Last updated on August 20th, 2024 at 06:00 am
XML Sitemaps make it easy for search engines to understand your website structure and index web pages effectively. They help improve SEO rankings and can help drive more traffic to your website. However, XML sitemaps have a very technical structure which makes it difficult to create them manually. Here are the best online XML sitemap generator tools that can automatically crawl your web pages and create an XML sitemap for you.
What is XML Sitemap Generator
An XML sitemap is basically an XML document that contains a list of URLs present on a website along with some additional data. It is commonly used by all search engines including Google to understand a site’s structure. It is tedious to manually create and maintain an XML sitemap. XML sitemap generators automatically crawl your website, identify different types of URLs and documents and generate an XML sitemap. As you add more URLs or modify existing ones, the sitemap generator automatically updates the sitemap.
Some sitemap generators are available as plugins for popular CMS such as WordPress, Magento, etc. whereas some are standalone tools that crawl your site from a remote location.
Top XML Sitemap Generator
Here are the top XML sitemap generator tools you can use to create XML sitemaps for your websites.
1. XML-Sitemaps
XML-Sitemaps is one of the best XML sitemap generators that can easily create a sitemap of up to 1,500,000 pages. It is free to use for websites that have up to 500 pages, and does not require any registration.
It also allows you to create HTML sitemap, update existing sitemaps, find broken links, generate separate sitemaps for videos and images. You need to register for larger websites.
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2. Screaming Frog
Screaming Frog is one of the most popular XML Sitemap generator tools that allows you to crawl more than 500 pages for free. However, you need to download their free XML Sitemap Generator called SEO Spider tool.
In addition, it also allows you to find broken links, check duplicate content, visualize site architecture, extract title & meta tags for each page. You can also integrate it with Google Analytics to get bounce rate, goals, conversion, and other metrics. Screaming Frog’s paid version starts from $149/year.
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3. Inspyder
Inspyder is a web crawling and SEO software that allows you to crawl all your web pages and generate XML sitemaps that are compatible with Google, Yahoo, Bing, and Ask.com.
You need to download this tool to your PC and use it directly. There is no complicated installation. However, you need to make a one time payment of $39.95.
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4. Slick Plan
Slick Plan is a visual online XML sitemap generator that provides a drag & drop interface to help freelancers and web developers to organize their website design in an intuitive manner. Once your website structure is ready, you can easily export it as XML sitemap.
It also provides a simple website crawler that will automatically crawl your website and generate XML sitemap.
Their paid plans start from $8.99/month, and offer additional features such as content planner, design mockups, custom branding and more.
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5. Sitemap Writer Pro
Sitemap Writer Pro can help you create Google sitemaps for your website. It automatically crawls your web pages and can create 7 different types of sitemaps, which can be imported into various content management systems.
It is a PC software that you need to download & install. Sitemap Writer Pro offers a free trial that can crawl up to 10 pages. Its paid plans start with one time payment of $24.95.
It also includes sitemap index creator, and multithreaded crawlers for fast crawling.
6. Yoast SEO Plugin
Yoast is one of the best free WordPress Plugins that only helps site administrators and bloggers with their SEO efforts but also provides a free XML sitemap generator.
During its setup, it will automatically crawl your site and generate XML sitemap for your WordPress site. It is as per W3C standards and improves discoverability of your web pages.
As you publish new posts & pages or modify existing ones, Yoast automatically updates the XML sitemap. This plugin is well-maintained, frequently updated and enjoys a vast user base.
Its free version provides tons of basic features, and its paid plan starts from 99 Euros per year.
7. SEOptimer
Although SEOptimer is an SEO Audit tool that evaluates your website and provides SEO recommendations, it also features a comprehensive sitemap generator.
It provides detailed visual report of your site’s SEO performance and improvement areas. Also it has a free SEO toolkit which includes Meta Tag generator, Keyword generator, Robots.txt generator, .htaccess file generator, and XML sitemap generator.
Its paid plans start from $19/month. It is great for bloggers, marketers and website administrators.
8. RankMath
RankMath is a powerful WordPress plugin for SEO. It provides many useful features to improve your website’s SEO, including XML Sitemap generator.
It has an easy setup and intuitive interface that makes getting started a breeze. It also provides robust visual reports and dashboards to help understand your website’s SEO performance.
It can not only generate XML sitemap but also allows you to import schema markup values from other sites. Its paid version starts from $5.75/month.
9. WriteMaps
WriteMaps is another site outliner that provides a visual sitemap of your website that makes it easy to plan and design your site structure.
It allows you to easily create and share visual sitemaps. You can export these sitemaps in various formats for presentation.
It provides a free version that supports up to 2 projects. Its paid plans start from $16/month.
10. XML Sitemap Generator for Google
XML Sitemap Generator for Google is a free and advanced sitemap generator that creates a sitemap as per Google’s specifications. Even though it provides many customizations such as multi-format sitemaps, different content types such as news, video, HTML & RSS, it is easy to setup and use.
It also allows you to cover custom post types and content.
It is completely free and can be used for personal as well as commercial sites.
Conclusion
Sitemaps are required for search engine optimization and content discovery by Google crawlers. There are many simple XML sitemap generators as well as full-fledged SEO tools that include them as one of its features. Some are standalone tools and some are WordPress plugins. Evaluate each of them as per your requirement and pick the one that fits your needs. Hopefully, the above online sitemap generator tools will help you create XML sitemaps for your websites.
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Sreeram Sreenivasan is the Founder of Ubiq. He has helped many Fortune 500 companies in the areas of BI & software development.