google-sitemap-priority-field-a-bag-of-noise-23645.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">says<\/a>&nbsp;they ignore this tag because it\u2019s just a \u201cbag of&nbsp;noise.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For &nbsp;<code>&lt;changefreq&gt;<\/code>, John Mueller <a href=\"https:\/\/www.seroundtable.com\/google-priority-change-frequency-xml-sitemap-20273.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">says<\/a>&nbsp;\u201cPriority and change frequency doesn\u2019t really play that much of a role with Sitemaps anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text\">\n<h2>Why do I need a sitemap?<\/h2>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>Google discovers new content by crawling the web. When they crawl a page, they pay attention to both internal and external links on the page. If a discovered URL is not in their search index, they can parse its contents and index it where appropriate.<\/p>\n<p>But Google can\u2019t find all content this way. If a web page isn\u2019t linked to from other known pages, they won\u2019t find&nbsp;it.<\/p>\n<p>This is where sitemaps come&nbsp;in.<\/p>\n<p>Sitemaps tell Google (and other search engines) where to find the most important pages on your website so they can crawl and index&nbsp;them.<\/p>\n<p>This is important because search engines can\u2019t rank your content without first indexing it.<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text\">\n<h2>How to create a sitemap<\/h2>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>Some CMS\u2019 generate a sitemap for you. These are automatically updated when you add or remove pages and posts from your site. If your CMS doesn\u2019t do this, then there\u2019s usually a plugin available which&nbsp;does.<\/p>\n<h3>Creating a sitemap in WordPress<\/h3>\n<p>Even though WordPress <a href=\"https:\/\/w3techs.com\/technologies\/history_overview\/content_management\/all\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">powers 34.5% of websites<\/a>,&nbsp;it doesn\u2019t generate a sitemap for you. To create one, you need to use <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/best-seo-plugins-for-wordpress\/\">a plugin<\/a>&nbsp;like Yoast&nbsp;SEO.<\/p>\n<p>To install Yoast SEO, login to your WordPress dashboard.<\/p>\n<p>Go to <em>Plugins &gt; Add New<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"161\" height=\"97\" class=\"wp-image-30325\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/add-new-plugin-wordpress-3.png\" alt=\"add new plugin wordpress 3\"><\/p>\n<p>Search for \u201cYoast SEO.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hit \u201cInstall now\u201d on the first result, then \u201cActivate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"887\" height=\"476\" class=\"wp-image-30338\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/yoast-seo-search-3.png\" alt=\"yoast seo search 3\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/yoast-seo-search-3.png 887w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/yoast-seo-search-3-768x412.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/yoast-seo-search-3-680x365.png 680w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 887px) 100vw, 887px\"><\/p>\n<p>Go to <em>SEO &gt; General &gt; Features<\/em>. Make sure the \u201cXML sitemaps\u201d toggle is&nbsp;on.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"272\" height=\"74\" class=\"wp-image-30330\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/xml-sitemap-yoast-3.png\" alt=\"xml sitemap yoast 3\"><\/p>\n<p>You should now see your sitemap (or sitemap index) at either yourdomain.com\/sitemap.xml or yourdomain.com\/sitemap_index.xml.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"833\" height=\"363\" class=\"wp-image-30324\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/ahrefs-sitemap-3.png\" alt=\"ahrefs sitemap 3\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/ahrefs-sitemap-3.png 833w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/ahrefs-sitemap-3-768x335.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/ahrefs-sitemap-3-680x296.png 680w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 833px) 100vw, 833px\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"sidenote\"><div class=\"sidenote-title\">Sidenote.<\/div>&nbsp;If your WordPress installation lies in a <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/subdomain-vs-subfolder\/\">subfolder or subdomain<\/a>, then your sitemap is located under that path. For example, the sitemap for our blog is accessible at ahrefs.com\/blog\/sitemap_index.xml. <\/div>\n<div class=\"recommendation\"><div class=\"recommendation-title\">TIP<\/div><div class=\"recommendation-content\">\n<p>If you want to specifically include or exclude certain types of content (tags pages, category pages, etc.) from your sitemap, head to the \u201cSearch Appearance\u201d settings.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"283\" height=\"144\" class=\"wp-image-30327\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/category-pages-exclude-yoast-3.png\" alt=\"category pages exclude yoast 3\"><\/p>\n<p>You can also exclude individual posts or pages from the \u201cAdvanced\u201d meta box on the editor.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"608\" height=\"150\" class=\"wp-image-30332\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/yoast-noindex-post-3.png\" alt=\"yoast noindex post 3\"><\/p>\n<p><strong>IMPORTANT. <\/strong>Only exclude pages from your sitemap that you don\u2019t want to show up in search results.<\/p>\n<p>Learn more in <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wordpress-seo\/\">our guide to WordPress SEO<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<h3>Creating a sitemap in&nbsp;Wix<\/h3>\n<p>Wix creates a sitemap for you automatically. You can find this at <em>yourwixsite.com\/sitemap.xml<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, you don\u2019t get much control over the pages that do and don\u2019t get included in your sitemap. If you want to exclude a page, head to the \u201cSEO (Google)\u201d settings tab for the page and turn the \u201cShow this page in search results\u201d switch off.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"458\" height=\"44\" class=\"wp-image-30339\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/wix-noindex-3.png\" alt=\"wix noindex 3\"><\/p>\n<p>Note that this also adds a noindex meta tag to the page which excludes it from showing up in search results.<\/p>\n<div class=\"sidenote\"><div class=\"sidenote-title\">Sidenote.<\/div>&nbsp;If you <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/canonicalization\/\">canonicalize<\/a> a URL in Wix, it won\u2019t remove it from your sitemap. While this probably won\u2019t affect most users, be aware that including canonicalized pages in your sitemap isn\u2019t best practice, and can send mixed signals to Google.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<h3>Creating a sitemap in Squarespace<\/h3>\n<p>Squarespace also creates a sitemap for you automatically. You can usually find it <em>yoursquarespacesite.com\/sitemap.xml<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s no way to manually edit your sitemap in Squarespace, although you can exclude (noindex) pages from search engines in the \u201cSEO\u201d&nbsp;tab.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"776\" height=\"338\" class=\"wp-image-30342\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/seo-squarespace-3.png\" alt=\"seo squarespace 3\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/seo-squarespace-3.png 776w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/seo-squarespace-3-768x335.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/seo-squarespace-3-680x296.png 680w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 776px) 100vw, 776px\"><\/p>\n<p>This will also exclude the page from your sitemap.<\/p>\n<h3>Creating a sitemap in Shopify<\/h3>\n<p>Shopify automatically generates a sitemap for you. Find it at <em>yourstore.com\/sitemap.xml<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, there\u2019s no easy way to noindex a page in Shopify. You have to edit the code in the .liquid files directly.<\/p>\n<h3>Creating a sitemap without a&nbsp;CMS<\/h3>\n<p>If you think there are fewer than ~300 pages on your site, install the free version of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.screamingfrog.co.uk\/seo-spider\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Screaming Frog<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Once installed, go to <em>Mode &gt; Spider<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Paste your homepage URL in the box labeled \u201cEnter URL to spider.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hit \u201cStart.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"548\" height=\"41\" class=\"wp-image-30333\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/screaming-frog-sitemap-3.png\" alt=\"screaming frog sitemap 3\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"sidenote\"><div class=\"sidenote-title\">Sidenote.<\/div>&nbsp;Make sure to use the <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/canonical-tags\/\">canonical<\/a>&nbsp;(main)&nbsp;version of your homepage. If you don\u2019t do this, Screaming Frog will only crawl one&nbsp;URL.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<p>Once the crawl is complete, look at the bottom-right corner.<\/p>\n<p>It will say something like&nbsp;this:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"262\" height=\"24\" class=\"wp-image-30323\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/sf-total-scrape-3.png\" alt=\"sf total scrape 3\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/sf-total-scrape-3.png 262w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/sf-total-scrape-3-260x24.png 260w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 262px) 100vw, 262px\"><\/p>\n<p>If the number is 499 or below, go to <em>Sitemaps &gt; XML sitemap<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Because Google doesn\u2019t pay much attention to <code>&lt;lastmod&gt;<\/code>, <code>&lt;changefreq&gt;<\/code>, and <code>&lt;priority&gt;<\/code>, we recommend excluding them from the sitemap file.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"550\" height=\"423\" class=\"wp-image-30341\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/screaming-frog-sitemap-settings-3.png\" alt=\"screaming frog sitemap settings 3\"><\/p>\n<p>Hit \u201cNext\u201d and save the sitemap to your computer. Done.<\/p>\n<p>If the number shows \u201c500 of 500,\u201d then there\u2019s no point exporting a sitemap. Why? Because it means you\u2019ve hit the crawl limit before it crawled all the pages on your site. As a result, hundreds of pages could be missing from the exported sitemap\u2014which makes it rather useless.<\/p>\n<p>One way to solve this is to search for a free sitemap creator. There are lots of&nbsp;them.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, most aren\u2019t reliable.<\/p>\n<p>We tested&nbsp;some of the most popular generators and found that quite a few include non-canonical URLs, noindexed pages, and redirects. This is bad SEO practice.<\/p>\n\n<table id=\"tablepress-82\" class=\"tablepress tablepress-id-82 tablepress-responsive tablepress-ahrefs-width-720px\">\n<thead>\n<tr class=\"row-1 odd\">\n\t<th class=\"column-1\">Generator<\/th><th class=\"column-2\">Includes canonicalized URLs?<\/th><th class=\"column-3\">Includes noindexed URLs?<\/th><th class=\"column-4\">Includes redirects?<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody class=\"row-hover\">\n<tr class=\"row-2 even\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\">xml-sitemaps.com<\/td><td class=\"column-2\">Yes \u274c<\/td><td class=\"column-3\">No \u2705<\/td><td class=\"column-4\">No \u2705<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-3 odd\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\">web-site-map.com<\/td><td class=\"column-2\">Yes \u274c<\/td><td class=\"column-3\">No \u2705<\/td><td class=\"column-4\">No \u2705<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-4 even\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\">xmlsitemapgenerator.org<\/td><td class=\"column-2\">Yes \u274c<\/td><td class=\"column-3\">No \u2705<\/td><td class=\"column-4\">No \u2705<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-5 odd\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\">smallseotools.com\/xml-sitemap-generator<\/td><td class=\"column-2\">Yes \u274c<\/td><td class=\"column-3\">Yes \u274c<\/td><td class=\"column-4\">Yes \u274c<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-6 even\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\">freesitemapgenerator.com<\/td><td class=\"column-2\">Yes \u274c<\/td><td class=\"column-3\">Yes \u274c<\/td><td class=\"column-4\">Yes \u274c<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-7 odd\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\">duplichecker.com\/xml-sitemap-generator.php<\/td><td class=\"column-2\">Yes \u274c<\/td><td class=\"column-3\">Yes \u274c<\/td><td class=\"column-4\">Yes \u274c<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-8 even\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\">xsitemap.com<\/td><td class=\"column-2\">Yes \u274c<\/td><td class=\"column-3\">Yes \u274c<\/td><td class=\"column-4\">Yes \u274c<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<!-- #tablepress-82 from cache -->\n<p>So what\u2019s the solution?<\/p>\n<p>If Screaming Frog failed to crawl your entire site, crawl your site with <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/site-audit\">Ahrefs Site Audit<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div data-mode=\"normal\" data-oembed=\"1\" data-provider=\"youtube\" id=\"arve-youtube-ljinwqfgyve\" style=\"max-width:900px;\" class=\"arve\">\n<div class=\"arve-inner\">\n<div style=\"aspect-ratio:500\/281\" class=\"arve-embed arve-embed--has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"arve-ar\" style=\"padding-top:56.200000%\"><\/div>\n<p>\t\t\t<iframe allow=\"accelerometer 'none';autoplay 'none';bluetooth 'none';browsing-topics 'none';camera 'none';clipboard-read 'none';clipboard-write;display-capture 'none';encrypted-media 'none';gamepad 'none';geolocation 'none';gyroscope 'none';hid 'none';identity-credentials-get 'none';idle-detection 'none';keyboard-map 'none';local-fonts;magnetometer 'none';microphone 'none';midi 'none';otp-credentials 'none';payment 'none';picture-in-picture;publickey-credentials-create 'none';publickey-credentials-get 'none';screen-wake-lock 'none';serial 'none';summarizer 'none';sync-xhr;usb 'none';web-share;window-management 'none';xr-spatial-tracking 'none';\" allowfullscreen class=\"arve-iframe fitvidsignore\" credentialless data-arve=\"arve-youtube-ljinwqfgyve\" data-lenis-prevent data-src-no-ap=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/LjinWqfGyVE?feature=oembed&amp;iv_load_policy=3&amp;modestbranding=1&amp;rel=0&amp;autohide=1&amp;playsinline=0&amp;autoplay=0\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"505.8\" loading=\"lazy\" name referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-presentation allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/LjinWqfGyVE?feature=oembed&amp;iv_load_policy=3&amp;modestbranding=1&amp;rel=0&amp;autohide=1&amp;playsinline=0&amp;autoplay=0\" title width=\"900\"><\/iframe><\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"sidenote\"><div class=\"sidenote-title\">Sidenote.<\/div>&nbsp;Verify your site for faster crawling. <a href=\"https:\/\/help.ahrefs.com\/en\/articles\/1431155-how-do-i-finish-crawling-my-website-faster-in-site-audit\">Here\u2019s how<\/a>. <\/div>\n<p>Once the crawl is complete, go to the Page Explorer and add these filters.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-38798\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/page-explorer-1.png\" alt width=\"2148\" height=\"930\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/page-explorer-1.png 2148w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/page-explorer-1-680x294.png 680w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/page-explorer-1-768x333.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/page-explorer-1-1536x665.png 1536w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/page-explorer-1-2048x887.png 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2148px) 100vw, 2148px\"><\/p>\n<p>Hit <em>Export<\/em>&nbsp;&gt; <em>Current table view<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Open the CSV file, then copy and paste all the URLs from the URL column into <a href=\"https:\/\/timestampgenerator.com\/tools\/xml-sitemap-from-list\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">this tool<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Hit \u201cAdd to queue,\u201d then \u201cExport queue as sitemap.xml.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This file is your completed sitemap.<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text\">\n<h2>How to submit a sitemap to Google<\/h2>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>To start,&nbsp;you need to know where your sitemap is.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re using a plugin, chances are the URL is <em>domain.com\/sitemap.xml<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re doing this manually, name your sitemap something like sitemap.xml then upload to the root folder of your website. You should then be able to access the sitemap at domain.com\/sitemap.xml.<\/p>\n<div class=\"sidenote\"><div class=\"sidenote-title\">Sidenote.<\/div>&nbsp;You can choose any name for your sitemap, but it\u2019s good practice to stick with sitemap.xml. If you have multiple sitemaps, you can go for a simple naming scheme like sitemap_1.xml, sitemap_2.xml. <\/div>\n<p>Go to <em>Google Search Console &gt; Sitemaps &gt; paste in sitemap location &gt; hit \u201cSubmit\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"900\" height=\"418\" class=\"wp-image-30322\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/sitemap-search-console-3.png\" alt=\"sitemap search console 3\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/sitemap-search-console-3.png 900w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/sitemap-search-console-3-768x357.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/sitemap-search-console-3-680x316.png 680w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\"><\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s it.&nbsp;Done.<\/p>\n<div class=\"recommendation\"><div class=\"recommendation-title\">TIP<\/div><div class=\"recommendation-content\">\n<p>It\u2019s also good practice to add your sitemap URL(s) to your <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/robots-txt\/\">robots.txt file<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>You can find this file in the root directory of your web server. To add your sitemap, open the file and paste this&nbsp;line:<\/p>\n<pre>Sitemap: https:\/\/www.yourdomain.com\/sitemap.xml<\/pre>\n<p>You need to replace the example URL with the location of your sitemap.<\/p>\n<p>If you have multiple sitemaps, just add multiple lines.<\/p>\n<pre>Sitemap: https:\/\/www.asos.com\/sitemap_1.xml\nSitemap: https:\/\/www.asos.com\/sitemap_2.xml<\/pre>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text\">\n<h2>Fixing common website errors that affect your sitemap<\/h2>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>Google Search Console tells you about most technical errors related to your sitemap.<\/p>\n<p>For example, here\u2019s a warning that one of our submitted URLs is blocked by robots.txt:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"753\" height=\"160\" class=\"wp-image-30326\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/submitted-url-blocked-by-robots-3.png\" alt=\"submitted url blocked by robots 3\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/submitted-url-blocked-by-robots-3.png 753w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/submitted-url-blocked-by-robots-3-680x144.png 680w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 753px) 100vw, 753px\"><\/p>\n<p>You can learn more about these issues and how to solve them <a href=\"https:\/\/support.google.com\/webmasters\/answer\/7440203?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>That said, there are some issues that Google doesn\u2019t tell you&nbsp;about.<\/p>\n<p>Below are a couple of the more common ones, and how to find and fix&nbsp;them.<\/p>\n<h3>Useless, low-quality pages in your sitemap<\/h3>\n<p>Every page in your sitemap should now be indexable and canonical.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, that doesn\u2019t mean all those pages are of high quality. If you have a lot of content, some low-quality pages likely made it into your sitemap.<\/p>\n<p>For example, take a look at these two pages on an ecommerce site:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"900\" height=\"501\" class=\"wp-image-30343\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/ecommerce-2-7.png\" alt=\"ecommerce 2 7\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/ecommerce-2-7.png 900w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/ecommerce-2-7-768x428.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/ecommerce-2-7-680x379.png 680w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\"><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"900\" height=\"505\" class=\"wp-image-30336\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/ecommerce-2-6.png\" alt=\"ecommerce 2 6\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/ecommerce-2-6.png 900w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/ecommerce-2-6-768x431.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/ecommerce-2-6-680x382.png 680w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\"><\/p>\n<p>Neither of them is valuable for searchers, yet they\u2019re still in that website\u2019s sitemap, and Google has both pages indexed.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"782\" height=\"274\" class=\"wp-image-30321\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/indexed-near-duplicate-2-3.png\" alt=\"indexed near duplicate 2 3\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/indexed-near-duplicate-2-3.png 782w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/indexed-near-duplicate-2-3-768x269.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/indexed-near-duplicate-2-3-680x238.png 680w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 782px) 100vw, 782px\"><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"782\" height=\"266\" class=\"wp-image-30329\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/indexed-near-duplicate-1-3.png\" alt=\"indexed near duplicate 1 3\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/indexed-near-duplicate-1-3.png 782w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/indexed-near-duplicate-1-3-768x261.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/indexed-near-duplicate-1-3-680x231.png 680w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/indexed-near-duplicate-1-3-650x220.png 650w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 782px) 100vw, 782px\"><\/p>\n<p>To find these pages, go to <em>Site Audit &gt; Duplicate Content<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Look for clusters of duplicate and near-duplicate pages without canonicals. These are the orange squares. Click one to see all the pages in the&nbsp;group.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-38797\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/duplicate-content-page-explorer-2.png\" alt width=\"1883\" height=\"880\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/duplicate-content-page-explorer-2.png 1883w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/duplicate-content-page-explorer-2-680x318.png 680w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/duplicate-content-page-explorer-2-768x359.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/duplicate-content-page-explorer-2-1536x718.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1883px) 100vw, 1883px\"><\/p>\n<p>Check out the pages and see if they have any&nbsp;value.<\/p>\n<p>Having low-quality pages on your site is bad for three reasons:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>They waste <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/crawl-budget\/\">crawl budget<\/a><\/strong>. Making Google waste time and resources crawling useless, low-quality pages isn\u2019t ideal. They could be spending that time crawling more important content instead.<em>&nbsp;(For the record, Google <a href=\"https:\/\/webmasters.googleblog.com\/2017\/01\/what-crawl-budget-means-for-googlebot.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">states<\/a>&nbsp;that crawl budget is \u201cnot something most publishers have to worry&nbsp;about.\u201d)&nbsp;<\/em><\/li>\n<li><strong>They \u201csteal\u201d link authority from more important pages.<\/strong>&nbsp;There\u2019s a clear <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/search-traffic-study\/\">correlation<\/a>&nbsp;between the authority of pages and their rankings. <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/internal-links-for-seo\/\">Internal links<\/a>&nbsp;to low-quality pages serve only to dilute authority that could flow to more important pages. <em>(Interestingly, when <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/content-audit\/\">we deleted almost \u2153 of posts from the Ahrefs blog<\/a>, we saw an increase in traffic\u2014not a decrease.)<\/em><\/li>\n<li><strong>They result in poor user experience.<\/strong>&nbsp;There\u2019s no value to visitors landing on these pages. It\u2019s annoying for visitors to click on them, and they may end up bouncing if they feel your site is low-quality and neglected.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>All in all, the best course of action is to remove low-quality from your website and, subsequently, your sitemap. If you\u2019re doing this, you should also remember to remove any internal links to those pages. Fail to do that, and you\u2019ll swap one problem (low-quality pages) for another (<a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/fix-broken-links\/\">broken links<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>Beyond duplicates and near-duplicates, you can also look for pages with thin content.<\/p>\n<p>Just check the \u201cOn page\u201d report in Site Audit for pages with a \u201cLow word count\u201d warning.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"288\" height=\"76\" class=\"wp-image-30328\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/low-word-count-pages-3.png\" alt=\"low word count pages 3\"><\/p>\n<h3>Pages excluded from your sitemap by accident<\/h3>\n<p>If you used any of the recommended methods above to create your sitemap, pages with noindex or canonical tags (non-self-referencing) won\u2019t be included.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s a good thing. You shouldn\u2019t include canonicalized URLs or noindexed pages in your sitemap.<\/p>\n<p>That said, if you have rogue noindex tags on your site, pages can get excluded by accident.<\/p>\n<p>To check for errors, head to the \u201cIndexability\u201d report in Site Audit&nbsp;and click the \u201cNoindex page\u201d warning. This shows all noindexed pages.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"343\" height=\"122\" class=\"wp-image-30331\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/noindex-pages-3.png\" alt=\"noindex pages 3\"><\/p>\n<p>Most of these will likely be intentionally noindexed, but it\u2019s worth skimming the list to double-check. Usually, rogue noindex tags are easy to spot as they\u2019ll exist across an entire subsection of your&nbsp;site.<\/p>\n<p>If you see any pages that shouldn\u2019t be noindexed, remove the rogue noindex tag from the page and add it to your sitemap. If you\u2019re using a CMS or plugin, then this should happen automatically.<\/p>\n<div class=\"recommendation\"><div class=\"recommendation-title\">PRO TIP<\/div><div class=\"recommendation-content\">\n<p>It\u2019s also worth checking for rogue canonicals and redirects. To do that, go to the Data Explorer and add these filters:<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_38799\" style=\"width: 1920px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-38799\" class=\"size-full wp-image-38799\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/page-explorer-canonical.png\" alt width=\"1910\" height=\"934\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/page-explorer-canonical.png 1910w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/page-explorer-canonical-680x333.png 680w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/page-explorer-canonical-768x376.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/page-explorer-canonical-1536x751.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1910px) 100vw, 1910px\"><p id=\"caption-attachment-38799\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Checking for rogue canonicals.<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_38800\" style=\"width: 2096px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-38800\" class=\"size-full wp-image-38800\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/page-explorer-redirects.png\" alt width=\"2086\" height=\"934\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/page-explorer-redirects.png 2086w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/page-explorer-redirects-680x304.png 680w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/page-explorer-redirects-768x344.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/page-explorer-redirects-1536x688.png 1536w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/page-explorer-redirects-2048x917.png 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2086px) 100vw, 2086px\"><p id=\"caption-attachment-38800\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Checking for rogue redirects.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Remove any rogue canonicals and redirects then add the affected pages to your sitemap.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<h2>FAQs<\/h2>\n<p>Here are a few answers to some frequently asked questions about sitemaps. Let us know if you have a question not answered in this section, and we\u2019ll add&nbsp;it.<\/p>\n<h3>Do you need a sitemap for AMP&nbsp;pages?<\/h3>\n<p>Nope.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-172977\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Screenshot-2024-03-18-at-12.45.53.png\" alt=\"John Mueller confirms that you don't need sitemaps for AMP pages\" width=\"1176\" height=\"482\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Screenshot-2024-03-18-at-12.45.53.png 1176w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Screenshot-2024-03-18-at-12.45.53-680x279.png 680w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Screenshot-2024-03-18-at-12.45.53-768x315.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1176px) 100vw, 1176px\"><\/p>\n<h3>How do I create a sitemap for an ecommerce website?<\/h3>\n<p>You create a sitemap for an ecommerce website in the same way as you would for any site. That said, it\u2019s worth checking for duplicate and near-duplicate pages on ecommerce sites as these often slip through the net at grand scale thanks to the joys of faceted navigation.<\/p>\n<h2>Final thoughts<\/h2>\n<p>Creating a sitemap isn\u2019t rocket science, especially if you\u2019re using a plugin that does the heavy lifting for you. It\u2019s not hard to create one from scratch either\u2014just crawl your site and format the resulting lists of&nbsp;URLs.<\/p>\n<p>That said, it\u2019s crucial to remember that Google doesn\u2019t have to index the pages in your sitemap. And sitemaps have nothing to do with rankings.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re looking to rank higher in Google, read <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/how-to-rank-higher-on-google\/\">this<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Got questions? Give me a shout in the comments or <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/joshuachardwick?lang=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">on Twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Luckily, it\u2019s quick and easy to create and submit an XML sitemap to Google. Below, we walk through how to do this step by&nbsp;step. But first, let\u2019s cover a few basics. (Already know the basics? Click to jump straight to<span class=\"ellipsis\">\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\">Read more \u203a<\/div>\n<p><!-- end of .read-more --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":114,"featured_media":30350,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[335],"tags":[],"coauthors":[336],"class_list":["post-30344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-seo","odd"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How to Create an XML Sitemap (and Submit It to Google)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Learn what a sitemap is, why you need one, how to create one, and how to submit it to Google.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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